Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-06-11

which the opposition shall conduct the next
presidential campaign while others 60 farther
and canvass the availability and qualifications
of some of the more prominent men of the
party, from among whom the selection of a can
didate will have to be made. These discussions
are generally conceived and carried on in an
excellent spirit, and they indicate very extend
ed desire for that union and harmony without
which there can be no rational prospect of sue
cess. The most conservative of these journals
express preference for such men as Bates of
Missouri and Bell of Kentucky, while those
more radical in their anti-slavery opinions show
leanings towards such men as Chase of Ohio,
and Hale of New Hampshire. Each party
would also prefer platform in consonance with
the general sentiments of the men they respec-
lively name as candidates.
Between these two classes there is third
who are not very devout believers in any plat
form as such, but who would cordially go for
any good man whose past political course is in
harmony with the popular sentiment Of the
North on the greatest question that divides po-
litical parties at the present day-we mean the
will seek the nomination of some sound reliable
man, and will be quite as ready TO entrust to
his care the reins of government without plat
form as with one. They appreciate the difficult
ty of constructing any general declaration of
belief which shall express the peculiar notions
of every person in, or of each considerable wing
of, the Republican party. They have no ambi-
ton to initiate the example of their opponents
in making every new dogma proclaimed by
some chosen Or selfconstituted leader a test by
which the private conscience of the individual
shall be bound and the measure of his fealty
noted. To us this seems to be the only ration
al and common sense course to pursue in the
premises.
Our faith in the utility of platforms, never
strong is growing weaker and weaker every
year. Politics in its details is matter MS much
of expediency Of principle. The basis upon
which it rests is continually shifting. There are
few questions involving the immutablc prin-
ciples of justice and right, of which that of
slavery is chief, and concerning which there can
be no middle course. Those of us who believe
that chattel seryitude is repugnant to and in
direct violation of the great moral law, as pro-
claimed by the highest Of all authority, can new
er favor its extension. Aside from these all
else is mutable. Old issues are constantly dy-
ing out, and new questions of public policy are
constantly arising. Hence what is expedcnt
under one administration is inexpedient under
its successor, and what was most urgent last
year is Of little practical interest at the present
time. When a man is elected president of the
United States he takes solemn oath to admin
lister the government according to the constitu-
ton, and his own judgment rather than the
platform Of his party is to be the chief inter-
prefer Of that instrument.
The democratic party has, of late years been
given to the habit of manufacturing political
creetls quadrenially, constructed with the great
est possible care and calculated in their extent
and range to meet every possible exigency of
the public service. Yet these platforms have
been of no binding force, nor of any great ac-
count anyway. There is scarcely whole plank
left of the Cincinnati platform made only three
years since. The few antquated democrats
who in their simplicity still continue to think
that this creed really meant something, and
that its declarations Of political belief should
still influence their political action, are read out
of the party by the administration organs
Their Offices are Immediately taken froni them
if they do not subscribe cordially to every
new test as proclaimed by the leaders OF their
party. As all good Catholics were Immediate
ly to subscribe to their belief in the dogma of
the immaculate conception" as proclaimed by
the sovereign pontif at Rome, every demo-
crat is compelled upon pain of eXcommunica-
ton, to agree to and regard as an immacu-
late conception of the President, every viola
ton of that party creed to which he gave his
unqualified assent only three years since.
The following paragraph which we clip from
the Republican expresses our opinion as to the
character and policy of Decentralization which
should, and we hope will, succeed to that with
which we are now afflicted.
"The opposition party that is to succeed in
1860 will Of necessity be an anti-slavery party,
because it will be pitted against the democratic
policy on that subject, which has always been
consistently pro-slavery. An opposition party
will be necessarily opposed to the extension of
slavery by the general government, and to the
prostitution of the national administration to the
service of sectonalism in any respect. 1t will
be in the true sense, in the sense of the found
ers of the government, the signers of the Dec
laration of Independence, and of all the great
statesmen of the last century, national party.
To party inspired with this principle and de-
voted to this general purpose we are willing to
trust the government, provided it puts forward
men in whose fidelity there is reason for conf
dence. And we can trust such an administra-
ton just as fully, to meet every question con-
nected with slavery aud decide it Justly, as if it
had been elected on a platform drawn, signed
and sealed by the old guard of anti slavery itself
The election of such an administration may not
at once secure the removal of slavery from the
federal district or the repeal of the fugitive act,
as any other specific measure now agita ted, but
it will put the government ON the right track
and start it in The right direction, and will event.
ually bring that condition Of things in which
every just and proper anti-slavery measure can
be carried We think it is something to make
beginning, and to reverse the whole policy of
the government on the slavery question, and