Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1856-04-02


ton is to be fought out, there is no man who
can be named as the peer and equal. on
grounds of fitness, of the candidate whom We
have named. The distinguished citizen of
Michigan, long and favorably known to our
people, is not before the country In connec-
ton with this subject Excepting one or two
of all the great men who commenced public
life thirty or forty years ago-of all that band
of worthless that have distinguished the histo-
~ of our own State, or of the general govern
ment, from these Middle States, and especial
ly from Pennsylvania there is but one proud.
bold head yet above the waves. Applause.
Some of them have been struck down by the
hand of death-some have fallen away from
us in the pressure of hot contests, and from
apostates at first, have become open and event
ually insignificant enemies. Applause.
And, some have been found otherwise unfit
for, or unworthy of the continued confidence
and respect of the people. But, sir. through
all the vicissitudes, when our glance has gone
abroad in search of the faithful and the great,
one figure has fixed attention and commanded
respect. There has been with him steady
virtue and mental power, that have con-
founded his enemies and fixed him firmly in
the affections of the people.
When we have looked, of recent years, for
times and yet stands up; who has travelled
through the storm and the tempest with un-
impaired power and popularity but one man
meets the expectant gaze, and that man is
James Buchanan. Applause. Sir. our
people have been thinking of this thing for
some years. They have thought upon it earn
estly, they have turned it over in their minds
as they pursued their avocations in their res
pective neighborhoods, and they have express
ed here to-day through their delegates, the
conclusions to which they have come. May
not trust that this voice, thus intelligent
and thus decided will be respected by our sis
ter States when they assemble in council in
June next. Yes, sir, there is no other candi-
date in the central portion of the Union who
can be presented as the fair and equal COM
petitor of the choice of this Convention, no
other man about whose name such recollec-
tons, such evidences of fidelity and ability
are gathered, as his who is now proposed as
our standard bearer in the coming campaign,
and who will secure to US, if nominated,
signal triumph.
But what more? When I read, either
backwards or forwards the history of our
Commonwealth, l perceive, and afterwards
recollect one important and striking fact !; and
it is this: that while the little coast bound
State of Massachusetts, and the State of Vir-
ginia, inferior to our own in many respects,
have often furnished incumbents for the Pres
idential chair our own State has been entire
ly overlooked, if not forgotten We have
occasionally reminded our brethren of the
other States of some moderate and modest
pretensions which we hold to on this subject.
but for one reason or another they have never
yet received their attention, and they have
not acceded to our wishes
Sir, the time has come when this favor
ought no longer to be refused to this noble
State of ours. Applause. The time has
come when fair claim of right arises on our
behalf, and when it is our duty, founded upon
self-respect to urge it with zeal and deter
mination that it shall be acknowledged
There are reasons why Pennsylvania should
be listened to by the other States In the
most critical moment of every political engage
ment, OF every political contest, since the
foundation of our general government. to
what point of the Union has the anxious.
strained gaze of the Democratic party been
turned? Whittier? Why. sir, in Letter of
Mr. Jefferson's-written in the dark and
stormy days when he lifted up that flag which
those who came after him have held up since
he wrote - Let but Virginia maintain
her position and Pennsylvania stand firm up
on her basis, and our Union will be perpetual
and our prosperity boundless." Great ap-
plause Yes, sir, there was then an anxious,
patriotic eye turned from the heights of Mon
ticello towards pennsylvania, in hope, for the
rescue of principle from the contests of fac
ton Away back, half century ago, the
sagacity of Mr. Jefferson discovered in this
State the foundation upon which Republican
ism could safely rest; he pronounced his
Judgment that so long as she stood with Vir-
ginia upon solid principles everything was
well, and the prosperity of the country secure
and certain. 1t has been SO since In every
party emergency, when the cause of the Re-
publican or Democratic party looked dim and
doubtful, when faint hearts failed, when the
treacherous fell from US, and the feeble halted
In their course, Pennsylvania was looked to
as the point from which redemption must
come. Sir, we have ordinarily been faithful
to these expectations. Time after time, when
the battle was doubtful, and threatened to 90
against our party, Pennsylvania came forward
and grasped victory from the jaws of despair.
We have also in other respects performed our
duty to our Sister States and to the Union.
No State stood forward more promptly to form
the Constitution and Government of the Uni
ted States to establish solid Benevolent and
patriotic principles at the base of the structure
which has become the admiration of the world.
We have, sir, assisted our sister States when
their interests were involved or their rights
IN jeopardy. To protect the Virginia from
ier and Kentucky settlements against the
lreacnerous savage, our soldiers rushed into
the wilderness under 'sMad Anthony WAYNE
In the war of 1872, in the western wilder
ness, along the Northern Lakes and upon the
Atlantic seaboard, Pennsylvanians were found