The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-05
From the New York Daily Tribune, April 26.
THE PRESIDENCY IN 1860.


idea of re-electng that eminent functionary.
Mr.. Franklin Pierce is a possible candidate !;
so is Caleb Cushing; so are five hundred or
five thousand others James Buchanan is an
impossible one. We are to have a new Presi-
dent, and very probably new candidates on all
hands.
\ This paper is pretty well understood TO favor
dp- ro4fcy OF such action and the Cultivated of
such spirit, on the part of the Republicans,
as viii secure, if possible, union of the OPP
position In the contest before US. We do not
deem 1t necessary again to contradict the ru-
nors from time TO time set afioat, that we are
laboring to nominate and elect A, b, or c. The
single end we keep in view is the triumph of
our principles. and the consequent advance
ment of our counrys prosperity and honor.
The elevation of A or TO the Presidency
NAV seem TO us desirable, but the triumph of
our cause is of infinitely greater importance.
Men are at best but means to an end and that
end is not their own induction into the Pres-
Dental chair.
In the last Presidential contest, the votes of
the American people were divided as follows !:
Buchanan, l,S3S,232 Fremont, l,34l ,5l4 /;
Fillmore. s74,707; Fremont and Fillmore to-
gether over Buchanan, 377,9S9.
OF course, it is plain that a substantial,
practical union of the electors who supported
Fremont and Fillmore, respectively, insures a
triumph in 1860, even though there should be
some scaling off on either side, as there proba-
Div would be- We can afford TO lose one hun
bred thousand of the Opposition vote in 1856,
and still carry the next President by hand
some majority.
Is there, then, any insuperable obstacle to
substantial union of the Opposition in 1860 !?
In other words-What do the Republicans in
sist on as essential, that the other branch of
the Opposition cannot concede TO them?
Doubtless, there are Republicans whose
opinions and feelings with regard to Slavery re
such as are not acceptable to conservative
Wings. We, for instance, regard the continu
ance of Human Slavery at once great crime
and great blunder as the main melting
cause of our country's misfortunes and perils
We do most earnestly believe that Virginia,
for example would have had double the popu-
Iation and treble the wealth she now has, had
her soil never been pressed by the foot Of a
slave. So of North Carolina, Kentucky, Ten
nessee; so, emphatically, of Maryland, Missouri,
Texas But even we have no idea that the
Federal Government ever will or should under
take TO intermedde with the existence of Sla
very in any State of this Union. We ask that
Government simply to let Slavery in the States
alone protecting the inviolability of its mails
and that personal liberty which the Federal
Constitution guarantees TO every citizen, leav-
ing the overthrow of Slavery to the natural
growth and diffusion of intelligence, humanity,
and religion. That the Federal Government
should cease to be the active champion and
propa gandist Of Slavery, whether in its domes-
tic or its foreign policy, We do urge and insist.
Beyond that point we do not ask nor expect it
TO 60
The annexation of Texas under the circum-
stances and conditions Of that annexation, the
overthrow of the Missouri compact, the whole
course Of Federal proceedings in Kansas, from
the hour that Border Ruffians were first per-
mitted to harass and abuse her Free-State set
tiers without resistance or rebuke from those
appointed and paid to administer the laws there,
down to the elimination of the Lecompton
fraud, We hold TO be gross departures from that
attitude which it was the duty of the Federal
Government TO maintain with regard to Free
dom and Slavery. So with the monstrous pro-
lect of paying one hundred millions or over for
the Island of Cuba, for the single purpose of
constituting a new buttress and support of the
slave power in our Union. Surely it cannot be
necessary that one should be deadly foe of
Slavery, in order that he should realize the
gross partiality and injustice of such projects
as this. We do not ask the Federal Govern
ment TO spend millions to strengthen the free
labor interest in our Union. We protest
pose. Who says that this protest is not just-
fed?
Nor do We ask nor desire the prescription of
Shareholders or Pro-Slavery men by the FEEDER
al Administration. If they insist on proscr-
bling as, why then they raise an issue which we
must meet, and the hardest fend off, But we
are quite willing to return to the policy of the
early Presidents, under whom no mans opin-
ions respecting Slavery were made test of his
fitness for Office. Now, it is notorious. no man
is permitted 10 hold Office who is in anv man.
ner an opponent of Slavery.
What the Republican party untedy demand
and insist on IS such change in the policy of
the Federal Government as viii render if no
longer patron and partisan, but an opponent.
of The future extension of Slavery. We insist
that IL future It shall act with regard to Slavery
extension in the spirit which induced Jefferson
10 devise and Washington to sanction, its in
terdlction in the Federal Territories, and Gen.
Taylor TO favor Its exclusion from California
SO much. IN essence, tie Republicans must
and vail insist on. How many of the other
wing OF the Opposition will object to it? In
other words, how many of the conservative
Wings desire that the Federal Government
shall continue TO be employed, as it has been
through the several Democratic Administra-
tons since lylers apostacv, as an agency for
the propagation and diffusion of Human -Sla-
veryf
We do not believe that there are ton ,bor.
sand voters in the Union outside of the Nation.
al Democratic organization who desire the ev.
tension of Slavery, or that the Federal Govern.
ment shall favor Euch extension. In our inter
course with Southern Whigs-and it has mo-,
been very limited-we never met one who Ala
so. who does not now call himself a Democrat
If, then, we are not essentially at variance
on this point, we insist that no insurmountabla
barrier exists TO prevent the fusion we do
{ sire. We believe that Maryland, Delaware
and Missouri, with possibly Kentucky, Tennes
see, and North Carolina, may be carried II
1860 for National ticket which shall be frank
ly but inoffe, nsively hostile to the extension Q
Slavery.
A few words as 10 men:
As we desire the opeG and hearty co-opera
ton of conservative Wings 10 help us elect
Republican President, should such be nomi
mated, we do not begin by notifying those Wing
that we viii not support nor vote for one o
their number, should one be put forward as III,
Opposition candidate. 1t seems to us consist
ent neither with good policy, good manners
nor even good faith, to do so. Most certainly
we should prefer an original Republican-Gov
ernor Seward or Governor Chase, for instance
but we shall heartily and zealously support ON,
like John Bell, Edward Bates, or John NJ
Bolts, provided we are well assured that hi
influence, his patronage, his power, if ehosel
President, will be used not to extend Slavery
but to confne 1t within the States that see
to uphold it. And when we say this, we as
those who insist that the Slavery issue is subol
sdinate, and that questions concerning the Tai
al, Internal Improvements, &c, ought to PR
dominate, 10 meet US in the same spirit. 70