Volcano weekly ledger., 1856-12-20
The Senatorial Contest.

The following letter was handed to us by the
messenger to whose hands it was entrusted, one day
after its date
UPPER RANoHERIA, Dec. Is, $50
Eds. Ledger lnasmuch as the Senatorial
question is the most interesting topic of the
times, you will oblige your friends and the
public in this part of the county if you will
state more at length than You have already
done, your reasons for preferring the election
of Messrs d. C. Broderick and NJ. S. La
than. Well knowing that you are ever ready
to make the fullest expose Of your views on
any or all questions of the day, make bold
to address you this note, with the object set
forth above. Respectfully,
Yours, DEMOCRAT.
With much pleasure we embrace the earliett OPP
portunity to reply to our esteemed friend "Demo
crat,n whom we know to be, by-the-by, not only a
Democrat on paper, but Democrat by nature and
always Democrat at the polls--a Democrat to be
relied upon in every possible emergency. There
fore it is indeed pleasure to respond to the re-
quest he has thought proper TO make.
Before proceeding to give the particular reasons
that have induced us to recommend the choice of
Mcssrs. Broderick and Latham, we must be permit
ted to say few words the general aspect Of the
to start WITH that we have not proposed and do not
propose to dictate senatorially to single member
of the Senate or Assembly. They are their own
masters; we are our own. 1t is our right to re-
commend whom we please; theirs to elect whom
they please-having in view, Of course, the will
of their constituents as nearly as it can be ascer-
tanned. Promising that in any event, two good and
reliable Democrats, and able men, will be Chosen,
we shall be entirely satisfied with the better judg
ment of the Legislature, whether those whom we
most favor be selected or not. Far be it from us
to utter single word against any one of the Dem
ocrats who have been named in connection with the
station for our object is triumph over the enemies
Of Democracy--not a triumph over faithful indi-
yidual members Of our party. Such, we think,
must be the feeling of every good and true Demo-
crat and hence we confidently expect that the well
established usage of the party will be Observed aud
friendly caucus resorted TO for the purpose Of
selecting the men who shall be deemed by ma
jority best fitted to represent us at Washington.
We have before alluded to the we'll known fact
that the united enemies of Democracy-the Know
Nothings and Black Republioans-are laboring day
and night to keep our party out of caucus at the
coming session. whereby they would defeat the elee
tion Of two Democratic United States Senator'S
Should they by any possibility succeed, they would
ch from US the benefits of the unparalleled victory
achieved before the people at the late election and
the Democratic senators and representatives would
necessarily be held to fearful accountability. A
plurality Of some seventeen thousand in State
casting only one hundred and ten thousand votes
and that too under circumstances not the most pro
pitious for success-togeiher with the election of
an overwhelming majority to the Legislature GER
tainly cannot be disregarded by those to whom
power is delegated to elect United States Senator'S
The great masses of the Democracy-u unin1uenced
by petty clques and schisms of former days-have
spoken in tones of thunder for the common cause;
and a bravado indeed must be the legislator who
would set himself up in defiance of popular ex-
preston emphatically made manifest. We have
no fears from this source, and cannot have from
any other. The Democratic voters, shoulder to
shoulder have marched to the polls and declared
that there shall be union in our ranks and with
the Democracy, the words union and victory are
indissolubly Joined. Let us hear no more of
sehsms-no more doubts as to whether caucus
viii be held. The great Democratic heart pusates
for every faithful member of the glorious old par
ty. None should be proscrbed-noae should pro
scribe themselves.
With this introduction, We shall proceed to ad-
dress ourselves more particularly to our correspon-
dent democrat" and set forth some of the princi-
pal reasons that have induced us in the exercise of
unquestionable right, to recommend the election
of Messrs Broderick and Latham to the Senate
They are both distinguished gentlemen, well and
iavorably known throughout The State and in
what we shall state concerning them We shall adj
here strictly to the truth.
DAVID G. BRoDEMcK is put forward by his friends
as candidate for the long term. From the earli-
est times in California, Mr.. Broderick has been
leading spirit in the politics of the State and al
ways an unwavering Democrat. The population
shat focked in if by magic after the discovery of
gold was very much mixed in political point of
view The Administration was Whig,and itfollowed
that there was a strong tendency to Whiggery on
the Pacific coast; for there were numerous paying
offices to be filed by Executive appointment in
California and Oregon There were also very