The Oxford intelligencer., 1860-08-08
MIR. breckenridge at Home.

MIR. Breckenridge at Home.
AFTER the adjournment of the Kentucky
State Convention at Frankfort, ION the 18th
instantly in the course Of which it passed
strong resolutions in favor of Breckenridge
and Lane for President and Vice President,
the delegates in the evening got up sere-
made for the Hon. JoHN G. BREcKIYRIDGE,
who responded in the following address,
which we give as we find it reported in the
Cincinnati Commercial:
FELLow-cITIzENs thank Won, out of the
fulncss of grateful heart for this cordial
welcome to my home. feel, fellow-citizens,
the improperly, upon an occasion like this,
of doing much more than returning to YOU
my cordial and grateful Acknowledgements for
your Kindness. Perhaps, however, may be
allowed here, in the midst Of my old district,
and surrounded by my neighbors and friends,
on the soil Of Kentucky, to make one or two
explanatory statements and | forbear on this
occasion TO enter into any statement or ar
gument in reference to the circumstances that
occurred at Baltimore, and which resulted,
unexpectedly to me, in placing me before the
country for the office of President. But |
think it due to you and to myself to say that,
being cognizant of all these facts, having OBJ
served all these transactions, having ponder
ed carefully over them, having consulted with
nv friends, unconscious altogether of being
animated or sustained by a hot ambition, !
feel that the position which occupy to-day
is right [Great checring l feel that |
could not have shrunk from it without being
false to my country, false to my friends, and
false to myself Consequently | accepted
the nomination, with all its responsibilities.
To those who take advantage of the posi-
ton of a silent man to heap upon him exc
erations, | say pour on, can endure. APP
pIause.] leave it to others to explain more
fully the facts and circumstances Of this NOM
ination. Perhaps, also, may be allowed TO
say that the charge that stand before the
country as a sectional candidate cannot be
true, whether reference be had to the number
of the States which co-operatcd in the nom
ination, or TO the character of the principles
which animated them. When you and the
Democratic organization, aided by large, con-
servative elements of other parties in all the
Southern States, and in those two States up
on the Pacific Ocean which have been so far
removed from the contests of the Atlantic
and Mississippi valleys that their Judgment
as to what is sectional ought to be conclu-
sive: and when YOU find majority of the
Democratic organization of the State of Penn
sylvania, and supposed majority Of New
Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, with
a large and imposing organization in all the
other States cooperating, how can such a
nomination as that be properly called sec
tionall A majority of the States of the
Union sectional and at war with the princi-
pies upon which the Union itself is founded! !
Fellow-citizens, as to the charge that the
Convention TO which owe my nomination,
or that | myself am tainted with spirit of
disunion, how absurd to make a response to
a Kentucky audience, and in this old district,
tool | am an American citizen-a Ken
tuckian who never did an act or cherished a
thought that was not full of devotion TO the
Constitution and to the Union-who feels as
you do upon this subject. But, perhaps, it
would have been better, both in your behalf
and in mine, if had refused to respond to
the sentiment.
Fellow-citizens, this is perhaps the last
time that viii have an opportunity to say
anything to my neighbors and friends during
the tendency of this canvass. While, there
fore, shall enter into no argument upon the
particular topics of the day, perhaps You will
pardon me for making two or three observa-
tons, which, it seems to me, should COM
mend themselves to all parties everywhere.-
Fellow-citizeus, we live under the best gov
eminent on earth. We are the only country
in the world where the experiment Is demon
strzted that free institutions may be estab-
Eshed over great population and a large
area of territory, and be consistent with pub
lie order. II has been demonstrated in our
case, for the first time in the history Of the
world. How are We to preserve these insti-
buttons How are We TO preserve Intact