The Whig standard. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1843-1844, 1844-06-25
SPEECH OF THE HON. SJLAS WRIGHT
AT CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK.

. . OfEEtIF1 Or HUN. OJLAo w
5. AT CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK.
The Locofocos have recently held a meeting at
Castle Garden, in the city Of New York, at which
the Hon. Senator Wright was present, and at
tempted to "de6ne his position" The astute
Senator made rather tangled affair Of it; and,
. upon the whole, we think he would have done
well to have been somewhere else, and have said
( nothing about it. He, in the first place, lays
down the abstract proposition very broadly, that
to allow his name 10 go before the late Conven-
ton for the office of President, without any ex-
preston of the wishes Of the people upon the
subject, would have been presumptuous and un-
pardonabe to the last degree. And that he held
to be an irresistible reason why Sas Wright
name should not be used, and why Silas Wright
could not accept the nomination thus made, by
what would be for such purpose, selfconst-
tuted caucus. 1t is remarkable that Mr. Wright
should not have perceived that his proposition
would go az we'll to exclude Mr. Polk as himself;
and is difficult not to suspect that he intended
nothing else by its elaborate enumeration than to
stab the nominee under the fifth rib In fact, the
whole speech sounds very much to US like a Sc
we're piece Of irony upon the prty and its cand-
dates.
Reduced to the form of svlIogsm, Mr..
Wright's proposition may be thus applied to Mr..
Polk:
No man can, without presumption and vanity,
accept the nomination of convention or caucus
for the Office # President, unless the people, in
their primary assemblies, had expressed prefer
ence for him;
James X. Polk had never been named BY the
people for that office;
Therefore James X. Polk cannot accept the
nomination without mourning the charge of vani-
ty and pr presumption.
Such is the force which Mr.. Wright gives the
proposition as applicable to himself; and we
therefore deem il fair and reasonable to apply il to
Mr.. Polk, which we have done by merely subst.
tuting his name in place Of Mr.. Wrigh.'s. The
conclusion, nevertheless, may be avoided by the
friends NJ Mr.. Polk, who contend that he is merely
the shadow Of General Jackson, and consequently
not man.
The syliogism, thus corrected by the friends of
Mr.. Folk, will save him from the ban of MIR
Wright's prescription. Tbus:
No man can, without presumption and vanity.
accepl the nomination of convention or caucus.
for the Office of President, unless The peopIe. in
their primary assemblies, had expressed their ure.
ference for him;
James K Polk il shadow;
Therefore James X. Polk may accept the no
mina,on.
1t would be difficult 10 reconcile Mr.. virgins
application of his proposition 10 himself, while
he IN the same breath approves the nomination OF
MI ro'k' upon any other hypothesis than the one
. we nave supposed; and the very faint praise
with which be "damns' Young Hickory, " hose
chief merit he represents to be subsery,ency 10
Old Hickory, gives countenance to the idea.
We repeat, that the whole tone of the speecb
is ironicaL MIR. Wright has an arch look. and
we should not be surprised if his whole purpose
were TO poke fun at his stupid cowardly. Locofvco
friends, who suffered themselves to be run over,
rough shod, by the Nulli6ers in the Baltimore