New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-06-07
THE NEW sLAUGHTER.HOUsE.

statesmen III tllat reckless ana unprlDcped sheet.
THE NEW SLAUGHTER.HOUSE
We do trust that the year 1852 witne ;ses
the last assemblages of certain active poll
ticians of our country in rival National
| Conventions to nomiI ate candidates for
President and Vice President of the Uni
ted States. We believe the unprejudiced
good sense of the Country utterly condemns
these gatherings, regarding them as ex-
ceedingly dangerous in their aspects, open
ing door to the grossest corruptions, and
continually tending to the defeat of the
popular will. If we did not know that a
strict constructionist is always little
looser in constituting the Constitution than
anybody else where his own interests or
prejudices require such iberality, we
should expect the State Rights men to
denounce these assemblages as tending to-
ward consolidation and the practical alb
sorption of all power by self constituted
convocations unknown to the Constitution
and laws.
A National Convention, as we have al
ready explained, is under very strong temp
tation to make a candidate for President,
instead of merely presenting one whom the
People have already fixed upon; since in
the former case the candidates obligation
to the delegates is far greater, and his graf
itude will probably be proportionate. 1t
is almost certain to set aside all candidates
who have any positive character, any not
able history, any definite ideas, and propose
instead some negative, half and half, small
minded parsonage, who has never been of
sufficient consequence to Offend or excite
jealousy, and who never had an idea beyond
the pale of his party catechism. We have
fallen upon great times for little men, and
this wretched machinery of National Con-
ventions is one potent cause of it.
We do not mean that Gen. Pierce affords
any special illustration of these truths.
We do not at all imply that his party will
not cordially support, nor that they may
not elect him. We believe he has sufii-
cient ability to make respectable Presi-
dent after the pattern of Van Buren, or Polk.
But this we do mean, and call all men to
witness, that the party never sent its del
egates to Baltimore to nominate Frank.
Pierce for President. There were not two
hundred men out of Hampshire who
desired his nomination, and hardly so many
anywhere who expected it. He owes
whatever of good fortune he may have, not
to the People, but to the Delegates and
few schemiDg outsiders, and he must be-
stow his gratitude accordingly.
Three or four weeks ago, Gen. Gideon ].
Pillow of Tennessee reached our City from
the South, kept on to Connecticut and held
confab with Gov. Seymour, thence up to
Concord, n. H. to call on Frank. Pierce,
and to Massachusetts to see Caleb Cushing
all these having been, with him, officers
in the Mexican War. We knew at once
that there was Presidential game aaoat,
but just what it did not become us to in
luire, and we could not have learned if we
bad. Now the milk in the cocoa-nut is
accounted for, and we shall be greatly dis
appointed if Gen. Pillow don't secure one
If the latest berths under Gen. Pierce
provided Pierce gets elected. This is a
world wherein many things happen ap-
'arently by chance, because some long
head has planned and fixed then before
rand.
We have good many who talk in ia
'or of giving the election of President d.
ectly to the People, but who will do some.
hing! No amendment of the Constitution
S really needed; and the abolition of orr
present Electoral machinery would not for
ward the matter one straw. What odds
whether there are Electors or not, so LONG
IS each party must have one fore ordained
'andidate, and every voter must support
he regular nomination or throw away his
IOtel What is needed is simply an agree
nent that each roter may indorse (by writ
ng or in print ms personal preference for
President and Vice-P President on his BAL
ot-hG,t such Inducements shall be duly
Ounted and retrned--and that all The
Electors Of eaeh party shall rOte for the
andiddtes trhOse names,;re found Endorsed
n the largest number ofhe ballots Of d.eir
0rty throughout the Union. This at once
0va'es all nece' sity for National ,Cconven-
ons or special nominations it restores to
very voter his natural right to say whom,