Washington sentinel., 1856-05-13

made the President. This is absurdity intensi-
fed. Mr.. Buchanan was not in the Compro-
mise contest of 1850, and yet the entire South
supported him heartily and devotedly. General
Pierce was not in the Compromise contest Of
1850, and yet the South supported him, and the
| whole country supported him in 1852. He was
the candidate Of the Democracy--nominated
and elected by them. So illogical and ridcu-
lous IS this objection, that do not stop to re-
fute IT, We allude to it alone because it is an un-
conscious tribute to the individual and political
strength OF Mr.. Buchanan, and to the masses
who prefer him; in other words it is saying to
him aud to them--"see how strong you are
when we have no objections but weak devices
OF tins kind to urge against you." To contem-
plate the contingency of Mr.. Buchanan's rejec
ton on either of these grounds would be to con-
template an outrage and an insult which we dis
miss as utterly unworthy Of decent regard
There is a common and very unjust procliv-
ity among the friends of various Presidential
candidates to denounce politicians, to say that
the politicians are intriguing against the peo-
pie. We read every day, that gentlemen elect
ed to Congress, by conGding constituencies, are
| at work in their committee rooms, caucusing
night and day to circumvent the popular will.
Names and places are even given where these
conventicles assemble. 1t is alleged that these
politicians are blind and deaf to the singing
waves of public opinion which surround
them in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania
and Ohio, and which are heard from every
corner and extremity of the country. We
| believe none of these charges. Our expe-
rience of public men has been extended, and
we can say unhestatingly that those called
L liri Mt loo ocf in tha ri
are, with rare exceptions, disinterested aud up
| right men above all they are men who have
made it their study to sound the depths Of pub
| lie opinion when any great question or contest
is to be decided. A politician, so to speak,
| must be one who follows and does not lead
public opinion; at least he must be one who
seems to do as if he desires to remain in public
service. Can he hope to advance himself by
betraying the wishes of his constituents on any
question, no matter how slight. But to attempt
to outmanage the known and the spontaneous
wish on the Presidency, of those who send
him to Washington, would be an assumption
that would stain and wound for more than
deliberate insult---for what else would this be
but an arrogation on the part of one man to
control the suffrages, it may be of fifty or sixty
thousand?
Let such man, for instance, be Southern
see States Rights Democrat from the South
we care not for what purpose--putting him
self to work to begrime the reputation of such
a man as James Buchanan, who has been the
beau ideal of States Rights Democracy in the
North for twenty long years! What specta-
Gle to see Southern Democrat, who, during
his life, may have asserted his want of conf
dence in national conventions, because they
were not the representatives of public opinion,
but the mere registry of the DEGREES of mana
ayers, in his turn attempting to make his ac-
cusations good as his own acts. We are not
of those who have threatened that if public
opinion formed by and formally announced
and known, should be de6ed, there will be an
end of national conventions hereafter. We do
not say that the Democracy in the North will
be paralyzed by the rejection of one preferred,
because he has been true, and the Democracy
in thseSouth are to be cut off from association
with those who have stood by them. We say
none of these things; we anticipate no such
evil above all, we make no threats. We only
say that it would be one experiment at least
dangerous in its tendencies for politicians to
commit the offence of trampling down an ex
preston, no matter how they may differ from
it, which is entitled to their respect. The city
of Washington, which is the great political
centre of our Republic, is visited by men from
all parts of the Union. Public opinion is con-
stantly operating there. There are many,
very many patriots to be found in that city
among those who represent the people, as well
as among those who are going to and fro be-
tween the Capitol and their own homes. 1t is
probable that among such may be found some
men whose personal ambition may induce them
to attempt to out-manage popular sentiment but
to the large and patriotic remainder, we would
l.. al.
another word.
It's, as we have said at the beginning Of this
article, very different thing between the will
ful and characteristic ignorance Of foreign
statesmen in regard to popular demonstrations
in this country, and those public men here who
know when the people speak, and who can see
the voice of the American masses moving
as it were like spirit upon the waters.
The latter can feel it in the atmosphere they
can read it in the signs Of the times they know
its approach as well as the mariner does the
approaching storm, by the single speck that
appears in the otherwise cloudless sky. Never
has n public man ventured 10 set himself up
against a just public opinion that he has not
been crushed. Never has an infatuated intellect
dared to aspire against the honest declaration
of the masses in favor of good principle or
a good man, that be has not fallen, like Luci.
fer, to rise no more Along the pathway Of
political history we find the memories and the
wrecks of such men stream like admonitions TO
the present political era. II has been to the
Democratic party, this obedience to the Demo
cratic WILL the soul of its existence, the pillar Of
its power, the watchword under which it has
triumphed, and which has enabled it, even when
falling before adeluded popular demonstration,
to retain that inextinguishabe vitality which
soon restored it to confidence and to power.
Upon this rock we take our stand here we
plant our banner, and calmly await the issne OF
the Democratic National Convention.
The wings.
Our neighbor OF the North American, whose
earnest and most effective cooperation in the
municipal election we would most highly ap-
| nroe,atc Ia d,anneod 10 ,nnnra The national