The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1856-11-09

Il
The denomination OF Fremont for 1860.
Some Of the old politicians are greatly dis
gusted with the spontaneous nomination Of FREE
mont for 1860 by several Of the clubs which have
| sustained him during the canvass just closed
Our cotemporary the Courier and Enquirer devotes
good deal Of space to demonstrating the folly
OF keeping Col Fremont's name before the pub
lie, and quotes in support of this view several
passages from speech made by the editor Of
that sheet at the Convention where ne strove so
manfully to procure the nomination Of William
Ii. Seward. The chief argument relied on is
that if Col. Fremont is kept before the people,
the friends Of Mr.. Seward Mr.. Chase and others
will bring them forward ALSO and thus dssen
so1s will arise, and the great triumphant re-
publican party viii degenerate into party Of
factions all hostile to each other
This is nonsense. Col. Webb wants to get
Fremont out of the way in order to bring for
ward Gov Seward, who is his present idol. The
"great triumphant republican party will itself
be nowhere if it falls into the hands Of the hack
politicians, and is nursed and coddled by them
for four years. The only chance Of keeping il
safe and strong is to wreathe it round the name
Of Col. Fremont, and leave it dormant until he
calls it anew into existence in 1850. As to
cliques and hostile factions, the very way to
provoke them is to leave the nomination in
1850 an open question. Then indeed shall we
have the friends Of Mclean. and the friends Of
Banks, and the friends of Chase, and the friends
Of Seward isolatng themselves into little clusters
and cliques all animated with the most deadly
hostility to each other. Then indeed would it be
reasonable 10 expect that instead Of a homoge-
neous whole, 1850 would find the republicans a
collection Of wrangling factions, whose squab-
bles would be certain TO disgust the people, and
throw them into the arms Of the democracy.
Then indeed would the principle involved in the
contest run risk Of being altered to suit the ext
gences OF this or that ambitious politician, at the
cost as before, Of the popular confidence. All
the evils which the Courier and Enquirer anticipates
as likely to flow from the denomination Of FIRE.
mont are in fact almost certanto result from the
contrary policy Of leaving the nonlinationan open
question.
II has been urged that nomination at such
jure Colonel Fremont. We do not see this. All
the evil that could be invented and said of him
has been already trumpeted through the land: he
cannot be Injured more than he has been. His
good qualities on the contrary; his force Of will,
his administrative ability, his modesty, his dis
cretion, his perfect self possession, are merits
whose value requires time to be appreciated: he
will rise higher and higher as people think over
them. True the intervening four years will
be for him q period Of restraint; but that
is small matter. If be have not the
discretion to avoid mistakes during this period,
be will Of course ruin himself; but it viii be time
enough then TO think of another candidate. In
our opinion, he is certain to grow in public favor
and general esteem and we see no reason why
nomination four years in advance should be
more injurious to him than il was to Jackson and
Harrison.
There IL another advantage in putting him In
the field at once. by this course we dispense
with the services Of those roguish bodies called
nominating conventions -thase self-constituted
despotic councils which arrogate 10 themselves a
privilege exclusively vested in the people, and
are always ready to sell the nomination to the
highest bidder. We have always held that these
nominating conventions were unconstitutional,
scandacus and absurd. Nothing but the extra
ordinary pressure brought to bear upon the lat
republican convention by an Independent pre-,
prevented The members bartering away the non,i-
nation to some old fogy like Judge Mclean, or q
hack politician like Seward. In this case. the
democrats would probably have carried nearly
as many States ms Pierce did and Colonel Webb
would have been driven to take mp that rife with
which he menaced bis enemies at Philadelphia.
Nominating conventions have been the curse
Of our politics FOR many years They
actually defeat and neutralize Cur democratic
institutions, and create among US an oligarchy
not of men Of birth or wealth or genius, but Of
old broken down unprincipled politicians who
care for no earthly thing but the spoils. BY the
denomination Of Col Fremont these worthless
fnd their vocation gone-whence their bowls and
proans. II there were no other reason for re-
nominating him but that il viii emancipatc W
from the tbraldom of conventions, we should say
Let IL be done.
BrCHANANs MAJoRrTIEs OVER FREMONT N
nrE SorTH-The Journal Of Commerce ID parading