The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1855-12-26
ANDREW j. WHEELER,
And others.
DErRo1r, NoY. %. 8

letter asking me if I am a candidate for
the Office of President of the United
States, and expressing the qualification
it would give you to support me for that
high Office.
While thanking you for this NANTES
tation of your kindness and confidence,
of which I shall always preserve a Crate
full recollection, I reply that I am not a
candidate for the Presidency, nor do I
desire that my name should be present.
edin connection with it to the considers
ton of the Democratic party of the
Union.
l am gentlemen.
With great regard
Truly yours,
(Signed) LEWIS CAsS.
Andrew j. Wheeler, Esq, and others,
Philadelphia.
Ne n can listen to the briefand quiz
ct announcement which withdraws the
name of Gen. Cass from the Presiden-
tial contest, without some melancholy
reflections. Even those who have differ
ed most with Gen. Cass on some quest
ions of public policy, recognize in him
one of the statesmen of the oldest and
best school of the Republic, one of the
last of the men who were brought up at
the feet of the Fathers of the Republic
"a disciple of the apostles of the revolu-
ton. He and others like him withdrawn
we have to choose. among smaller men
For himself he has nothing to regret in
the fact that he is MOTTO be President.
To have been the Governor of the great
Northwestern Territory, the mother of
free states-to have been she represen-
tative man of that section for so many
years in the Senate, and the Reprcsen-
tative of the Union abroad, and the or.
gan of its foreign policy at home, pre-
sents a career of honor to which the
Chief Executive Office would add little
but a name.
In regard to the Presidential nomina-
ton we have before us an article in the
Chicago Times, which speaking by au-
thority, says "Senator Douglas is not
now, nor has he ever been a candidate
for the Presidential nomination. No
man is now nor never was authorized by
him to use his name in or out of that
convention, nor will that authority be
given"
But in regard to the views of the
Democracy of Illinois, in which their
brethren of other Western States partic-
iQates, the Times says
Illinois has no second choice: It is
Douglas before all other men yet the
representatives of Illinois will go to that
convention with no other instructions
than to vote for that man who deserves
to be the nominee ofthe only party in the
United States which dare assert and
maitain that the Constitution is the only
bond of the Union, and that the Union,
without the Constitution practically OBJ
served, is but a solemn mockery of free
dom, justice and equality. The De-
mocracy of Illinois will support any man
who is the nominee of that Convention,
and they ferbear presenting the name of
their w favorite, because they wish to
go into that Convention as faithful, un-
p~rejudiced umpires in the choice of can
didates,
We assert what we know to be the
fact, that Senator Douglas will not per-
NIT the use of his name to divide tie
National Convention. Let those who
are candidates be balloted for If any
of them is nominated, all we'll and
VIXEN, should it unfortunately occur that
no candidate can command the requisite
strength, then the Democracy can fall
back upon the man who never yet failed
them in the hour of peril-whose hand,
whose name, whose voice and whose abil-
tiles are now as they aver have been
always atthe service of the Democratic
party It is this spirit-the spirit that
induces the prominent statesmen of the
Democratic party to sink all personal
wishes and aspirationsi in their feeling for
the common cause, and to withhold their
names from the the canvass, in order
that the representatives Of the party
shall como together in National Con-
%vention free to choose their leader, un-
tramelled by pref erances-it is This
spirit that is to redeem the fortunes of
the party and restore its ascendency.