New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1853-01-25

People called Convention m 40. and it vas
held, in spite Of liberal doses of Just such
logic as TIE MercE-y now employs, and resulted
in very important and signal Improvements IN
our fundamental law Such, We have Ittle
doubt. viii be the case in Massachusetts,, IAs
MerrHrEs " bsrricades" 20 the contrary not
withstarding. We holdit fact OF the settled
public law Of the American States that the
Legislature and People Ofany State may cal a
Constitutional Convention, without being ex-
pre.sy authorized to do so BY the precHissins
Constitution.
TIE Boston Commonwealth (Free-Soil) quotes
our remark that Gov. Clifford, though he may
be good Governor, shows himselfin this mat
ter by no means astute politician. snd CON-
ments as follows:
This language i uneqI.vocsl n enc respects' least
Il shows where The pineh IS with The IrbgHG The
trouble seems 70 be that Whig Governor Is not an
'nstute poicisn thst his TIT az the ConTeaioa u
sillrmed and. in a word. that Whist he says OF the
Convention may irjure TIE Whig party.
1--WE DO not admire TAs TribzNCs notion OF an a.
tue poiricsn by which il seems 70 understand POI
ticisn " no car hide BIZ opinion speak contrary 20 hs
III party msy re0ure-snd one, especially vno can
trade cunnngy IN the convictions and aspiration, OF
the progressive spirit Of the day The editors OF that
paper must knew very well thar In opposing the Con
rettion Gov Clifford in accordance with hi, own
opinion snd with the opinion OF those VINO elevated hum
% the guhcrnsforial Office. Would they have him play
the hyPOerte catch votes for his party Ii sess So
Now we assure The Commonwealth that we
don't care button whether the approaching
Constitutional Convention Of Massachusetts,
shall contain Wing majority or not. If we
could be sure that the Coalition would honest
" and fairly divide the State into equal single
Senate and Representative Districts, we would
be perfectly resigned to its ascendancy therein
As il is, We do MT feel the requisite confidence;
but then We spprehend the Wings may be in
cined to mulishness. should they carry the
Convention under present auspices; and if
blunder is to be made, wrong to be perpetra-
ted, by either party, we are still Wing eaough
10 prefer tina, it should not be this one.
All the astuteness We required Of Governor
Clifford was that which recognizes this as
Republican country. wherein the majority is
morally and rightfully certain 10 rule. We
did not blame him for having deprecated and
resisted the Convention while the question
was an open one but we thought that, from
the moment decided majority of the People
pronounced in its favor al vlrmly contested
Election, il became the Convention. not Of a
party but of the whole People, and all should
have recognized it as fixed fact, and prepared
to make the best oft We believe the course
indicated by Gov. Clifford if taken by the
Wing party. will galvsnize into life the demol.
ish1 Coalition, and throw the Wings Of Mas
sachusetts again out of power-perhaps for
years Thisis one reason why we thought Gov.
Clifford should have taken different course
from that indicated in his Message-not that
he should have concealed any opinion nor
traded in anybody's convictions and aspira.
tons" but should have heartily and in good
faith aequiesced in what the majority had de-
creed Is not The Commonwealth, on the
whole, little ashamed Of ITSELF