The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1858-07-28
Fair RepresentatIon.

ZION last SATURDAY, OF appointing a large
number Of delegates chosen from all
parts of the county { the nominating
Conventions at Mansfield and Columbus,
and iustructing those delegates to cast
the vote of the county according to the
will of the majority. 1t is impractical
Bile, for various reasons, to nave a JnH
expression of the Democracy of their
preference for all these nominations, and
that plan which comes the nearest to
this, must, in the minds of all who are
in favor of the sovereignty of the pee
pie, meet with the most favor.
We are advised that this plau has
been followed, in regard to the coming
Conventions, in nearly all of the .eoun-
ties of the State. What a contrast this
presents to the action of the Black Re-
publican party at their recent State
Convention. Little cliques of CHASE
politicians assembled in only a part of
the counties of the State, selected a
delegate or two from their " number
and sent them to Columbus. What for?
Was it to put in nomination the choice
of the people whom they pretended to
represent 3? I will venture to assert,
without fear of disproof, that not one
man out of fifty of the Republicans OF
Ashland county, OF of the State of Ohio,
ever indicated their preference for the
candidates that were put in nomination
at that Convention. And here / put
the plain question to you, to the mass of
the Republican party of Ashland coun-
ty, did1Dou, as a body, ever express your
preference for any of those candidates,
or did you have any voice whatever in
saving who those candidates should be ?
1 know you Gid not. The Convention
then that met there was a Convention
of self-appointed delegates, representing
only their own wishes and without any
authority from the mass of those who
are interested in and will be effected by
those nominations. Instead then, of be-
ing a Convention of the representatives
of the people, hat class themselves un-
der the head of Republicans, it was but
a Convention of county cliques and
CHASE politicians, q Convention of
DICTATORS, who, banded together,
concluded it would meet their views to
have certain men elected to office in this
State, have put up their names, shouted
their praises and commanded you to
vote for them.
Now to what order of things is such
a course as this Fastening. Having ac-
complished this a few times by their as
surance and your sufferance, they will
presently claim it as a right, invoke
these presidents for proof, and with the
power already in their hands, hold you
like menials, subject to their will.
Upon the contrary, the course pursued
by the Democracy is, in itself, a full and
complete r~efutation of the charges of
corruption, &c. made by the Black Re-
publicans. Following in everything the
great principle of Popular Sovereignty,
and getting as full an expression as pos
sible of the will of the people, the de-
alterations and actions of their Conven-
tions are controlled by no cliqaes, but
are only an expression of the will of
the masses themselves.
Such will be the action of the Con-
%vention at Columbus to. morrow, and it
will stand in great and glorious contrast
to that Of the Convention of delegates
1cithout constituents that met there but
a short time ago and dictated to the
Black Republicans of Ohio, how they
should vote.
Some of them have the manliness,
however, to denounce these tricksters
and to the action of that Con-
ventiou.
For instance, the following, which We
copy from the american Citizen, pub.
lished at 81 illsborough.
"The call from the managers for the
to meet on a certain day to select
delegates to the Republican Convention,
was disregarded all over the State, with
a few exceptions, by the voters. A few
small ~demagogues, under direction of
course, did assume to act for the absent
people. Delegates were thus chosen, and
when they assembled at Columbus last
Tuesday in Convention, they were just
about as competent to speak for their
pretended constituency, as they were to
represent the will of the people of Up
per Canada.
"That convention then was a conven-
tion without a constituency, and their
acts a mere dictation to the people, which
is but the echo of the prime movers and
They are determined to exert
all their power to prevent the people
thinking and acting for themselves,
and equally determined, if they cannot
get the offices to let the 'Pro-slavery
Democrats have them. It's all gam
mon. They care nothing about retrench-
ment and reform. Witness their votes
in Congress in SO, when the pay of Con-
gressmen was increased from eight to
twenty-five dollars per day. They all
voted for it from this State. with the
solitary exception of Ben. Liter. We
had hoped that the people opposed to
the Administration could unite on q
common ground, and we well know how
they could, if they had the courage to
act as they themselves think right, for
the common good of our whole country,
which has been totally lost sight of for
the past four years /; but the action of
this convention has rendered it impos-
sihle at this TINA Do the nannla rule2