Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1848-08-19
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
THE BUFFALO CONVENTION.

of the Buffalo Convention; Convention made up
of Delegates from the New York party known
by the name of Barnburners, from the forlorn
Wings whom nothing National in its scope and
object can satisfy, and from the Radical party, who
would not be content to live under any Govern
ment in which the rights Of property and the duty
to labor for ones bread are recognised as funda-
mental principles.
We place these Resolutions before our readers,
as belonging to the history Of the day and if ever
they have perused more demagogue production
more elaborate attempt to mystify the Public, by
wrapping up self-evident or admitted truths in SUBJ
limated phrases to give them an air Of novelty
why, then their reading in the records of hypocri-
sy and of pretence has been more extensive than
ours As for Mr.. VAN buren,, the nominee of the
Convention, if he were privy TO the Resolutions,
he ought to be ashamed of such incompatibility as
they exhibit with the whole tenor of his politi-
cal life.
The " demands" Of the Buffalo Convention, to
enforce which this machinery of third nominal
ton has been got up. are, as the reader will per-
ceiye, mere lines set for gudgeons, which even the
malcontents in the Wing party are too clear-sght-
ed to be caught by. The Locofoco hook is too
plainly visible through the shy bait that is strung
upon it. Let US briefly analyze the six last of
these Resolutions, which alone, out of the whole,
present any thing practical
The first of these six Resolves demands free
dom and established institutions for Oregon. Well;
they have got all that they ask for Oregon. That
demand, therefore, is satisfied. That ground has
slipped from under them. They demand also the
same for the Provinces of New Mexico and Cali
fornia. What sort of government is to be given to
those provinces, now Territories Of the United
States is question to be hereafter decided by Con-
gress and. by the blessing Of Providence, we are
going to have President who is pledged, as Mr..
VAN buren, is not, to respect the Legislative au-
thorty on that and all ether questions which may
arise during his Administration.
The Fl st objects of the second Of these Resolu-
tons, cheap POSTAGE &C., common to all intelli-
gent men of all parties, and can be no bait for any
respectable party. Of the last clause Of that reso-
luton we cannot say the same. We regard it, on
the contrary, as contemplate appeal to the Dema-
gogue spirit which is, in this country, happily not
formidable enough 10 be worth the trouble of pro-
pitiating at such price.
Inc mara heSOuuOn Is dltORcHcI anu
seems to have been inserted, in the teeth Of the
sembled Dissenting Democracy, TO afford the Wing
part of the Convention an for being present
at it at all. If there is any principle to which the
Democratic part of the Convention, with Mr.. VAN
buren, at its head has ever been steadily opposed,
It'll the employment Of the surplus revenue of the
Government in improving roads, navigable rivers,
harbors, and other means and facilities of internal
commerce, or in doing any thing else beneficial to
the People.
The Resolution for giving away the Public Lands
is just one of those appeals to agrarian principles,
to the Of those who, too idle or improvident to
become land-holders by labor would willingly be-
come so by favor, which party without any dis
tinctive principles Of its might be expected to
resort to. The next step of these Tsrtium Guilds,
after prodigaly wasting the brth-rght of the Peo-
pie in these Public Lands, would be TO divide the
property Of all those who have earned it among those
who prefer the easier method of living by their wits
to counteract by legislation the ordinances Of
Providence, and confound all its distinctions be-
tween industry and Incidence, between carefulness
and prodgality, and between virtue and vice.
The nm Resolution, so fan it has any clear
meaning, is good Wing doctrine. Its hidden mean
ing, however, constitutes its virtue and its recon-
mendation to the Barnburners, and, is presumed,
to the Wing Recusants in the Convention. Il is
intended to intimate denial of the right as well as
the policy, in devsing Tariff, to discriminate
in favor of Domestic Industry, where it is neces-
sary TO protect il against foreign labor.
The siEfh Resolution is abracadabra Of
the leading principles Of the Declaration Of indie
pendence. The bombastic style Of it, however,
makes ridiculous what would otherwise have been
respectable. Why did they not cap the climax of
their valorous determination to /" fight on, fight
ever" by declaring their readiness to
"Die all, die nobly, die like Dem Gods"
Such a conclusion world have as much sense as.
what the resolution de\ declare, and would have
made the period yet mo \ sonorous than i, is.
Seriously, however; il cannot escape the obser.
walton of any attentive reader that these ResoIu-
tons, very positive and dogmaticai about abstrac-
tons Of comparatively small or atleast remote con-
sequence carefully auoid any commitment upon The
actual practical issues betDeen the ttoo great par
ties Of the country; making no ausion even to the
Mexican war for The acquisition of the foreign
hail