ours do not exist. In all slaveholding States true policy | necessary to a continuance of our monopoly in plantation dictates that the superior race should direct, and the products. I believe that they are necessary to the full inferior perform all menial service. Competition between the white and black man for this service may not disturb Northern sensibility, but does not exactly suit our latitude. Irrespective, however, of interest, the act of Congress declaring the slave-trade piracy is a brand upon us which I think it important to remove. If the trade be piracy, the slaves must be plunder, and no ingenuity can avoid the logical necessity of such a conclusion. My hopes and fortunes are indissolubly associated with this form of society. I feel that I would be wanting in duty if I did not urge you to withdraw your assent to an act which is itself a direct condemnation of your institutions. But we have interests to enforce a course of self-respect. I believe, as I have already stated, that more slaves are development of our whole round of agricultural and mechanical resources; that they are necessary to the restoration of the South to an equality of power in the Federal Government, perhaps to the very integrity of slave society, disturbed as it has been by causes which have introduced an undue proportion of the ruling race. To us have been committed the fortunes of this peculiar form of society resulting from the union of unequal races. It has vindicated its claim to the approbation of an enlightened humanity; it has civilized and christianized the African; it has exalted the white race to higher hopes and purposes, and it is perhaps of the most sacred obligation that we should give it the means of expansion, and that we should press it forward to a perpetuity of progress. MR. HAMLIN RENOUNCES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. On the 12th of June, 1856, Mr. Hamlin rose in his place in the Senate, and spoke as follows: Mr. Hamlin.-Mr. President, I rise for a purpose purely personal, such as I have never before risen for in the Senate. I desire to explain some matters personal to myself and to my own future course in public life. Several Senators. Go on. Mr. Hamlin. I ask the Senate to excuse me from further service as Chairman of the Committee on Commerce. I do so because I feel that my relations hereafter will be of such a character as to render it proper that I should no longer hold that position. I owe this act to the dominant majority in the Senate. When I cease to harmonize with the majority, or tests are applied by that party with which I have acted to which I cannot submit, I feel that I ought no longer to hold that respectable position. I propose to state briefly the reasons which have brought me to that conclusion. During nine years of service in the Senate, I have preferred rather to be a working than a talking member; and so I have been almost a silent one. On the subjects which have so much agitated the country, Senators know that I have rarely uttered a word. I love my country more than I love my party. I love my country above my love for any interest that can too deeply agitate or disturb its harmony. I saw, in all the exciting scenes and debates through which we have passed, no particular good that would result from my active intermingling in them. My heart has often been full, and the impulses of that heart have often been felt upon my lips; but I have repressed them there. Sir, I hold that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a gross moral and political wrong, unequaled in the annals of the legislation of this country, and hardly equaled in the annals of any other free country. Still, sir, with a desire to promote harmony and concord and brotherly feeling, I was a quiet man under all the exciting debates which led to that fatal result. I believed it wrong then; I can see that wrong lying broadcast all around us now. As a wrong, I opposed that measurenot, indeed, by my voice, but with consistent and steady and uniform votes. I so resisted it in obedience to the dictates of my own judgment. I did it also cheerfully, in compliance with the instructions of the legislature of Maine, which were passed by a vote almost unanimous, In the House of Representatives of Maine, consisting of one hundred and fifty-one members, only six, I think. dissented; and in the Senate, consisting of thirty-one members, only one member non-concurred. But the Missouri restriction was abrogated. The portentous evils that were predicted have followed, and are yet following, along in its train. It was done, sir, in violation of the pledges of that party with which I have always acted, and with which I have always voted. It was done in violation of solemn pledges of the President of the United States, made in his Inaugural Address. Still, sir, I was disposed to suffer the wrong, while I should see that no evil results were flowing from it. We were told, by almost every Senator who addressed us upon that occasion, that no evil results would follow; that no practical difference in the settlement of the country, and in the character of the future State, would take place, whether the act were done or not. I have waited calmly and patiently to see the fulfillment of that prediction; and I am grieved, sir, to say now that they have at least been mistaken in their predictions and promises. They have all signally failed. That Senators might have voted for that measure under the belief then expressed and the predictions to which I have alluded, I can well understand. But how Senators can now defend that measure amid all its evils, which are overwhelming the land, if not threatening it with a conflagration, is what I do not comprehend. The whole of the disturbed state of the country has its rise in, and is attributable to that act alone-nothing else. It lies at the foundation of all our misfortunes and commotions. There would have been no incursions by Missouri borderers into Kansas, either to establish Slavery, or to control elections. There would have been no necessity, either, for others to have gone there partially to aid in preserving the country in its then condition. All would have been peace there. Had it not been done, that repose and quiet which pervaded the public mind then, would hold it in tranquillity to-day. Instead of startling events we should have quiet and peace within our borders, and that fraternal feeling which ought to animate the citizens of every part of the Union toward those of all other sections. Sir, the events that are taking place around us are indeed startling. They challenge the public mind and appeal to the public judgment; they thrill the public nerve as electrity imparts a tremulous motion to the telegraphic wire. It is a period when all good men should unite in applying the proper remedy to secure peace and harmony to the country. Is this to be done by any of us, by remaining associated with those who have been instrumental in producing these results, and who now justify them? I do not see my duty lying in that direction. I have, while temporarily acquiescing, stated here and at home, everywhere, uniformly, that when the test of those measures was applied to me as one of party fidelity, I would sunder them as flax is sundered at the touch of fire. I do it now. The occasion involves a question of moral duty; and self-respect allows me no other line of duty but to follow the dictates of my own judgment and the impulses of my own heart. A just man may cheerfully submit to many enforced humiliations; but a self-degraded man has ceased to be worthy to be deemed a man at all. Sir, what has the recent Democratic Convention at Cincinnati done? It has indorsed the measure I have condemned, and has sanctioned its destructive and ruinous effects. It has done more vastly more. That principle or policy of Territorial Sovereignty which once had, and which I suppose now has, its advocates within these walls, is stricken down; and there is an absolute denial of it in the resolutions of the Convention, if I can draw right conclusions-a denial equally to Congress, and even to the people of the Territories, of the right to settle the question of Slavery therein. On the contrary, the Convention has actually incorporated into the platform of the Democratic party that doctrine which, only a few years ago, met nothing but ridicule and contempt here and elsewhere, namely: that the flag of the Federal Union, under the Constitution of the United States, carries Slavery wherever it floats. If this baleful principle be true, then that National Ode which inspires us always as on a battle-field, should be re-written by Drake, and. should read thus: "Forever float that standard sheet; Where breathes the foe but falls before us, And Slavery's banner streaming o'er us?"" Now, sir, what is the precise condition in which this matter is left by the Cincinnati Convention? I do not "That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution," I take it that this language, thus far, is language which meets a willing and ready response from every Senator here-certainly it does from me. But in the following resolution I find these words: "Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to embrace, the whole subject of Slavery agitation in Congress." The first resolution which I read was adopted years ago in Democratic Conventions. The second resolution which I read was adopted in subsequent years, when a different state of things had arisen, and it became necessary to apply an abstract proposition relating to the States, to the Territories. Hence the adoption of the language contained in the second Resolution which I have read. Now, sir, I deny the position thus assumed by the Cincinnati Convention. In the language of the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Crittenden), so ably and so appropriately used on Tuesday last, I hold that the entire and unqualified sovereignty of the Territories is in Congress. That is my judgment; but this resolution brings the Territories precisely within the same limitations which are applied to the States in the resolution which I first read. The two taken together deny to Congress any power of legislation in the Territories. Follow on, and let us see what remains. Adopted as a part of the present platform, and as necessary to a new state of things, and to meet an emergency now existing, the Convention says: "The American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic law establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the Slavery question, upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose, in its de termined conservatism of the Union-non-interference by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories." Then follows the last resolution: "Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the fairly-expressed will of the majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic Slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States." Take all these resolutions together, and the deduction which we must necessarily draw from them is a denial to Congress of any power whatever to legislate upon the subject of Slavery. The last resolution denies to the people of the Territories any power over that subject, save when they shall have a sufficient number to form a constitution and become a State, and also denies that Congress has any power over the subject; and so the resolutions hold that this power is at least abeyance while the Territory is in a Territorial condition. That is the only conclusion which you can draw from these resolutions. Alas! for short-lived Territorial Sovereignty! It came to its death in the house of its friends; it was buried by the same hands which had given it baptism! But, sir, I did not rise for the purpose of discussing these resolutions, but only to read them, and state the action which I propose to take in view of them. I may -I probably shall-take some subsequent occasion, when I shall endeavor to present to the Senate and the country a fair account of what is the true issue presented to the people for their consideration and decision. My object now is to show only that the Cincinnati Convention has indorsed and approved of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, from which so many evils have already flowed-from which, I fear, more and worse evils must yet be anticipated. It would of course, be expected that the Presidential nominee of that Convention would accept, cordially and cheerfully, the platform prepared for him by his party friends. No person can object to that. There is no equivocation on his part about the matter. I beg leave to read a short extract from a speech of that gentleman, made at his own home, within the last few days. In reply to the Keystone Club, which paid him a visit there, Mr. Buchanan said: "Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made you a longer speech; but now I have been placed on a platform of which I most heartily approve, and that can speak for me. Being the representative of the great Democratic party, and not simply James Buchanan, I must square my conduct according to the platform of the party, and insert no new plank, nor take one from it." These events leave to me only one unpleasant duty, which is to declare here that I can maintain political associations with no party that insists upon such doctrines; that I can support no man for President who avows and recognizes them; and that the little of that power with which God has endowed me shall be employed to battle manfully, firmly, and consistently for his defeat, demanded as it is by the highest interests of the country which owns all my allegiance. The President. The question is on the motion of the Senator from Maine to be excused from further service on the Committee on Commerce. The motion was agreed to. ACCEPTANCE OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. MESSRS. LINCOLN AND HAMLIN ACСЕРТ. THE following is the correspondence between the officers of the Republican National Convention and the candidates thereof for President and Vice-President: CHICAGO, May 18, 1860. To the HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, of Illinois. SIR: The representatives of the Republican Party of the United States, assembled in Convention at Chicago, have this day, by a unanimous vote, selected you as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States to be supported at the next election; and the undersigned were appointed a Committee of the Convention to apprise you of this nomination, and respectfully to request that you will accept it. A declaration of the principles and sentiments adopted by the Convention accompanies this communication. In the performance of this agreeable duty we take leave to add our confident assurance that the nomination of the Chicago Convention will be ratified by the suffrages of the people. We have the honor to be, with great respect and regard, WM. M. EVARTS, of New-York, EPHRAIM MARSH, of New-Jersey, CARL SCHURZ, of Wisconsin, EDWARD H. ROLLINS, of New Hampshire, G. A. HALL, of District of Columbia, SPRINGFILD, ILL., May 28, 1860. HON. GEORGE ASHMUN, President of the Republican National Convention. SIR: I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention over which you presided, and of which I am formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose. The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accompanies your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to violate, or disregard it, in any part. Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention; to the rights of all the States, and Territories, and people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to cooperate for the practical success of the principles declared by the Convention. Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. A similar letter was sent to the nominee for the Vice-Presidency, to which the following is the reply. WASHINGTON, May 30, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your official communication of the 18th instant, informing me that the representatives of the as just and necessary to the preservation of the National organization and the sacred right of representation, the action of the Convention over which you continued to preside; and thus approving it, and having resolved to sustain it, I feel that it does not become me to select the position I shall occupy, nor to shrink from the responsibilities of the post to which I have been assigned. Accordingly, I accept the nomination from a sense of public duty, and, as I think, uninfluenced in any degree by the allurements of ambition. I avail myself of this occasion to say that the confidence in my personal and public character implied by the action of the Convention, will always be gratefully remembered; and it is but just, also, to my own feelings, to express my gratification at the association of my name with that of my friend Gen. Lane, a patriot and a soldier, whose great services in the field and in council entitle him to the gratitude and confidence of his countrymen. The resolutions adopted by the Convention have my cordial approval. They are just to all parts of the Union, to all our citizens, native and naturalized, and they form a noble policy for any administration. The questions touching the rights of persons and property, which have of late been much discussed, find in these resolutions a constitutional solution. Our Union is Republican party of the United States, assembled at Chia Confederacy of equal sovereign States, for the purposes cago, on that day, had, by a unanimous vote, selected me as their candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States, has been received, together with the resolutions adopted by the Convention as its declaration of principles. Those resolutions enunciate clearly and forcibly the principles which unite us, and the objects proposed to be accomplished. They address themselves to all, and there is neither necessity nor propriety in my entering upon a discussion of any of them. They have the approval of my judgment, and in any action of mine will be faithfully and cordially sustained. I am profoundly grateful to those with whom it is my pride and pleasure politically to coöperate, for the nomination so unexpectedly conferred; and I desire to tender through you, to the members of the Convention, my sincere thanks for the confidence thus reposed in me. Should the nomination, which I now accept, be ratified by the people, and the duties devolve upon me of presiding over the Senate of the United States, it will be my earnest endeavor faithfully to discharge them with a just regard for the rights of all. It is to be observed, in connection with the doings of the Republican Convention, that a paramount object with us is to preserve the normal condition of our Territotorial Domain as homes for Free men. The able advocate and defender of Republican principles, whom you have nominated for the highest place that can gratify the ambition of man, comes from a State which has been made what it is, by special action, in that respect, of the wise and good men who founded our institutions. The rights of free labor have there been vindicated and enumerated in the Federal Constitution. Whatever the common Government holds in trust for all the States must be enjoyed equally by each. It controls the Territories in trust for all the States. Nothing less than sovereignty can destroy or impair the rights of persons or property. The Territorial Governments are subordinate and temporary, and not sovereign; hence they cannot destroy or impair the rights of persons or property. While they continue to be Territories they are under the control of Congress, but the Constitution nowhere confers on any branch of the Federal Government the power to discriminate against the rights of the States or the property of their citizens in the Territories. It follows that the citizens of all the States may enter the Territories of the Union with their property, of whatever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial condition without let or hindrance, either by Congress or by the subordinate Territorial Governments. These principles flow directly from the absence of sovereignty in the Territorial Governments, and from the equality of the States. Indeed, they are essential to that equality, which is, and ever has been, the vital principle of our Constitutional Union. They have been settled legislatively settled judiciously, and are sustained by right reason. They rest on the rock of the Constitutionthey will preserve the Union. It is idle to attempt to smother these great issues, or to misrepresent them by the use of partisan phrases, which are misleading and delusive The people will look beneath such expressions as "Intervention," "Congressional Slave Code," and the like, and will penetrate to the real questions involved. The friends of Constitutional maintained. The thrift and enterprise which so distin-equality do not and never did demand a "Congressional Slave Code," nor any other code in regard to property in the Territories. They hold the doctrine of non-intervention by Congress, or by a Territorial Legislature, either guish Illinois, one of the most flourishing States of the glorious West, we would see secured to all the Territories of the Union; and restore peace and harmony to the whole country, by bringing back the Government to what to establish or prohibit Slavery; but they assert (fortifiWASHINGTON, Friday, June 29, 1860. GENTLEMEN: In accordance with the verbal assurance which I gave you when you placed in my hands the authentic evidence of my nomination for the Presidency by the National Convention of the Democratic party, I now send you my formal acceptance. Upon a careful examination of the platform and principles adopted at Charleston and reaffirmed at Baltimore, with an additional resolution which is in perfect harmony with the others, I find it to be a faithful embodiment of the time-honored it was under the wise and patriotic men who created it. If the Republicans shall succeed in that object, as they hope to, they will be held in grateful remembrance by the busy and teeming millions of future ages. I am, very truly yours, H. HAMLIN. The Hon. GEORGE ASHMUN, President of the Convention, and others of the Convention, MR. BRECKINRIDGE ACCEPTS. WASHINGTON CITY, July 6, 1860. DEAR SIR: I have your letter of the 23d ultimo, by which I am officially informed of my nomination for the office of President of the United States by the Democratic National Convention lately assembled at Baltimore. The circumstances of this nomination will justify me in referring to its personal aspect. I have not sought nor desired to be placed before the country for the office of President. When my name was presented to the Convention at Charleston, it was with drawn by a friend in obedience to my expressed wishes. My views had not changed when the Convention reassembled at Baltimore, and when I heard of the differences which occurred there, my indisposition to be connected prominently with the canvass was confirmed and expressed to many friends. Without discussing the occurrences which preceded the nominations, and which are or soon will be well understood by the country, I have only to say that I approved, ed by the highest judicial tribunal in the Union) the plain duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, to secure, when necessary, to the citizens of all the States, the enjoyment of their property in the common Territories, as everywhere else within its jurisdiction. The only logical answer to this would seem to be to claim sovereign power for the Territories, or to deny that the Constitution recognizes property in the services of negro slaves, or to deny that such property can exist. Inexorable logic, which works its steady way through clouds and passion, compels the country to meet the issue. There is no evasive middle ground. Already the signs multiply of a fanatical and growing party, which denies that under the Constitution, or by any other law, slave property can exist; and ultimately the struggle must come between this party and the National Democracy, sustained by all the other conservative elements in the Union. I think it will be impossible for a candid mind to discover hostility to the Union or a taint of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted by the Convention. The Constitution and the Union repose on the equality of the States, which lies like a broad foundation underneath our whole political structure. As I construe them, the resolutions simply assert this equality. They demand nothing for any State or section that is not cheerfully conceded to all the rest. It is well to remember that the chief disorders which have afflicted our country have grown out of the violation of State equality, and that as long as this great principle has been respected we have been blessed with harmony and peace. Nor will it be easy to persuade the country that resolutions are sectional which command the support of a majority of the States, and are approved by the bone and body of the old Democracy, and by a vast mass of conservative opinion everywhere, without regard to party. It has been necessary more than once in our history, to pause and solemnly assert the true character of this Government. A memorable instance occurred in the struggle which ended in the civil revolution of 1800. The Republicans of that day, like the Democracy of this, were stigmatized as disunionists, but they nobly conducted the contest under the Constitution, and saved our political system. By a little constitutional struggle it is intended to assert and establish the equality of the States, as the only basis of union and peace. When this object, so national, so constitutional, so just, shall be accomplished, the last cloud will disappear from the American sky, and with common hands and hearts the States and the people will unite to develop the resources of the whole country, to bind it together with the bonds of intercourse and brotherhood, and to impel it onward in its great career. The Constitution and the Equality of the States! These are symbols of everlasting Union. Let these be the rallying cries of the people. I trust that this canvass will be conducted without rancor, and that temperate arguments will take the place of hot words and passionate accusations. Above all, I venture humbly to hope that Divine Providence, to whom we owe our origin, our growth, and all our prosperity, will continue to protect our beloved country against all danger, foreign and domestic. I am, with great respect, your friend, JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. and no more shall we be troubled with the agitation of this dangerous question, because it will be removed as well from the Territorial legislatures as from the halls of Congress-when we shall be free to turn our attention to more useful issues, promotive of our growth in national greatness. Our Union must be preserved! But this can only be done by maintaining the Constitution inviolate in all its provisions and guaranties. The Judicial authority, as provided by the Constitution, must be maintained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed, as well in regard to the rights of property in the Territories as in all other matters. Hoping for success, and trusting in the truth and justice of the principles of our party, and in that Divine Providence that has watched over us and made us one of the great nations of the earth, and that we may continue to merit Divine protection, I cheerfully accept the nomination so unanimously conferred on me, and cordially indorse the platform adopted by the Convention. I have the honor to be, sir, with much respect, MR. DOUGLAS ACCEPTS. The Hon. C. CUSHING, President of the Democratic National principles of the Democratic party, as the same were protry. If we now depart from that wise and just policy which produced these happy results, and permit the country to be again distracted; if precipitated into revolution by a sectional contest between Pro-Slavery and Anti-Slavery interventionists, where shall we look for another Clay, another Webster, or another Cass to pilot the ship of State over the breakers into a haven of peace and safety? Convention. GEN. LANE'S ACCEPTANCE. WASHINGTON, June 30, 1860. HON. CALEB CUSHING, PRESIDENT OF THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION: SIR-I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication you make in behalf of the Democratic National Convention, in which you inform me that, on the 23d inst., I was unanimously nominated by that party for the office of Vice-President of the United States, with the request that I shall accept the nomination. The platform adopted, and of which you inclose me a copy, meets with my hearty approval, as it embodies what I have been contending for as the only means of stopping sectional agitation, by securing to all equality and constitutional rights, the denial of which has led to the present unhappy condition of public affairs. Compromises of constitutional principles are ever dangerous, and I am rejoiced that the true Democracy has seen fit to plant a firm foot on the rock of truth, and to give the people an opportunity to vindicate their love of justice and fraternal regard for each other's rights. Non-intervention on the subject of Slavery, I may emphatically say, is that cardinal maxim of the Democracy -non-intervention by Congress and non-intervention by Territorial Legislatures, as is fully stated in the first resolution of the adopted platform. In vain should we declare the former without insisting upon the latter; because, to permit Territorial legislatures to prohibit or establish Slavery, or by unfriendly legislation to invalidate property, would be granting powers to the creature or agent, which, it is admitted, do not appertain to the principal, or the power that creates; besides which, it would be fostering an element of agitation in the Territory that must necessarily extend to Congress and the people of all the States. If the Constitution establishes the right of every citizen to enter the common territory with whatever property he legally possesses, it necessarily devolves on the Federal Government the duty to protect this right of the citizen whenever and wherever assailed or infringed. The Democratic party honestly meets this agitating question, which is threatening to sever and destroy this brotherhood of States. It does not propose to legislate for the extension of Slavery, nor for its restriction, but to give to each State and to every citizen all that our forefathers proposed to give-namely, perfect equality of rights, and then to commit to the people, to climate, and to soil, the determination as to the kind of institution best fitted to their requirements in their constitutional limits, and declaring as a fundamental maxim, that the people of a Territory can only establish or prohibit Slavery when they come to form a constitution, preparatory to their admission as a State into the Union. If, happily, our principles shall prevail, an era of peace and harmony will be restored to our distracted country, claimed and understood by all parties in the Presidential contest of 1848, 1852, and 1856. Upon looking into the proceedings of the Convention also, I find that the nomination was made with great unanimity, in the presence and with the concurrence of more than two-thirds of the whole number of delegates, and in accordance with the long-established usages of the party. My inflexible purpose not to be a candidate, nor accept the nomination under any contingency, except as the regular nominee of the National Democratic party and in that case only upon the condition that the usages, as well as the principles of the party, should be strictly adhered to, had been proclaimed for a long time and become well known to the country. These conditions having all been complied with by the free and voluntary action of the Democratic masses and their faithful representatives, without any agency, interference, or procurement, on my part, I feel bound in honor and duty to accept the nomination. In taking this step, I am not unmindful of the responsibilities it imposes, but with firm reliance upon Divine Providence I have the faith that the people will comprehend the true nature of the issues involved, and eventually maintain the right. The peace of the country and the perpetuity of the Union have been put in jeopardy by attempts to interfere with and control the domestic affairs of the people in the Territories, through the agency of the Federal Government. If the power and the duty of Federal interference is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be the inevitable result-the one inflaming the passions and ambitions of the North, the other of the South, and each struggling to use the Federal power and authority for the aggrandizement of its own section, at the expense of the equal rights of the other, and in derogation of those fundamental principles of self-government which were firmly established in this country by the American Revolution, as the basis of our entire republican system. During the memorable period of our political history, when the advocates of Federal intervention upon the subject of Slavery in the Territories had well-nigh "precipitated the country into revolution," the Northern Interventionists demanding the Wilmot Proviso for the prohibition of Slavery, and the Southern interventionists, then few in number, and without a single Representative in either House of Congress, insisting upon Congressional legislation for the protection of Slavery in opposition to the wishes of the people in either case, it will be remembered that it required all the wisdom, power and influence of a Clay and a Webster and a Cass, supported by the conservative and patriotic men of the Whig and Democratic parties of that day, to devise and carry out a line of policy which would restore peace to the country and stability to the Union. The essential living principle of that policy, as applied in the legislation of 1850, was, and now is, nonintervention by Congress with Slavery in the Territories. The fair application of this just and equitable principle restored harmony and fraternity to a distracted coun the propriety of acting in so grave a matter with greater deliberation, I concluded, as I informed you at the time by a private note, to defer a formal acceptance until after my arrival at home. Now that I have had all the leisure I could desire for reflection upon the circumstances under which the nomination was made, the purity of the motives and the lofty The Federal Union must be preserved. The Constitu-spirit of patriotism by which the Convention was anima tion must be maintained inviolate in all its parts. Every right guaranteed by the Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation is necessary to its enjoyment. The judicial authority, as provided in the Constitution, must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and faithfully executed. The laws must be administered and the constituted authorities upheld, and all unlawful resistance to these things must be put down with firmness, impartiality and fidelity, if we expect to enjoy and transmit unimpaired to our posterity, that blessed inheritance which we have received in trust from the patriots and sages of the Revolution. With sincere thanks for the kind and agreeable manner in which you have made known to me the action of the Convention, I have the honor to be, Your friend and fellow citizen, Hon. WM. H. LUDLOW, of New-York; R. P. DICK, of of Committee. MR. FITZPATRICK DECLINES. WASHINGTON, June 25, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your letter of to-day, informing me that I "have been unanimously nominated by the National Convention of the Democratic party, which met at Charleston on the 23d day of April last, and adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th day of June, as their candidate for the office of Vice-President," was duly received. Acknowledging with the liveliest sensibility this distinguished mark of your confidence and regard, it is with no ordinary feelings of regret that considerations, the recital of which I will not impose upon you, constrain me to decline the nomination so flatteringly tendered. My designation as a candidate for this high position would have been more gratifying to me if it had proceeded from the united Democracy-united both as to principles and men. The distracting differences at present existing in the ranks of the Democratic party were strikingly exemplified both at Charleston and at Baltimore, and, in my humble opinion, distinctly admonish me that I should in no way contribute to these unfortunate divisions. The Black Republicans have harmoniously (at least in Convention) presented their candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. So have the Constitutional Union party (as it is termed). Each party is already engaged in the contest. In the presence of such organizations we still, ted, as evinced in all its proceedings, I can appreciate more justly the honor done me by the nomination; and, though it might have been more fortunate for the country had it fallen upon some one of the many distinguished statesmen whose names were brought to the notice of the Convention, rather than myself, I accept it, with all its possible responsibilities. Whatever may be the issue of the ensuing canvass, as for myself, I shall ever regard it as a proud distinction-one worth a lifelong effort to attainto be pronounced worthy to receive the highest office in the Government at such a time as the present, and by such a Convention as that which recently met in Baltimore-a Convention far less imposing by the number of its members, large as it was, than by their high character. In it were men venerable alike for their age and their public services, who could not have been called from their voluntary retirement from public life, but by the strongest sense of patriotic duty; others, though still in the prime of life, ranking with the first men of the country by honors and distinctions already acquired in high official positions, State and national, many of them statesmen worthy to fill the highest office in the government; a still greater number occupying the highest rank in their respective professional pursuits; others distinguished by their intelligence and well-earned influence in various walks of private life, and all animated and united by one spirit and one purpose the result of a strong conviction that our political system, under the operation of a complication of disorders, is rapidly approaching a crisis when a speedy change must take place, indicating, as in diseases of the physical body, recovery or death. The Convention, in discarding the use of platforms, exact no pledge from those whom they deem worthy of the highest trusts under the Government; wisely considering that the surest guaranty of a man's future usefulness and fidelity to the great interests of the country, in any official station to which he may be chosen, is to be found in his past history connected with the public service. The pledge implied in my acceptance of the nomination of the National Union Convention is, that should I be elected, I will not depart from the spirit and tenor of my past course; and the obligation to keep this pledge derives a double force from the consideration that none is required from me. You, sir, in your letter containing the official announcement of my nomination, have been pleased to ascribe to me the merit of moderation and justice in my past public career. You have likewise given me credit for a uni unfortunately, exhibit a divided camp. What a melan-form support of all wise and beneficent measures of legis choly spectacle! It is calculated to cause every Democratic citizen who cherishes the Constitution of his country to despond, if not to despair, of the durability of the Union. Desirous, as far as I am capable of exercising any influence, to remove every obstacle which may prevent a restoration of the peace, harmony, and perfect concord of that glorious old party to which I have been inflexibly devoted from early manhood-a party which, in my deliberate opinion, is the only real and reliable ligament which binds the South, the North, the East, and the West together upon constitutional principles-no alternative was left to me but that which I have herein most respectfully communicated to you. For the agreeable manner in which you have conveyed to me the action of the Convention, accept my sincere thanks. Very truly your friend and obedient servant, B. FITZPATRICK. TO WM. H. LUDLOW, of New-York, and others. The Democratic National Committee subsequently nominated the Hon. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, who accepted the position. MR. BELL ACCEPTS. NASHVILLE, May 21, 1860. DEAR SIR: Official information of my nomination to the Presidency by the National Union Convention, of which you were the presiding officer, was communicated to me by your letter of the 11th inst., at Philadelphia, on the eve of my departure with my family for my place of residence in Tennessee; and diffident as I was of my worthiness, I did not hesitate to signify my intention to accept the position assigned to me by that distinguished and patriotic body. But for convenience, and under a sense of lation, for a firm resistance to all measures calculated to engender sectional discord, and for a lifelong devotion to the Union, harmony, and prosperity of these States. Whether your personal partiality has led you to overstate my merits as a public man or not in your enumeration of them, you have presented a summary-a basis of all sound American statesmanship. It may be objected that nothing is said in this summary, in express terms, of the obligations imposed by the Constitution; but the duty to respect and observe them is clearly implied, for without due observance in the conduct of the Government of the Constitution, its restrictions, and requirements, fairly interpreted in accordance with its spirit and objects, there can be no end to sectional discord-no security for the harmony of the Union. I have not the vanity to assume that in my past connection with the public service I have exemplified the course of a sound American statesman; but if I have deserved the favorable view taken of it in your letter, I may hope, by a faithful adherence to the maxims by which I have heretofore been guided, not altogether to disappoint the confidence and expectations of those who have placed me in my present relation to the public; and if, under Providence, I should be called to preside over the affairs of this great country as the Executive Chief of the Government, the only further pledge I feel called upon to make is, that the utmost of my ability, and with whatever strength of will I can command, all the powers and influence belonging to my official station, shall be employed and directed for the promotion of all the great objects for which the Government was instituted, but more especially for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union against all imposing influences and tendencies. I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my high gratification at the nomination to the second office under the Government, of the eminently-gifted and dis |