New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1856-09-25
SNsb Orlsars Dailg Grestert
NATIONAL MxxsG CONVENTION

i L
NATIONAL Mx1xG CONVENTION
Proceedings OF the National Whfg Conyen-
| tIon mt Baltimore.
SPEECH OF THE HON. EDWARD BATES. OF MISSOURI
We were unable in our yesterdays report Of the
proceedings Of the first morning session Of the Con
vention, to give in full the eloquent speech delivered
by the Hon. Edward Bates, on the occasion Of his
taking his seat as President Below our readers will
find it reported by The Baltimore American of the
18th inst. i:
Gentlemen of the Conuentio1, This is great day.
hope it will not be belttled by my presence as your
head upon this platform You have heard it solemnly
announced to you that it is the anniversary of that
glorious legacy which the Father Of his Country left to
us all and now trusting in the good providence Of
God. confidently believe it is the day of regenera-
ton and relnvgoration and reuvenation of the glor
ous old Wing party. Gentlemen, we have been called
Old Line Wings. am not exactly snre that it Is the
correct appellation. For my part they call me
an old iogythat am not even line, that is true
am dot, a full stop, period, whenever yon propose
to me to abandon the opinions Of my fathers, and to
adopt new tangled inventions of the present day.
We are not an ancient nation but we are a vast ma
tion. The worthy colleague of mine, whom see
honored with seat upon this platform, has just COM
pleted journey from my far home in the West, in
nine and forty honrs-and there in this cou-
try who talk about severing in laceraed and bleed
ing fragments such a continent as this @
Gentlemen, we, the OLD Line Wings the old
dot-Whigs, if they may be SO caed-have had pri-
yilege which falls to the lot of few men. We have
lived to read obituaries and to find that after
the strife of life is past nothing is to be said of the
dead by our adyersaries, but what is good. It has
been the fashion with those with whom you and /
have been .contending these many years, after the
contest is over, and they thought we were silent in
our political graves, and the glorious bodyguard of
the Constitution was dsbanded and dispersed so that
they might assail the citadel Of liberties then to
consider it safe to praise It does not become US
| to praise ourselves. &%$
We are not here for victory, but to reorganze re-
animate and renspirit ourselves for the glorious fight
| that lies before us. Let not him who buckleth on
his armor boast, but he that taketh it off after VIC
tory. We are beginning to rouse ourselves. Let me
speak the plain truth with regard to the country and
the times. For these twenty years we have been
benighted in midst of our political adyersaries They
were so strong and triumphant that, ceasng to fear
! their known and ancient adversaries, they warred
against each other, giving us only occasional and
temporary victory by their runwise conflicts In the
meantime when the bonds of party had become
weak, when the universal sentiment of general sue
cess had prevailed throughout the nation, new theo
res were adopted, bold experiments tried Wild fear
ful and oppressive legislation planned, and schemes
for personal aggrandizement sought to be carried out.
They have set up the elements OF power and wealth
and grandeur for the individual and the nation they
have brought all their influences into requisition and
road car outstrips the steed.
What is our office here? have said that the Wing
party Of the United States were the body guard of
the Constitution. Whether weak Or strong, whether
in victory or defeat, its glorious banner has stood
tarnlshed when its great and glorious leaders have
descended to the tomb, leaving behind a name that
will animate our children and grandchildren to all
posterity In my conscience believe that you have
done as much good service to your country when in
the minority as in the majority that you have stayed
the downward tendency of things, have resisted the
procivity to destruction, have sounded the warning
voice in time of danger inviting those who have been
entrusted with the government of the country to
slider the origin OF their power, and to whom they
must trust for support. 1t is matter deeply embed
ded in the philosophy Of human nature applicable to
all parties of men, that when they are poor and weak
and need protection they recur to first principles be-
cause they necessary to their and defence
But when they become strong sin power and bloated
with wealth and desire to exercise control over Others
good principles are in the way of ambition and are
therefore cast aside.
Such is the history of our country, whenever there
is Presidential election and men are anxious to re-
tain power they possess, appeals made to all the
passions of the human heart; bugbears conjured
up which do not exist fatal consequences are pre-
dicted which cannot be expected to take place. Is
We are assembled here, not to discuss the general
principles of government | know you are good
Wings or you would not be here. We have under
gone iltering process; we have been weakened and
disbanded, and brought back to the necessity of
obeyng the inunctiOns of Washington and recurring
to first principles. We are poor weak and helpless.
But thank God, the broad foundations our fathers
built upon still left us enemies have only
been able to tear down the superstructure. We will
build up great and stately palace more comforta-
BILE abode than our fathers had.
1t will not be expected of me, it would be out of
taste as well as out Of time just now. to go in
elaborate speech We came here for work. That is
what came for. have come thousand miles, and
would have gone three thousand more, to bring back
this country to what our fathers intended should be-
came here for work We have to rebuild glorious
party that has nothing but its principles. We come
here not for Office not for honors for that would be
hopeless task under present circumstances, when
our party throughout the country is too utterly weak
to have candidate of its own. We must select, il
we hope to do good, of the the three cAndi-
dates that are now before the American people, With
loud boast the rampant and blatant Democracy call
upon us to turn to them, not because they good
not because they love us, not because they make
promises of better behavior in the future but because
they have chosen to add to their platform another
dangerous and bloody plank. They call upon us to
countermarch the old lines of the Wing party all our
walks of social and political life, and wrong all we
have ever said heretofore and I for one, will not
do it.
A man that has in his heart real consciousness of
the truth of the principles that he goes for is not
afraid to stand alone. He says
Oh, lost to manly thought
Lost 10 the nobest solnce of the soul,
Who thinks it solitude 10 be alone. u
A good man can stand alone. know hundreds of
lSs VINO nave STOOD almost alone, Tor they could
not muster corporals guard for the defence of their
citadel. But one thing we can dove can at least
reorganze these shattered and almost bleeding rem
nants of this almost broken party and open new re-
cruitng rendezvous for friends and brethren who
have left us. If the prodigal will return to lis we
will receive him with open arms and if he has honestly
repented, perhaps he will be as sae Il man in all f,i-
ture time as if he had not left US, because he has
seen the dangerous consequences of desertion. We
are little remnant of the Wing party-not so little
either, because we have been talking this morning
about lengthening cords and Strengthening our
stakes, and the Chairman of the Committee Of Ar
Engagements had to get up and apologize because he
had not calculated for large party here to-day.
only wish he could now go to work to tear down
this enclosure and extend them from end to end of
this immense hall. We could not have brought in all
Missouri here, because the Wings of Missouri are like
the Sybine books of Old they rise in value as they
decrease in numbers. Like precious stones we put
them up in small packages and not in large boxes.
But tell You one thing, gentlemen, when I see
reverend old grey heads from whom we expect pru-
dence, wisdom and moderation, and when i see scat
tered all through them aspiring young men from
whose eyes beam forth the fire OF youth expect to
have in our party from this day forth all the elements
OF honor and of success But must liberalise our
selves in noessentias. We are not put to the neces
sity OF deciding whether our platform shall be
tongued and grooved only laid together blunt but
nnv how shall orromnIisl, tho essential nliant