The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-09-16
From the Nso York Courier and Enquirer, Sept. Ia
Mr. Webster and tho Presidency.

MIR. Webster and tho Presidency.
We learn, on good authority, that movement
is on foot in this city, among the friends of Mr.
WEBSTER, to nominate Webster electoral ticket
to be sustained in this State That such move
ment if persevered in, will DO most disastrous to
the Wing cause, one of our readers possessing
ordinary intelligence and modicum Of political
sagacity can for a moment question:; and 1t be-
comes the imperative duty, therefore, OF every
Wing who at heart places value upon wing
principles to pause and inquire into the proprety
of such proceeding.
If we believed il were possible to elect Mr.. Web
ster with the candidate of the Wing National Con-
vention in the ield-if we believed there was oven
one chance out OF a hundred of such result-n
We supposed that any respectable number oil Mr..
Webster's intelligent friends believed such con-
tingency possible-nay. if any te" intelt ,, wsb-
ser men Of fair standing ordinary n,eliuepcs
woo'd grave assure 10 that they have the sight-
r-. lnith In the election of Mr.. Webster from any
such movement-wc should not heoitste to unite
with them, and say "God speed" to the work in
hand But there il no such hope for U.S. there s not
the remotest probablity-not even the shadow of
shade OF possibility of aught but the most humil-
lating and disastrous result from such movement;
and therefore we enter our most decided protest
against it.
Our readers, wo feel assured will not attribute
our course to any lack Of friendship for Mr.. Web
ster-that has been demonstrated; nor yet 70 any
absence OF intelligence necessary to arrive at
rect conclusion in regard to the inevitable result Of
such movement; and least Of all, will they charge
us with umidity,a desire to trim our sails to the
political breezes which are waited around US, to
an apprehension of consequences to ourselves which
might deter some editors from tho discharge of
what they consider their duty. The labors of a
quarter OF century, if they have produced no other
results, have abundantly demonstrated that we
dare to pursue what We deem the right. in defiance
Of State and National Conventions, and at the haz-
ard of giving offence to those whom most esteem
and whose friendship We most desirous to re-
tain. But we dare not commit great moral wrong,
and trampe upon tho principles which we have SO
long and SO zoaIously labored to inculcate, to
crafty our personal feelings; and, therefore. we
dare not unite in a nomination Of Mr.. Webster
der existing circumstances, knowing, we do,
that the only possible consequences of such pro-
ceeding would be to secure beyond contingency
the election of the Democratic candidate to the
Presidency, tho defeat of Wing principles and the
serious injury Of Mr.. Webster himself-whose
fame ia the common property Of the whole nation,
as his life Is the brightest page in our country's
history. while the principles for which he has lived
and which he has so nobly inculcated, are those
which can alone secure the permanency Of our in
situations.
No President has accomplished 1.-THE Of
the good which Mr.. Webster has conferred upon
th9country by his transcendent talents, his never.
failing devotion to the Constitution, and his ire
sstble appeals to the Prospect the justice, and
the patriotism of our people. And were he Presi-
dent for the next twenty years, he could not add
one leatlet to the chaplet Of glory which he has
won for himself through all time, by preserving
to Union of these free and independent States,
which renders the first power the face Of the
globe. Had there been no Webster in the Senate
| in March, 1850, whose antecedents had won for
him the proud title of defender Of the Constitu.
| ton," and around whom clustered the admiration,
the affections, and the confidence of the American
people, there would not no,o have been any " Unit
ed States" to the Presidency of which the people
have the right to elevate whomsoever they please.
The Union il safe; and that it is safe, and that
We are permitted to elect another President,
Is due, under Providence, mainly to the fear
less independence and mntchess intellect of Daniel
Webster. He it was who dared to hazard all to
save the Union and what is il to him and to his
fame if he lost ALL so long as no saved to US this
glorious Union, and preserved to US and to our de.
scendants, and to all mankind, the inappreciabe
blessings which it is destined to shed upon genera
| tons yet unborn? lngratitude, selhshness, and
the miserable plea Of political expediency-a plea
| in this instance false it was base--has done
| its work and Mr.. Webster was rejected at Balti-
| more by the very men in whose behalf he had
staked every thing in support of the Constitution
and the laws of the land His very patriotism was
his only crime in the eyes Of those who assumed
- III.
erpsdiency; and his great services, his unequaled
talents, and his political claims. such other
| individual could present to assemblage of in.
teIligent men, were all thrust aside in favor of one
who it was thought would better please the military
| tastes of tho masses.
What has been done cannot be undone The
past cannot be recalled. And although we shall
never Cease to deplore the defeat Of Mr.. Webster
at Baltimore, but shall always look upon it as an
act of national ingratitude and political insanity,
| we cannot forget that we, in common with the
| whole Wing party, owe duty to our country and
to our principles from which no injustice to Mr..
Webster can possibly relieve US. That "two
wrongs cannot make b right is old proberb,
and it is as true it is old. The ,orong done to
MIR. Webster will not be remedied by ,Drong
sought to be pcrpetratsd against General Scott,
who cannot be justly charged with the errors of
| the convention; and above all, and over all, the
wrong perpetrated by the Baltimore Convention
against Daniel Webster cannot justify his friends
and the great Wing party of our country in COM
hitting an equally grievous wrong against Whig
principles, which are the principles of the Consi-
tuition and Of Daniel Webster himself, AMI in the
support and establishment, of which he Is done
moro than any other man, any score of men
which this country has ever produced.
We not only admit, but we deeply feel the hard
| ship Of the case. We know that, had Daniel Web.
ster been nominated at Baltimore, he would have
been elected BY the largest vote ever given to a
successful candidate for the Presidency; and we
feel that his election would not only have been a
richly merted compliment from grateful and
discriminating people. but would have been of last
| ing benefit to the nation and to the cause Of civil
and religious liberty throughout the world, by de-
monstrating the intelligence Of our people and the
ability Of man for self govcrnment as evinced in
eevating to the first station in the world the indi
vidual beat qualified for it. But hard as the case
is, ii might have been worse. Another and very
different selection might have been made to bear
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