The register. (Monroe, La.) 185?-1861, 1860-07-19
Acceptance OF Hon. Jno. g. Breck-
inridge Of the Nomination for
the Presidency.

Acceptance OF Hon. JnO. q. Breck-
inridge Of the Nomination for
the Presidency.
DExocRAr1c NATIONAL CONVENTION.
| Baltimore, Nd, June Is, 1860.
| ST. am directed BY . vote of the Demo-
cratic National Convention, to inform you that
ted by 1t as the candidate of the Democratic
| party for the Office of President Of the United
Estates, and In their behalf request you to &C.
lcept the nomination. I beg leave at the same
time to inclose to you copy Of the resolutions
adopted by the Convention, rs the political
platform on which the party standA
have the honor to e. c c:sy ,:spifs. .eaa..t
Hon. J. G. Breckinridss.
| WASHINGTON. July 6, 1860.
| Dear SRI have your letter Of the Esd ult,
by which am officially informed Of my nomi-
| nation for the Office Of President Of the United
States, by the Democratic National Convention
lately assembled at Baltimore.
The circumstances of this nomination will
Justify me in referring to its personal aspect. =.
have not sought, nor desired to be placed
before the country for the Office Of President.
When my name was presented to the Conven-
ton at Charleston it was withdrawn by g friend,
in obedience to my expressed wishes. My
views hal not changed when the Convention
re-assembled at Baltimore, and when I heard Of
position to be connected prominently with the
canvass, was confirmed, and expressed to many
friends.
| Without discussing the occurrences which
preceded the nominations, and which are, or
soon will be, we'll understood by the country,
have only to say that approved, as just and
necessary for the preservation Of the national
organization, and the sacred right Of represent
tation, the action of the Convention over which
you continued to preside, and thus approving
it and having resolved to sustain it, feel that
it does not become me to select the position
shall occupy, nor to shrink from the responsible
tiles of the post to which I have been assigned.
Accordingly, I accept the nomination from
sense Of public duty and, as I think, uninflu-
cnced in any degree by tho allurements Of am
bition.
avail myself of this occasion to say that
the confidence in my personal and public char
acter, implied by the action Of the Convention,
will always be gratefully remembered; and 1t
my qualification at the association of my name
with that Of my friend Gen. Lane, patriot
and soldier, whose great services in the field
and in the council entitle him to the gratitude
and confidence ofhis countrymen,
The resolutions adopted by the Convention
have my cordial approval. They are just to
all parts of the Union, to ALL our citizens, ma
tive and naturalized, and they form noble
policy for an administration.
The questions touching the rights Of persons
and property which have Of late been much
discussed, find in these resolutions a constitu-
tional solution. Our Union is a confederaey of
equal sovereign States, for the purposes emu
merated in the Federal Constitution. What
ever the common government holds in trust
for all the States must be enjoyed equally by
each. 1t controls the Territories in trust for
all the States. Nothing less than sovereignty
can destroy or impair the rights of persons or
property. The Territorial Governments are
subordinate and temporary and not sovereign;
rights of persons or property. While they con-
tinue TO be Territories they are under the con-
troll Of Congress, but the Constitution nowhere
confers on any branch Of the Federal Govern
ment the power to discriminate against the
rights Of the State or the property Of their citi-
zens in the Territories. 1t follows that the
citizens of all the States may enter the Terrific
rics Of the Union with their property, Of what
ever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial
condition, without lest or hndrance, eitehr by
Congress or by subordinate Territorial Govern
ments.
These principles flow directly from the ab-
sence of sovereignty In the Territorial Govern
ments, and from the equality Of the States, Iu-
deed, they are essential to that. equality, which
is and ever has been the vital principle Of our
constitutional Union. They have been settled
legisatively, settled judicially, and are sustain
cd by right and reason. They rest on the rock
of the Constitution. They will preserve the
Constitution-they will preserve the Union
1t is idle to attempt to smother these great is
sues, Or to misrepresent them by the use of par
tisan phrases, which are misleading and delusive.
The people will look beneath such expressions
as" Intervention" Congressional Slave Code"
and the like, and will penetrate to the real
questions involved. The friends Of Constitu-
tonal equality do not and never did demand a
Congressional Slave Code," nor any other
code in regard to property in the Territories.
They hold the doctrine Of nonintervention by
Congress, or by a Territorial Legislature, either
to establish or prohibit slavery but they asert
Fortified by the highest judicial tribunal in the
union) the plain duty Of the Federal Govern
mcnt, in all its departments, to secure, when
necessary, to the citizens of all the States,
the enjoyment of their property In the common
Territories. The only logical answer to this
would seems to be to claim sovereign power for
the Territories, or to deny that the Constitu.
ton recognizes property In the services of ne
gro slaves, or to deny that such property can
exist.
Inexorable logic. which works H. steady
way through clouds and passion, compels the
country to meet the issue. There is no evasive
middle ground-Already the signs multiply Of
q fanatical and growing party, which denies
that under the Constitution, or by any other
law slave property can exist; and ultimately
the struggle must come between this party and
the National Democracy, sustained BY all the
other conservative elementsin the Union.
think it will be impossible for q candid
mind to discover hostility to the Union or o
faint Of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted
by the Convention The Constitution and the
Union reposc on the equality Of the States.
which lies like broad foundation underneath
our whole political structure, As l construe
them, the resolutions simply assert this eduali-
ty. They demand nothing for any State or
section that is not cheerfully conceded to all
the rest. 1t is well to remember that the chief
disorders which have aAicted our country have
grown out of the violation ofState equality !;
aud that as long as this great principles has
been respected, we have been blessed with har-
mony aud peace. Nor will it be easy to per-
suade the country that resolutions are section.
al which command the support Of majority Of
the States, and are approved by the bone and
body of the old Democracy, and by vast mass
Of conservative opinion everywhere, without
regard to party.
II has been necessary more than once In our