The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1860-09-05
Speech of llr. Breckenridge at Frankfort.

at Frankfort, Kentucky, in reply 10 demon
! sfration of weicome by the citizens, on has
return home, on the 18th ut.
| FELLow-CITIzENs: | thank you out of the
fullness of grateful heart for this cordial
| welcome TO my home. feel, felow-citi-
xens, the improperly upon an occasion like
this of doing much more than returning TO
you my cordial and grateful acknowledge
meut for your kindness. Perhaps, however,
! | may be allowed here in the midst OF my
! old District, and surrounded by my neigh
! bors and friends, on the soil of Kentucky,
10 make one or two explanatory statements,
and forbear on this occasion 10 enter into
any statement or argument in reference 10
| the circumstances that occurred at Balti-
more, and which resulted, unexpectedly 10
me, in placing me before the country for
the Office of President. But think it due
10 you and myself 10 say, that being cogni-
Zanl of all those facts, having observed all
those transactions, having pondered care
| fully over them, having consulted with my
| friends, unconscious altogether of being
animated or sustained by hot ambition,
feel that the position | occupy to-day Is
right. GGreat cheering | feel that could
not have shrunk from it without being false
to my country, false to my friends, and false
to myself. Consequently accept the NOM
ination with all It's responsibilities. To
I those who take advantage of the position
of silent man to heap upon him execra-
| tions, ! say pour on, can endure. Zap
| plause.] | leave it 10 others TO explain more
| fully the facts and circumstances OF this
nomination. Perhaps, also, | may be al
lowed 10 say that the claim, that | stand
before the country as sectional candidate,
Cannot be true, whether reference be had
| TO the number of the States which cooper
! aled in the nomination, or TO the character
OF the principles which animated them
When you find the Democratic organization
aided by large conservative elements of
other parties in all the Southern States, and
| in those two States upon the Pacific Ocean
which have been so far removed from the
contest of the Atlantic and Mississippi VAL
| leys, that their judgment as 10 what is Sec
! tional ought to be conclusive, and when
you find majority of The Democratic or
| ganization of the State of Pennsylvania, and
a supposed majority of New Jersey, Coz
/ necticut and Massachusetts, with large and
/ imposing organizations in all The other
! States, co operating, how can such nomi-
nation properly be called sectional? A ma
| jority of the States of the Union sectional,
/ and at war with the principles upon which
| the Union itself is founded Felow.ciizens,
! as 10 the charge that the Convention 10
which owe my nomination. supported, or
| that myself am tainted with a spirit of
disunion, how absurd to make response
( TO Kentucky audience, and i'll this old
( District too ! am an American citiZen-a
/ Keatuckan, who never did an act or cher
/ ished thought that was not full of devotion
4 10 the Constitution and the Umon-who
/ feels as you do upon this subject. But per-
haps it would have been better, both i'll your
behalf and in mine, if | had refused 10 re-
spond 10 the sentiment
Felow-citzens, this is, perhaps, the last
time that shall have an opportunity TO say
anything 10 my neghbors and friends dur
ing the pendeEcy of this canvass. While,
therefore, shall enter into no arguments
upon the particular topics of the day, per-
haps you will pardon me for making two or
three observations, which, it seems TO me,
should commend themselves TO all parties
everywhere. Fellow-citizens, we live under
the best Government OH earth. We are the
: only country in the world where the exper-
iment is demonstrated that free institutions
may be established over great population
and large area of territory, and be consis-
tent with public order. 1t has been demon
strated, in our case, for the first time in the
history of the world. How are we 10 pre-
serve these institutions How are we TO pre-
serve intact the double form of government,
/ State and Federal, that has been handed
! down 10 US by our forefathers? My answer
is that we can only do it by clinging with
unfaItering fidelity, unwavered by policy, to
/ the Constitution they bequeathed 10 US. |
hold that fidelity 10 the Constitution of the
/ United States in all its parts, and in all its
/ obligations, is the condition OF the Ameri-
can Union, and lis perpetuation. That Con.
/ sttution was framed and transmitted by the
wisesi generation of men that ever lived in
/ the tide of times. II may be called an in
| spired instrument. 1t answered them al an
early day. 1t has answered our purpose
| 1t is good enough for our posterity to keep
it pure.
The moment we do that, we change the
character of our Government. The moment
we violate one principle of the Constitution
for policy, that moment it ceases to be the
Government our fathers gave Us, and when
once we have drifted away from the land
marks of the fathers of the Government,
we may find that the system of Government
has been changed. What are Two or three