Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1856-08-01

and manly manner, set forth the evils which
had sprung from that infamous measure
and unhesitatingly declared that Kansas
should be admitted into the Union only as
a free State.
When Mr.. Dayton entered the Senate he
was the youngest man in the body, having
barely attained the age of thirty five. Ben
ton, Silas Wright, Berrien, Crittenden, Ev
ans, and Choate, were then Senators, and
Dayton almost at once took rank with these
the leading minds of the nation. Subse
quently he served with Clay, Webster, and
Calhoun, and even with these great mer
he took rank as among the first six mer
then in the Senate. He never rose without
commanding the fixed attention of his com
peers, and in the memorable debate on Tex
as annexation and the questions arising from
the Mexican war his arm dealt some of the
heaviest blows. His first speech in the
Senate was in vindication of the character
and credit of the Federal Government from
the aspersions which the temporary repu.
diation of some States had brought upon
it. In the debates on the Oregon difficult
ties, the tariff, the annexation of Texas, the
treaty of peace with Mexico, the Wilmot
proviso, and the compromise measures Of
1850 he took patriotic and conservative
ground, without regard to its effect upon
himself. His able, manly and unanswera-
BILE defence of the policy of Gen Taylor's
administration on the slavery question has
been conceded on all hands to be one of the
greatest triumphs in debate ever witnessed
in the United States Senate.
On the Compromise measures that
healing balm which was to close, without
leaving scar, the five bleeding wounds
Mr.. Dayton's course has been by the pro
gress of events triumphantly vindicated.-
He urged the admission of California as a
State with the constitution her people had
formed, and he opposed with all force the
tacking of any other measures upon it,
When the omnibus bill, as it was nicknamed,
was lost, and the different measures came
up separately, Mr.. Dayton opposed the Tex
as boundary bill and the Fugitive Slave
Law, and supported the acts for the admis-
sion of California and abolishing the slave
trade in the District of Columbia. The
wisdom and sagacity of the man who op-
posed the great concessions to the spirit of
slavery contained in the two first named of
these bills has been most clearly proved
since by the renewed aggressions upon the
rights of the North, predicated upon this
very compromise of 1850, which was to be
a final settlement of the whole question:
The Nebraska bill was the legiti-
mate fruit of the bills organizing the Terri
tories of New Mexico and Utah. 1t is but
just to say however, that he has never been
an extreme or radical man even on the ques-
ton of slavery.
Mr.. Dayton is in the primo of life, the
vigor of manhood, and his robust frame
gives promise of many years of usefulness
in the future. If he should be elected to
the position for which he has been so unan-
mously nominated-and that he will sue
,eed we will not permit ourselves to doubt
the Senate will have for its presiding Of
icer gentleman of unblemished character,
mind of the very highest order.
And should he, in the providence of God,
oe called to occupy still higher position,
le would be found, as chief Executive Off,
'er of the Republic, patriotic, wise, conserv-
tive, and firm for the right. 1t is not ex-
.eeding the plain truth to say that it has
,een many years since the Presidential
hair has been filed by man who could
,e styled as in any way superior to WILL
AN LEWIS DAYTON, of New Jersey.