The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-16

only IN dens or caves or in the most secret re-
cesses of our dwellings with doors locked and
guarded. Once the bloOdhOunds were muzzled
now the bloodhounds are let loose, and freemen
are muZzed.
Sir when any humane and intelligent man
reflects upon the attributes of this law and
then turns TO the fiat of the Baltimore Conven
tons that it shall not be agitated or discussed
he cannot but tremble with an agony Of indg
nation and contempt These resolves are 81
suhyersiye not only of all divine but of all hu
man government they are so audacious ant
yet so impOtent they assume 80 imperial al
air, while yet they are more imbecile than al
idiots gibberish, that the great poet Of our Ian
guage whose mind supplies redundant images
tor all things vile and mean, has but one pas
sage that BELTS their vileneSs. To borrow hi,
words these Baltimore resolutions are
"- birth stranged babe,
| Ditch deliver by drab.
Justice and gratitude, however, demand that
should say that there were siKty-seven mem
bers Of the Wing Convention who stood out
bravely and to the last against this attempted
abolition Of the freedom of speech. In the Dem
Ocratic Convention there seems to have been
scarcely Il whisper of dissent.
t'iis CdlillOI bub uChuON tiuI illc tNtIllt
! have recitcd have an OminOus look for the
cause of freedom. 1t seems as though the black
cloud which has settled down over Europe was
extending It's gloomy folds across this country
to enyelop, in darkness and despair the last
hopes Of liberty upon earth. But have inf
mite faith in God and in truth ] believe thai
cloud to be surcharged with lightnings which
will yet blast the oppressor And after tn,
| h,rhf nFn nd fha lfs han 10,
shall come the day of universal freedom ant
joy
False rs those Baltimore Conventions wer,
to the Constitution of the United States to tn,
! Declaration Of Independence, to humanity and
to God. yet when we come to scan their proceed
ngs more closely, we find that they were
amenable to a power they refused to acknowl.
edge. Ii was there as in the ancient mythOl-
Ogy the gods decreed, but there was an mex
orable fate standing behind the gods and con-
trolling their DEGREES. That irresistible fate,
which bound the Conventions as with n spell,
and hemmed in their desires and aptitudes for
wrong which was will within their will was
the genius Of Northern Ant-Slayery. There
were ut least half dozen candidates, whom
the Democratic Convention vastly preferred to
the one they finally took up with; and there
was at least one, whom the Wing Convention
under the Southern pressure brought to bear
upon them, would have consented to take but
for the upliited arm of the North, which men
aced lnex0rable defeat for any such selection,
and would have terribly executed its menace
AS in the vision Of the Scottish seer. coming
events cast their shadows before, so here the
coming thunders Of the peoples rebuke sent
their echoes forward, and forbade both Con-
ventions from inscribing the more apostate
names upon their banners. 1t was the Free
Soil party of the North that held those thun-
derS in lis hands; and if it did not determine
whom the Conventions should nominate it did
determine whom they should not.
Why did not the Democratic party nomi-
nate General CAss! For forty years he had
stood conspicuously before the country had
served in early life, in military capacity on
the Northern frontier been afterwards Gov
ernor OF Territory now swarming with three
millions of men Ambassador abroad and Cab
met Minister and Senator at home Besides, he
was II man of unblamablc private life--One
who, whatever sinister rewards he may have
expected, never exposed himself to the inputa-
ton of barterng his integrity for "dotatons -
rcputed, and believe justly reputed to be
temperance man-which fact by itself had he
been n candidate against man of known in
temperate habits, would have given him fifty
thousand votes in New England alone-a fact
which future Presidential aspirants will do
well to heed Why was not General CASs
nominated His Nicholson letter was the
flaming barrier, which neither the pcryerso
Baalam OF Democracy, nor its beast was able
to pass by BY that letter, as the returns of
1913 show, General CASS struck off a hundred
Thousand votes from his ticket in the State of
New York alone. General CAsS died of mod
ern disease, called letter-writing' which has
proved Slngularly fatal to Presidential candi-
dates. The Nicholson letter was the malignant
distemper that bloated and killed him
Why was not Mr.. Buchanan nominated
the iavorite of that great State which, as she
inclines one way or the other seems to rock
and sway the Union and determine the result
in every Presidential election He was n man
of great pOwers-One whom nature had laid
out on grand scale When the history Of
this country is written, Mr.. Buchanans name
cannot be put in parentheSis. He made
General Jackson, rather than General Jackson
HIM His talents with those of Gov Marcy
of New York, We're the salt that saved Mr.
Folks Administration from putridty. He was
daring man. In 1913, in an official cOmmu-
ncation To- the French Provisional Govern
ment he boldly obtruded his counsels upon
them tor the formation of their Constitution as
though the new Republic were his ward La
MARITIME politely made II French bow in return
but saying, rs he gaye it, he would not toler-
ate advice from any other people God ever
created
Why was not Mr.. Buchanan nominated ?
All! he had been even holder in his domestic
diplomacy than in his foreign. His offer to
run the Missouri Compromise line through TO
the Pacific ocean, and to sacrifice all south of
that line on the altar Of the Moloch of slavery.
was u grand act of ap0stacy to Northern SEN
timont and to freedom, which brought the films
of death over his eyes. His coup detdt was II
coup de grace. He will DO less successful in
making such Northern platforms than in
making French Constitutions In all the States
north of Pennsylvania during the forty-nine
ballotingS he rarely received more than half
dozen votes and think his average in those
States did not como up to that insignificant or
rather that significant number
And what was the fate of the Senator from
Illinois whom some sagac0us and oyerreach-
ing Wing called the Young Giant-a nick
name which his own friends were silly enough
to adopt say silly, for everybody knows that
the common notion which the common people
have of n young giant is that of unnatural
and precocious animal development The very
name coniures up images of rowdyish passion
and appetite of nocturnal rcycls of sort of
wild, obscene force, unchastcned by the lessons
of experience, and untempered by HISTORIAN
wisdom. What was his reward for his implied
or understood offer of the annexation of Cuba ?
From the four States of Massachusetts,, New
York Ohio, and Pennsylvania he never at any
one time received more than sixteen votes, and
IN iour-iiths of the ballotings be received but
five or six. In winning the South he forgot