Gazette and sentinel., 1860-07-21

the w hlgS eVlnCed u IeSOiute P"PO"o
to recover the District, and brought III
to the field Governor Letcher-an expe-
rienced campaigner-of great ability
and established reputation, and altoGe-
| Their the strongest Wing in the State
| The anvas was Of the hottest kind,
| and. as many will remember, the inter
est hand excitement spread over the
| whole country. But the second victory
of the rising young Democrat was even
more signal than the first.
Following this came the proficred
mission to Spain and its modest declln-
! AZURE. Then the spontaneous call to
the Vice Presidency, then his election
| to the Senate, and now the deep and
strong under-current Of popular feeling
in his favor for the Presidency. Such
UNPARALLELED succesS-eSpccially in our
country, and FOR so young a man-does
not of course pass without emphatic
remark. 1t is debated sometimes III
popular oyle, and sometimes with phil
! osophical gravity. Some dispose of the
( matter in a summary way, on the sim
pie theory of luck" This argument
! certainly cannot be logically disproyed.
Others say, because he is a fine, gal
liant, genial, h~igh-spirited fellow; but
there are hundreds of men Of that char
! acter who are never heard of beyond
the small circles in which they move
There are those again who refer his
I popularity and success to his brilliant
talents, bat there are many merely bril-
! liant men who live unsuccessful and die
I obscure. There are still others who de-
ducc his intellectual and political pow
er AS necessary physiological or pSycO-
logical results of the blood that is in
him. They argue that not only his
father, his grandfather, and all his kiMS-
men on the Breckintidge side, We're men
! of might and high sense of honor, but
| that Sfwerc Efs ancestors on tile mater
! nal side, beginning with old John With
rrspoOn, of the Declaration of Indepen-
dcHce. and coming down to the present:
that his family, throughout cur whole
existence az 4 nation, has made its
mark upon the politics and morals of
the country. and that it Is because he
3 Is sprung from such a race Of men that
he has run such a splendid career. But
all this is WIDE of the mark. The true
source Of it al! is in the man himself,
and in the Common sense of the people.
1t is sheer impossibility to account for
i on any other grounds He may be
ply described in his own words APP
piled t. Batter and Clay. for he possess
Is the great qualities Of both. He isa
man pure and ~iucorruptible, aDemocrat
Of the jackson temper, "a statesman
without g~ulle--ail the hereditary in
stincts OF his race spurning conccalmcnt
or evasion; and III him intellect, person,
~eloquencc, and courage unite to forma
character fit to command. If he were
not such a man he would have met with
no such uninterrupted success, and had
no such surprising popularity.
But few Of our conventional great
men bear the testof close inspection. 1t
is a subject of common remark that
nearly all of them are dwarfed into the
merest mediocrity by close and familiar
observation.-l in most cases it is essen
tiallythe fact That distance lends en-
chantffent To the view" But Breckin-
ridge.Ss proof against the severestof
all tests. The closer you see him, the
betteg1nd greaterh he looks. This is the
experience Of the people of all parties,
and especially the Representatives who
go annually to Washington; and when
they go home-penetrating, as they do,
all parts of the country-they relate it
to their friends and n~eighbors, and it be-
comes the fixed sentiment of the people.
Here is the true groundwork Of Brock
inridge's great popularity. 1t pervades
the entire body of ae Democratic par
ty. 1t is in the peoples hearts. No
forced, dollhouse growth, but -ipdige-
nous. The difference between it and
the Fictitious popularity worked up to
order, by small party leaders, is the
same as the difference between the APP
plause Of paid ~ctdqeurs at a theatre, and
that spontaneous, irrepressible, electric
shout that goes up shaking the very
walls, when the hearts of the people are
truly touched.
Thus far Mr.. Breckenridge has been
considered chiefly with reference to the
causes that have centred upon him so
large a share of public attention and
favor; and not at all in his relation to
the Presidency, as, in no usual sense of
the term, is he a candidate for that Of
flee. 1t Is true that quite a number Of
delegates to the Charleston Convention
have declared a marked preference for
him above all others, but such express
sions come from no procurements of his;