Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1853-08-27
TnR rWo TmIRDs RULE.

much OF the little anu petLy WaLlue WHICH ~ pre-
eminentIy distinguishes the Presidential canvass.
While it is at all times proper to expose the incon-
s;stencies of the candidates of both parties, and
doubly proper to hold up Janus-faced efforts, no
matter whence they come; still regret, that the
attention of the great body of the people is not
more prominently invited to an examination of the
cardinal points of difference presented by the plat
forms of the two parties, and to a fair and candid
discussion of the principles therein set forth Be-
eving that it is to the interest of all, that such
course should be pursued, we shall attempt in
few short articles to pave the way at least for such
an examination as that proposed and ultimately
elicit from some able pen than ours, full and
impartial examination into the principles of the
two parties. We plant ourselves in fact where
he Democracy do in profession. We prefer prin-
cples to men, if either are to be abandoned, but
we have no hesitancy in saying, that in country
tike ours, where statesmen are as numerous as in
any place on the globe, there is, and there can be
no proprety, far less necessity, in sacrificing either
principles or men. We support then, principles
and men, because we have them both. Indeed,
nothing can be more disastrous in its ultimate eff
fects upon the councils of our country than the un
fortunate rule which our Democratic friends have
introduced into their Presidential conventions
High attainments, long services and marked states
manship now, SO far from being recommendations,
are absolutely injurious to their poSSesSor One
who has been prominent before the people, enters
the convention with his fast and fixed friends,
who have enlisted in his support from high con-
victions of his capacity and craftsmanship, and is
there met by a competitor equally able and quail
fed, and with a body of friends equally enthusias-
tic and devoted. Either may have majority, nei-
ther two thirds. Both are supported to the last by
their friends, and by force of the two thirds rule,
new man, not obnoxious, because unknown, to- the
censure of either; is taken up and nominated, and
thus it happens that old and tried public servants,
when brought forward for the highest Office, when
in sight it were, of the goal towards which they
have directed their footsteps from the first moments
Of their public career, which has prompted their
powers, and stimulated their actions, which has
been the beckoning beacon to life of toll cast
aside because they have labored too long and are
known too well.
The tendency of such a course is too obvious to
need explanation he highest office in the gift of
he people may safely be assumed as the goal to-
wards which all our statesmen bend their steps in
their political career. Heretofore he, who could
make the most imposing appearance before the
country, who had served longest and best, who had
been eyerready to serve and serve with ability, in
the leading ranks of statesmen and public servants
and who, by such services, was thus known to the
whole people was the man upon whom the voters
of the land wereinvited to bestow their highest
ward. Washington twice called to the pres
idental post, after he had rivaled all human
achievement in the magnitude, briIliancy and pa
triotim ofhs actions. Theposition could confer no
honor upon him. He honored the nation by ac-
cepting its chief magistIacy. The elder Adams
had been the most noted of the early revolutionary
agitators. He had played most conspicuous
and prominent part in all the Massachusetts, diff
cuties preceding the great revolutionary struggle.
He had bearded the Hutchinson's, bafled the crown
officers and carried through the Massachusetts, as
sembly measures, at open variance with the die
tates of the Crown. He had been member and
prominent member of the different sessions of the
Continental Congress, anterior to the declaration of
Independence, and so great was his zeal in that
assembly for direct and open declaration of In
dependence, even for years prior to 1776, that he
was openly pointed at by men, pure and tried pa
tIiots afterwards, who then regarded him as dam
gerous, and too ardent for American freedom. AZ
forwards he was proven TO have been then right
In the Congress of 1776, he was first among the
foremost for Independence, one of the general
committee to whom Mr.. Lees resolution for indie
pendence was referred, and one of the sub-com-
mittee of three appointed to draft the celebrated
declaration, which alone would transmit the name
of its author to all future ages. His services as
minister to France, and in every capacityin which
his country placed him, established his claims to
the suffrages ofthe people.
Mr.. Jefferson needs no recording pen TO name
the services on which he rested his claims to the
high distinction. His the Virginia house
of BuTgeSes, in the Continental Congress, as gov
eTno1 of Virginia, and in almost every civil capaci
ty, stamp him as the prominent statesman of his
time. H
Mr.. Madison was but little, if any, his inferior.
Possessed of a deep, rejecting mind, capable of
examining and eludicatng in his closet every
iton which might be presented TO him, we may
safely say that statesman he never had his SUI
perior among his contemporaries.
He was eminently distinguished for his
GOODNESS and freedom from personal pique or mo-
tive; and to this quality are chiefly indebted for
some Of the soundest state papers, which hayeev-
er eminated from the pen of an American. He was
one of the two fathers Federal Constitution,
and deserves the greatest credit, for the cleaness
and foresight of his project of union, laid before the
American people, before the meeting Of the Fed
eral Convention. His pre-eminent claims to the
highest honors, stand forth undisputed and ac-
by all. James Monroe was one of the
most prominent statesmen of his time. Though
not so intellectual as the two virginians of whom
we have last spoken, yet he had served in yarious
md in the highest civil pOstswith distinction, and
o the satisfaction of all; and when the period ap
preached for selecting successor to Mr.. Madison,
N. Monroe occupied, in the. estimation of the
whole body of the American people, the position ]