The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-25
sPopulus mihi sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse domi.,
The Presidency.

The presidency.
1t will be seen by our telegraphic despatch
| from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that the Wing
State convention there assembled, will, in all
probability, nominate General SCOTT for next
President by large majority-and will reject
the compromise. Pennsylvania is considered
one of the most moderate and conservative
States of the North, on the slavery question
We have long believed that General ScoTT
would be the Wing canddate-and that he
would get the vote of nearly every Northern
State-and that he would get the vote Of very
few Southern States-perhaps none at all
Thus the Presidency, like every other political
affair, is absorbed and controlled by the con-
troversy pending between the North and the
South, which the compromisers proclaimed, and
still assert to be settled-fnally settled. But
the more they assert it, the more it amt settled.
And we are to have sectional Presidential con-
test 1t is inevitable.
| We pity the Southern compromisers who are
still protesting to their neighbors " that the
mass of the Northern people are faithful to the
compromise" And the Southern Union party,
where will they go! If Pennsylvania Wings
won't receive them, where is their nationality! !
| But General ScoTT, although at present by
far the most prominent of Northern Wing can
didates for the President, is not to be left with
out opposition in his own party. Messrs.
WEBSTER, FILLMORE, and CRIrTENDES, are all
looking to their chances, although we have
heard it frequently surmised that the last is to
be on the ticket with General ScoTT for the
second office We have also reliable informa-
ton that Mr. CLAY is again to enter the field.
1t may be thought that National convention
will settle this dispute between rival candidates,
but that time has gone by. SCOTS friends are
so confident of his popularity, that they will not
pledge him to abide the nomination of a conven-
ton, unless they are certain that he will be cho-
SEM Thus, then, it is inevitable that we shall
have sectional canvass for the Presidency
Thus, then, it is obvious that the old parties are
overthrown--a fact which trimmers, and aspir.
ants and partisans have denied.
We are now to encounter the most momen'
, tous aud memorable contest that ever has oc
Cured in our history, or in any history. The
, fate Of our institutions, and of all free nstitu
!, tons. are involved-and all the virtues and
vices, wisdom and folly of the two sections
= will be tested and revealed
; To all our friends we say stand firm, and be
: of good cheer We have the most successful,
{ the most wholesome, and the most brilliant sys-
tenn of civilization to uphold and defend, that
the world has ever produced. If it is not sus-
tanned, the folly the depravty, and corruption of
its own household will be the causes of its fall.
And instead of future of safety. of prosperity,
of glory, and of empire, it will be doomed to
decay to plumber, to infamy, and to extermina-
ton.
THE MICHIGAN CONSPIRACY CAsE.--The ex-
animation of w. ID. Westcott was continued on
the 18th and 18th inst. The trial has now been
proceeding thirteen days The following ex-
tract from Westcotts testimony approaches
somewhat nearer to the point at issue than any
thing we have noticed yet
On or about the 18th of September had a
conversation with Fitch, in which he said ifthey
did not succeed in throwing off the trains during
the State Fair, at the points named west of Jack
! son, Whitebrdge, Dry Marsh and Mt the high
t embankment east Of Francscovie, they would
t burn the four depots, at Detroit Ann Arbor
/, Jackson and Niles. He said he wanted to show
. the people of Michigan that The feeling against
n the road was not local. If they could succeed
O in killing from 100 to $50 persons during the
! Fair it would bring the company to terms they
would, if this did not do it, burn them. And
. he then proposed to give me or anybody else
. $1,000 for burning these four depots, or $3.50
: for either of them; he said no thought would
/, be good person to do it, as had frequent bus
mess over the road.
Y All the accounts of the late terrible conha'
@ grafton at San Francisco mention the destruc'
{ ton of the Custom-house in that city in such o
manner as to lead to the inference that the con.
|, tents of it might have been all destroyed. II
will be acceptable information to our readers to
learn that the public treasure TO large amounD
in that building was entirely saved in the tire
proof vault, so constructed to resist all the
external heat by which il was surrounded, and
also the heavy and crushing weight of the bull d.
1 inps which fell upon it, Even the wax OF the
seals on the papers which it contained was OF
melted