Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-10-30

ferent kind of merit to establish him in the es-
teen and confidence of the whole Union, or of so
considerable portion of it would be necessary
to make him a successful candidate for the dis
nguished office of President of the United States.
1t will not be too strong to say that there will be
constant probability of seeing the station filed
by characters pre-emnent for ability and virtue.
And this will be thought no inconsiderabe recon-
mendation of the Constitution by those who are
able to estimate the share which the Executive IN
every Government must necessarily have In Its
good or i'll administration"
The expectation thus impressively announced
was realized so often and SO long by the eleva-
ton to the Presidency of citizens "pre-eminent
for ability and virtue" that the " constant pro-
liability predicted by MADISON and his asso-
ciates came at length to be generally regarded
almost as certainty. In all these instances the
"pre-eminence" had been won by long course Of
conspicuous public services, and the names of the
patriots who rendered them had been familiar to
the people as household words. When the genera
ton Of the Revolution was about passing away, the
field for selection became wider. Politicians had
before taken upon themselves to save the People
the trouble of Distinguishing between number OF
candidates. by making selection for them in what,
in the phrase of the day, was termed caucus" Of
members of Congress. This oligarchical usurpation
was at length frowned down by public opinion, and
the caucus became an "obsolete idea" But the
increasing number of candidates for the Presidency
was supposed by the political parties of the country
to call for some expedient for concentrating the
action of those who agreed in political senti-
ment, but differed in personal preferences. This
consideration gave rise to the calling of Con
ventions of Delegates from primary assemblies of the
people, for the purpose of selecting from the names
already before them candidate of each party. 1t
would be an interesting and somewhat amusing task
to trace the steps by which this apparently harm
less continuance has, in the hands of one of the
great political parties of the country, not only resus
citated the old Caucus in substance but has infused
into it new elements of mischief, and placed it in
new positions of antagonism to the spirit of the
Constitution and to Republican principles The
"Conventions" of the party which, with GOODNESS
only equalled by its audacity, has arrogated the
name of I" Democrats" have been VIGOROUSLY for
the last thirty years the creatures Of Congressional
machination-a scheme for usurping the power of
the Sovereign People, with the additional evil of
diminished responsibility on the part of the
usurpers.
So long as these Conventions confined themselves
to efforts to unite the public opinion which differ
ent candidates had DIVIDED, any occasional irregu-
arties in their action were comparatively unimpor
tant But when they undertook, as they did in the
canvass of 1874, to manufacture public opinion and
to foist on the people, through machinery cum
ningly and clandestinely devised Chief Magistrate
whose name was scarcely known out of his own
neighborhood and who, whatever may have been
his diligence as partisan, was certainly, before
his nomination, as little "pre-eminent for ability
and virtue" in the eyes of his own as in those of
the opposite party; when, we say the selfstyled
Democratic party thus acted, they belied the name
which they arrogated, and struck blow at our re-
publican polity of which the consequences may yet
be fatal to public liberty, unless prevented by the
stern exercise of the public will. Those who inhict
ed this blow are now repeating it. Through the in
strumentality of the same twothirds rule which In
1914 threw aside the "pre-eminent men" of their
pdItlJ honiiiidocu a liluoI PUhtiChih W ohO
Chief Magistracy of great nation, they have again
played the same game Again are they seeking to
consgn that awful trust to man whom scarcely
fragment of the people thought of in connexion
with the Office, and whose election, were such an
event possible, would serve to show that however
free may be the institutions of country the public
will may be not only controlled but created by po
liteal Vaccinations.
The Wings have had their Conventions. But
these Conventions have never degraded the standard
of the Presidency They have never ventured to
do more than unite en- some man whom considera.
Bile portions Of the People had recognised as being
" pre-eminent for ability and virtue" They never
created candidate by the stress of party tactics,
and relied on his obscurity instead of his pre-emi-
nence for palming him off on the People
In the pending canvass, the Wing Convention
did not hunt in dark corners for a nominee. 1t
chose, from the illustrious names before it, that
Of man whom the public mind had habitually
regarded for forty years as being prc-eminent
for ability and virtue = a man whose blood had
been shed and whose life had been risked in de-
fence of his country; man whose name is In
separable from that Of the only which she has
waged since his birth who redeemed the honor of
her arms in one, and crowned her glory in the
other; man whose civic abilities had been con-
spicuous in carrying her safely through two awful