Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-11-06
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.


course of nine brief hours-the People of the Unit
ed States, from the shores of the Atlantic to those
of the Pacific, performed the duty of electing
Chief Magistrate Of the Republic for the next
four years and this duty was as peaceably perform
ed as the result will be quietly submitted to- for
nolitcal elections, however intense may be the ex-
element before the decision made are acquiesced
in Just as submssively and with just as little idea
of obstruction or resistance as if it was obedience
to law of nature or operation of the physical
universe The principle of this great periodical
act Of our people comes of our British origin, libe-
rallied and improved by the Republican forms en-
grated on it by enlightened ancestors. Its
frequent recurrence so far familiarizes us to this
great conservative act of nation that we lose the
sense of its grandeur and dignity but it neverhe-
less presents sublime feature in the history of
Government and of our race, and its quiet and
orderly performance at each returning period pre-
cminently honorable to our country and its insti-
tutions
We record in another column such results as have
come to hand of this great national act, performed
on Tuesday last for the seventeenth time in our
history; and reference to them will show that a
large majority of the votes were thrown against the
Wing candidate for the Presidency, and that the
administration of national affairs is about to pass
from the party that has held it for the last four
years into the hands of other men, who profess a
different policy, founded opposite principles
Will the change be for the better? This must be
question of anxious interest to every citizen who
loves his country and his country honor more than
party; and experience unhappily teaches that the
change must be for the worse. We desire to say
nothing against the new chief whom it has pleased
majority of the voters to call to the helm of State
but with regard to the present head of the Admins
tration, we believe we shall but repeat the universal
sentiment of candid and intelligent persons to say
that the country has superior statesman, nor
one in whose integrity and patriotism they would
sooner confide The narrow, selfish considerations
of party policy have never been shown in single
act of his peaceful and prosperous administration
The Constitution and the Laws have been his sole
guides To preserve and defend the integrity of the
first and to cause the last to be executed with in
flexible irmness and mpartiality, have been the ac
knowedged aims of his brilliant career. As no
change could be for the better, we have too much
reason to dread the effects of the change which is to
come. The ayowed principles of the Young
America" party and its wild progressiveism are
in their nature the of the conservatism which
should guide every just and honorable Government
But, though we may be willing to believe Gen.
PIERCE much less imbued with the reckless aims
proclaimed by some of his leading advocates, and
have been glad to see him defended in prominent
&C arty tha
of sharing in the aggressive and awless policy ad-
vanced by his most active orators yet the leaders
of the party now to be in the ascendant are propa-
gandists in the broadcast sense, and to the most
dangerous lengths. The territory of the United
States vast as is in extent is yet too contracted
for the expansion Of their Quixotc philanthropy.
The selection of President by such party has
something in it fearfully omnous Of future trouble
There is something, too, in the selection of their
candidate so opposite to every just principle of
action in such cases, that we regard the sanction
which it has received from as pregnant with
evil consequences. They had other men of high
distinction, experienced in the affairs of State emf
/ nent for their virtues, who had made reputation
/ for themselves at home and abroad and whose long
services in high stations would have been guaranty
to the country that no wild scheme Of aggressive
grasping ambition would be encouraged to endanger
its peace and honor. That the party should have
thrown aside such men and given their preference
to one untried in the management of public affairs
and little known to the country, is an anomaly in
politics dscouragng to high craftsmanship and
to all effort to acquire distinction by public useful
ness The spirit, too, which has manifested itself
throughout the country, in preferring citizen Of
pretensions so moderate to whose life for near
half century has been series Of important
I and brilliant services to his country in peace and
war, would almost lead us to fear that we are about
to lose the high position heretofore assigned in
the rank Of nations.
Though the Wing party have failed, they have
the consolation Of knowing that they have failed
with candidate of whom they are proud, and
whom his bitterest party antagonist would, in any
quarter of the world, be proud to call countryman
To the Administration of his successful rival,
Gen. PIERCE, we say, in conclusion, we shall give
every fair construction, and shall Judge him by his
acts-indulging the hope that the maturity Of the
fruit may exceed the promise Of the blossom"
An American correspondent Of the Boston Cou-
;. ricr, writing from Montevdeo, August 31st, says:
Onr d,,lo Al u AZ,