The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-10-28


evSry variety If claim uoon ihe gratitude. re
spsct. and cnr & Hence Of the Republican party
and pressed by variety of ilhaences. The
choice, beyond all human doubt, will ultimately
| be determined by circumstances which have
/ yet to be developed. A thousand things may
/ ocuur, and q thousand issues may be made,
| within the coming year, which may entirely de-
| str,y prospects which now appear brightest.
| Coyopel Fremont was hardly known to be a
Republican, except by few personal friends,
thee months before the meeting of the Phila-
dssphia Convention, while Pierce, Polk, Taylor,
and Fillmore, who have occupied the Presiden-
tisl chair twelve out of the fourteen years just
psat had never been named in connection with
| the Presidency q year before they were nomi-
na5ed by their party Conventions.
Whatever prominence Mr.. Seward has with
tbs Republican party is due entirely to his fdel-
itysto Republican principles Should any can
dictate present himself to the National Conven.
tioa, possessing greater apparent capacities to
premote the interests of the Republican party,
AM the objects for which it was organized, than
h. that man will be more likely to receive the
nd iination; while any candidate possessing
fesser than he, will be quite certain not to re-
ce.ve it.
The choice is not to be controlled by wire.
pushing or trickery, as it often, indeed, usually
is N the Democratic Conventions, for the SIM
plt reason that the Republicans. having never
| succeeded in the election of President, have
nc te of that confidence in their party strength
VT ,ch renders the Democratic party, from it's
loSg continued successes, comparatively indif
fefent about the quality of its candidates. They
KIN DIV that their chances of success will be few
enough with the most available candidate they
csi select, and there is not the least danger of
th-ir fixing upon any man who does not appear
to-sombine the most elements of success.
n the third place, it is very clear that those
wlb really desire to take the General Govern.
ment ont of the hands of the Slave Oigarchy,
mest rely upon the Republican party az the in
strament by which their object is to be accom-.
plphed. 1t is the only live opposition party.
TIE American party has no organic vitality,
NO. the elements. out of which it can &C quire
arff. 1t has been steadily growing feebler
sir ce its frat success, and now exerts but fac
tic rs sort Off auenee in any State in the Union.
ne of its most infatuated members pretend
th it can ever again conduct a campaign
ssSinst the Administration party. Under these
circumstances, what madness it is to labor TO
wsaken the sole bulwark of the opposition, and
toSend the Republican party into the contest
of 1860, discouraged and demoral;zed By an
I'm deserved and unnecessary defeat at the hands
th Sc vitality interestel in its success, and that
tor merely to get rid of Mr.. Seward Why,
tn. man who should burn down his house 10
ge rid Of the rats that harbored in it, would be
Aolon or q Solomon for wisdom in compari
sos, with spch politicians.
vuppose, by such q process, Mr.. Seward can
be put out of the way, who is benefited Surely
mo- Mr.. Crittenden, nor any of those in whose
behalf this suicidal policy is pursued, for in
any event there will be enough of Mr. Stewards
friends left in the Republican party to punish
those who would resort to such unfair and such
uIpatriotic methods of warfare; not the oppoei
tios party, of course, for they are weakened
ana discouraged just to the extent that this
Poicy is pursued. Who, then, but the common
en- amy, are to profit by it2
really strikes us as very silly for patty
to shspe its course entirely with view to pre-
ju ice the political prospects of any man, and
es~ecially of one whose chief fault consists in
b, ing served that party 80 faithfully and sue
oe1sfnlly as to have become the envy of rivals
In the service.
We will hardly be accused of any undue par
tiolity for Mr.. Seward, but we are free to saw
that ve should consider ourselves quite un.
worthy Of the profession to which we belong, if
Wei thought we were capable of intermitting
or exertions in behalf Of the Republican par.
ty at this crisis, because its success might DOS.
si9ly involve the political advancement of any
Republican.
I'VE are content to let the future take care of
it If. 1t is enough for US to do the duty of
taIay; and that is as we believe, to do what
wshonorably can to place the Empire State of
this Union In attitude of uns quivooal and
incorporating hostility to the leading meas
ur,s of the present Federal Administration
AZ who think differently, and all who, to graft
TO % al Or
to see the Republican party in New York dis,
cssrsged by defeat this fall, never were and
ne yer can become Republicans and had the
Csaventions at Syracuse delibersted till dooms-
dtSi, they could have reached no conclusions
satisfactory to these men, which would not have
In olved the destruction of the Republican par.
ty They sympathizs with our adversaries more
tn n with ourselves, and our adversaries are
en- atled to their support.
But," says some caviller, who may have
trFd to make terms with the other side, and
vi Indifferent success, sit is not merely
Sc yard that we dislike; We object to your ex
trspe views about Slavery. You make it i'm
pc sible TOR such man as Crittenden, or any
OF ne South Americans, to act with you"
che only practical difference between the
Al ierican and the Republican Conventions upon
III. subject of Slavery was, that one insisted
uH4u oehounSfus 'no principie Oh the Dreu OcOtt
decision, and the other refused to participate
in he denunciation. AS the principle of that
det>sion involved everything for which the Re-
pu ,ican party has been struggling since its
orr imitation, and indeed everything for which
ths Anti Lecompton party struggled last win
ter In Cor gress, there was every imaginable
re. ,on why Republican Convention should
speak out upon the subject, and no good reason
IN She world, that we can comprehend, for any
Asli-Lecompton Convention keeping silence
uH,n the subject. But suppose the Republi-
CARS had followed the example of the Ameri.
ca ., and laid the bred Scott resolution on the
tall, and the much. talked of union had been
effected, what good would it have done? In
stead of having Gerrit Smith and his three or
four thousand impracticable followers hanging
up IN our flank, all New England, Ohio, and q
sA ID share of the Northwest, would he srrayed
agxinst us by 1860, and leave the opposition
in New York to fall to pieces, like a rope of
sasd, without strength enough to hold itself
together.
t is the distinctive principles of the Rerub-
lic5n party which constitute its strength. They
ar, what the cold was to the Russian EN-.
pr ss's famous palace Of ice. We are bound to-
ge4her by no party traditions, by no Federal
pstonage, not even by habits of early and bro.
trtSted political associations. In ali these re-
spsets, and in these only, the Administration
pa ly has the advantage of rs. But, so long as
wNadhere to our principles, we have an advan.
te.s of them which is tower of strength, and
bythe aid of which we must ultimately con.
qpsr. The Americans, if they feel the discon.
test with the present Administration which thew
Profess, are as much interested as we in keep
IN the Republican flag " full high advanced
II Nr. Crittenden wishes to act with the Repub.
hsssn party, it is because it has power. he does
nj. wish to make the destruction of that power
q ondition of his uniting with the partv which