The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1856-07-05
THE NOMINATIONS.


Il Is fortunate for the country that the
three candidates who have been nominated
for the Presidency, are men whose moral
character in private life Is admitted to oe
without reproach. Perhaps this fact may be
regarded as an indication of progress, for 1t
has not always been SO. In former elections
citizens have felt themselves compelled by
their party obligations, or by their regard
for some great pubic interest. to give their
votes for men whose moral character was Of J
fensive to all right sensibiIities. Sometimes
a candidate tor the Presidency or the Vice |
Presidency has been man of incorporate
habits, or one whose reformation from such
habits was matter of doubt and controversy.
There are some yet living who can remem-
Der the occasion when the Vice President was
50 drunk in the Chair of the Senate, as to be
incapable of attending to business Some
times a veteran gambler, reformed or half
Observation-Disclosures q VIGOROUSLY profane
swearer-sometimes dueIist, brawler and
fighter, man Of violence with blood guilt
ness upon him, has been candidate on the
one side or the other. Let US hope that the
time is passing away when such men can be
seriously named in connection with the high
est honors of the Union.
The three candidates for the Vice Presi-
dency in the pending election are less known
to the public. We know nothing against
any of them except the fact that Mr.. Breck-
enridge made himself painfully and shame
fully conspicuous in the last Congress b. an
attempt at duel with one Of the Represen-
tives from New York. We refer to this fact
not in the expectation that anybodys vote
will be- affected by it. but because such a fact
in the career Of q public man ought never
to be forgotten. 1t is not to be supposed that
any man who can make up his mind to vote
for the "pIatform" of the Cincinnati Conven-
ton, will be troubled BY any scrupIes of
conscience about so small matter as an ab-
ortive attempt at murder on the part of one
of the candidates.
1t is to be observed that the candidate
nominated for the Presidency by the Cincin-
natl Convention, accepts and adopts, "whole
and entire" without reservation or cOmpro-
mise, the confession of faith framed bv that
venerable synod. lie is not now "James
Buchanan" with principles, opinions and
private judgment Of his own. He would have
the public understand that he is only sort
Of algcbraic symbol representing the system
Of domestic and foreign policy summed up in
the latest platform Of his party. So let
him be regarded. He is to be considered and
voted for, not as a statesman of long expert
ence in public affairs-nOt as enriched with
the wisdom which he may be supposed to
have gained from so many years IN Congress,
in the Department of State, and in a foreign
embassy-but only as pledged to carry out
it elected. the views and purposes of the par
ty BY which he has been nominated. Mr.
Polk was elected twelve years ago, as the
!. representative of the proposed annexation of
Texas. His election in that capacity gave
US the Mexican war, with a sacrifice of ten
thousand lives and hundred millions of
treasure or our part. The issue of that hour
was not simply whether Mr.. Polk or Mr.. CLAW
should be president for the next four wears,
but whether we should have a war with Mex
, leo for the acquisition of Texas So the is
sue of the present hour is not whether this
mar or that shall be President, but whether
the nefarious policy Of the Nebraska Bill and
the Ostend Circular-the policy which makes
1 the extension of slavery and the restriction
. Of freedom the one great care and labor of
2 our National Government-the policy that
: can do nothing for the safety of commerce on
our own inland seas and our imperial
r "Streams that to the sea
n Roll ocean like"
/ bot con give two hun,lrv,l million dollars TO
purchase the sovereignty without the soil of
o Cuba-the policy which cannot open cart
path across our own territory to our own GOLD.
!. en- realms on the Pacific, but can involve rs
: in war with half of Chris,cndom about rail.
road across the territory OF another nation
the policy which has already brought forth
civil war and anarchy in Kansas. and which
: seems likely to bring the South and the
North into bloody coIIision-shalI be the es-
J tablished policy of the country. Let every
Christian citizen, in whatever portion of our
: common country, and whatever NAV be his
party sympathies or prtjudices, remember
that il he gives his vote for the candidate of
: the Cincinnati Convention, he gives his vote
: to establish in our Government the domestic
I and foreign policy of the Cincinnati "plat-
r form"
OF Mr.. Fillmore as a candidate for the
Presidency, we need not say much. The
proscrptive policy Of the party by which he
has been nominated, has never commended
itself to our appreciation. And "fhe sober
: second thought of the people," throughout
the tre"-laoor States, is not lik-ly to favor
any national policy which has for its object
the repression of that immigration to which
all of these free States owe SO much of their
v progress in wealth and power The admiss-
ion OF naturalized citizens to the right of suf.
frace-or of foreign-born inhabitants not
q naturalized-is a question for each State.
and not at all question for the general gov
. eminent. The influence of Germans or /.
rishmen as such. in our elections. is an influ-
enrc to be regulated or subdued by each
, State, actinsin its own sphere; no measures
y within the constitutional powers of the Fe,}e.
raj Government co1ld remove that evil. even
if twenty Know-no.hing Presidents should
he elected in succession. We therefore find
little to fear in the distinctive aims of I" the
American Party" as party in national pol
itics. Mr.. Fillmore's claims as a candidate
rest rot upon the character of the party
which has adopted him. but rather upon his
administration Of the Government for the
three years which succeeded the death of
President Taylor. The " Compromise meas
ures Of 1850" we're not the product of his wis.
dom, though he glories in them they we're
: the inevitable sequence of that memorable
calamity by which the country lost brave
Southern President. who cared nothing for
reelection. and had no interest in any scheme
for raising the price Of slaves. The logged
independence of Tay lor could resist, where
his northern successor in ofice-even if he