Washington sentinel., 1856-05-22
From Buel's National Democratic Review.
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.
: The Bruius of years is me."--Johm Mitchell

THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.
g The Brutus Of years is come.'--John Mitchell
/ " IL comes at last--the iated year
| The Nemesis of time"
/ The truly great
| Rest in the knowledge of their own deserts,
| Nor seek the confr ion of the word"
| Every nation has seen its Brutus of years''
Its Nemesis of time:" America will prove
no exception. 1t is no vain superstition which
conjures an early elimination of the destinies
of the proud land Of Washington. Egyptian
| glory grew with the slow ascent of the pyra-
mids; the whole Mediterranean slumbered for
untold ages in the gloom of intellectual and po-
litical night; England was in fact province Of
Italy for eight centuries after the Roman ca
giles took their fight from her Druid forests; but
America-"happy, proud America" ca"-though
the grass is hardly green above the graves of
her revolutionary dead, is already "land Of
scholars and nurse of arms" We have passed
our junior year, and stand out upon the map of
the world the mistress of the nations; we are
already drunk upon the wine of Babylon, and
reveling in the rich viands of the Phareohs; we
are men at an age when other peoples we're in
their infancy-we are encountered by the res
possibilities of perfect manhood; we stand as q
moral lighthouse upon the path of time; the
men of America, with only three-score years
and ten upon their institutions, have become the
patriarchs Of the nations, and all the living
turn to them as children to their parents. Even
the youth of this land are revered by the sages
of the old world; but how little do we under
stand of our position-how lightly do we esti-
mate the privileges we enjoy!-with what indif.
ference do we regard the responsibilities which
are ours!-like blind giant, the genius of
America "stalks with Minerva's step where an
gels fear to treadI'
We are on the eve of one of those revolutions
which almost invariably convulse the govern
ments of Europe; we are about to change our
administration Yet who among US places
just estimate upon the difficulties and dangers
which impend our action? With the light Of
sixty centuries shining upon u.s. we grope in al,
most impenetrabe darkness; surrounded by Ii
braries, and schools, and universities, we have
yet to decide whether great and brilliant talents
will be of more service to us in crisis like the
present than the mere ability to control by pro-
misses Of Office the votes of Convention!-with
the Bible and the example of all good men to
teach US, we discuss like children the question
whether fair and honest dealing better becomes
the statesman than the strategy of the bar.
room and the bufoonery of the circusl
We have reached the eliminating point of
our country's history; even at this early period,
which our fathers thought would rank as the
morning of our existence, we are compelled to
turn our eyes from grandeur, and glory, and
magnifcence abroad, to corruption, and venal
ity, and weakness at home with the GOODNESS
of the veteran soldier, if not, we fear, with the
indifference of the maniac, we tread the brink
of that abyss in which repose in the sleep of
death-in the very gloom of endless night-all
the political realities of the mighty past.
On the first Monday of June next, will as
semble in Cincinnati, Convention of the
Democratic party Of the Union. In many res
poets it viii differ radically from every Conven-
ton Of by-gone years. The delegates will meet
not to decide in regard to our currency, not to
discuss the vexed question of free trade and
protection; the democratic policy, in the main,
is fixed, unalterable; the opposition have sur
rendered every ancient citadel against which
our batteries have been directed. The Cincin.
natl Convention will be called TO the task OF
settling anew the boundaries beyond which the
general government cannot pass, and declaring
the nalienable rights of the individual States.
In looking forward to the action of the Dem
ocratic delegates, we may safely presume that
primary subject of consideration will be the
singIetem principle. In urging upon the Con-
vention the adoption of this policy, we have
been actuated by no other motive than the high
est good OF our party. Experience has fully
emonstIated-especiallyi in these latter years
that we have nothing TO hope, but every thing
to fear from the recognition the right of aug
man to look forward TO a reelection to the Pres
idency. One office at least should be far above
the reach of bargain and sale; we should have
Que temple into which the unworthy could not
enter: such an office-such q temple we can
never boast, however unless we have the bold
ness to check the foodgates Of corruption, and
turn the waters Of regeneration through our an
cient stables Of politics. What have the demo
cracy Of the Union to gain by postponing JUS
tice to their best men and retribution to their
most dangerous enemies2 Ii is maxim in
the science Of government, as in the art OF war,
that every apparent submission strengthens the
opposition. We never rest upon our arms for
! moment without losing portion of our abi-
ity to combat the forces arrayed against us.
There never was a more favorble period than
the present for one Of those great strokes of pol
icy which stamp indelibly upon the democratic
party the feature of honest dealing. The peo.
pie are ripe and clamorous for reform; they
have submitted to abuses Of the grossest char
acter, against which they have not been per-
mitted to raise even the feeblest voice. The
power Of governmental patronage has become a
monster engine, whose heavy wheels seem des-
tined to crush out the last vestige OF individual
liberty. The very machinery Of the government
has become an independent agent, unmanagea.
Bile by those for whose benefit it was designed.
We are at the mercy Of centralized power
which commands and governs, by its inherent
strength, all the extremities Of the nation.
The profoundest despotism Of the earth was
rocked in a democratic cradle, and reared by
democratic hands; tyranny, in its infancy, has
never been robed in the unmistakable gar.
ments Of its manhood and reverend age; it has
ever stolen upon mankind like thief in the
night, and stung the breast that warmed it into
life. The love of Office has always been the
curse Of democracies and republics Julius
Caesar was not the destroyer of the liberties of
his country. While he was fighting the battles
Of Rome upon the plains Of Gaul and Germany,
the miserable demagogues Of Italy, who sought
Office for its own sake, and endeavored to per
petuate it in their families, paved the way for
the overthrow Of the independence Of the "Eter-