Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-07-17
THE WING PROTESTANTs.

ago, against the Wing Convention candidate for the
Presidency having been in no haste to speak at all
we shall now endeavor to do SO with calmness and
without derogating from the respect personally due
to the gentlemen whose names appended to it,
but with the plainness and truthfulness which our
readers have a right to expect from us.
The right of these gentlemen individually to
entertain and express opinions, dissentent Cor
otherwise) to those of the body of the Wing party
no one viii seriously dispute. Neither can their
right to publish such opinions be drawn into ques-
ton, The freedom of speech and the freedom of
the press sacredy protected by the Constitution
under which we live, and the gentlemen referred
to, in putting their names to and publishing that
paper have done no more than exercise those
undoubted rights.
Whatever of consideration and weight opinions
of gentlemen, of the character and standing of the
individual sgners of that paper, entitled to- it
ought to carry with it. But its privilege and its
immunity extend no further.
The Protest Gas for brevitys sake we shall term
it, acquires no additional force from the apparent
fact of its being the result of combination of the
signers for common purpose; that is to say, had
each of them, instead Of uniting in this Protest. adj
dressed to his friends at home, or to the Public,
parate letters of the same import-as some Of them
actually did before the issuing Of that Protest
every proper purpose of the combination would have
been as well accomplished as by the joint address
Nor does the elevated station of Members OF Con-
gress occupied by the signers of the Protest add to
it any authority beyond what it derives from their
individual personal responsibility for the subject
and the object of it are foreign to their mission,
such 1t is true, much of the time of Congress,
during the preceding six seven months, had been
employed, in the House of Representatives espe-
cialy, in debating the claims and qualifications of
divers persons deemed fit Cor unfit by one speaker
or another, to fill the Presidential Office. But the
fact of such occupation of the time of Congress in
debates upon questions not within its jurisdiction
such employment being, moreover, without prece-
dent as well as without authority certainly
conte, no authority upon acts done by members of
Congress outsideof the walls of the Capitol.
There is nothing, in short, in the circumstances
of this Protest which distinguishes it from any other
Circular, addressed, whether by one or by several
gentlemen III IOugTGsS, 10 tIclT COHsbllueHIS Ut u
the Public. Placed, therefore, as it has been by
its authors conspicuously before the country, it
courts rather than deprecates the freest discussion
Of its contents.
Before entering into the merits of this Protest, /
let US also premise that we do not understand the
gentlemen who have signed it as intending thereby
to renounce fellowship with the Wing party
They themselves explicitly declare in their Protest
their entire satisfaction with the Resolutions (the
Platform)'of the Wing Convention. They object
only to the nomination of General ScoTT, condemn
ed by them beforehand and their objection to it |
is placed by them upon single position, which, it
seems TO Us, can hardly command the assent of un-
prejudiced persons.
Intending rather to take historical and compa-
tive view Of this Protest than to attempt to argue
it down. we shall but very briefly advert to the only
specific objection which it offers to the nomination
of Gen ScoTT as the Wing candidate for the Pre-
sidency We quote it as follows:
He Zen ScorT obstinatey refused, up to the time
of his nomination. give any public opinion in favor of
that series of of the last Congress the
Compromise the permanent maintenance of which with
is question of paramount Importance. Nor has he
the nomination made any declaration Of his approval Of
those measures final adjustment Of The contro-
r1sy.
1t is true the resolutions Of the Convention that no.
minated him clear and explicit upon this ques-
ton need be- but Gen. ScoTr in his letter Of accept
ance which contains all that have from him that
matter does gpe them the approval Of his Judgment
This he seems audOuy hare dpoided He accepts the
nomination with the resolutions annexed" That is, he
takes the nomination One individual takes
estate with whatever membranes it may be loaded
with And the only pledge and guaranty he offers for his
adherence the principles Of the resolutions the
known incidents of long public life, P" &c.
Before this paper will reach our readers, almost
every one Of them will have drawn his own conclu-
.sions from the face Of this statement and ninety
nine out Of every hundred, we do not doubt, will
have regarded it, have been obliged to do, as
afording an altogether insufficient justification of
the Remuneration Of the Wing candidate for the
Presidency which has been sent forth
Had General ScoTT been some obscure person.
whose character and opinions entirely unknown,
there might be some ground for the stress laid by
these gentlemen on the silence of which they insist
upon accusing him. But here is citizen whose
whole manhood, for forty-four years. has been spent
on the most public Of public stages who has been
either brave soldier or victorious commander in
every war and every difficulty in which his country
has been involved during all that time-hs earliest
exploits achieved indeed before some Of those whC
now doubt his loyalty we're born; man whose
J,,nt o,1I, 81;