Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1860-07-12

largnS his store, ana we learn Liat OtlcrS VIII
follow suit soon Go on, friends, and when the
spirit gets sufficiently up, we may look out for
something to be done towards draining the
marshes, &C., as proposed in paper some
time since
TALL OATs.-The tallest specimen of oats
that we have seen this season was left at our
oaice-on Monday. There were three stalks, each
measuring nearly six feet, with fine large heads
These oats were raised by Mr.. Joseph Stone
g"Ihe Governor has contracted with
northern firm for the supply of arms for which
the last Legislature appropriated $4,000
ACCEPTANCE OF HON. JOHN c. BRECKIN-
RIDGE OF THE NOMINATION FOR THE
WASHINGTON CITY, July Q, 1860
Dear SU:-I have your letter of the 23d ut,
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 circum-
stances of this nomination will justify me in re-
ferring 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ton at Charleston it was withdrawn by friend,
in obedience to my expressed wishes. My views
had not changed when the Convention reasscm-
bIed in Baltimore, and when | heard of the
differences which occurred there, my indisposi-
ton to be connected prominently with the can
vas was confirmed and expressed to many friends.
Without discussing the occurrences which pre-
ceeded the nominations, and which are, or soon
| 1 T
only to say that | approved, as just and neces-
sary to the preservation of the national organi-
zaton and the sacred rights Of representation,
the action of the Convention over which yol
continued to preside and thus approving it,
and having resolved to sustain it, | feel that it
does not become me to select the position | 81 al
occupy, nor to shrink from the responsibilities
of the post to which have been assigned. Ac-
cordingly Iaccept the nomination from. a sense
of public duty, and, as I think uninfuenced,
in any degree, by the aurements of ambition.
I avail myself of this occasion to say that the
confidence in my personal and public character,
implied by the action of the Convention, will
always be gratefully remembered, and it is but
just also to nry feelings, to express my gratif-
cation at the association Of my name with that
of my friend, Gen. Lane patriot and soldier,
whose great services in the field and in council
entitled him to the gratitude and confidence Of
his countrymen.
The resolutions adopted by the Convention
have my cordial approval. They are just to all
parts of the Union, to all our citizens, native
and naturaized, and they form noble policy
for any 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 Unioil is confederacy of
equal, sovereign States, for the purposes enume
rated in the Federal Constitution. Whatever
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 hence they can
not destroy or impair the rights Of persons or
property. While they continue to be Territories
| they are under the control Of Congress- but the
Constitution nowhere confers on any branch of
the federal government the power to discrimi-
nate against the rights of the States or the pro-
perty of their citizens in the Territories 1t fol-
lows that the citizens of all the States may enter
the Territories of the Union with their proper
ty-of whatever kind-and enjoy it during the
territorial condition without let or hindrance,
either by Congress or by the subordinate terri
torial governments.
These principles flow directly from the alb
sence of sovereignty in the territorial govern
ments, and from the equality of the Strtes.-
Indeed, they are essential to that equality which
is ever and has been the vital principle Of our
constitutional Union. They have been settled
legislatively -scttled judicially-and are sus-
tanned 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
issues, or to misrepresent them by the use Of
partisan phrases, which are misleading and de-
iusive. The people will look beneath such ex-
pressions as Intervention" Congressional slave
CODE" and the like, and will penetrate to the
: real questions involved The friends of consti-
tutional 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 non-intervention by Con-
Fgress or by territorial Legislature, either to
establish or prohibit slavery but they assert
fortified by the highest Judicial tribunal in the
Union) the plain duty of the federal government
in all its departments, to secure, when necessa-
ry to the citizens Of all the States the enjoy
ment of their property in the common Terrific
ries as everywhere else within its jurisdiction.
The only logical answer to this would seem to
be to claim sovereign power for the Territories
or to deny that the Constitution recognizes pro-
perty in the service of negro slaves, or to deny
that such property can exist.
Inexhorable logic, which works its steady way
through clouds and passion, compels the country
to meet the issue. There is no evasive middle
ground. Already the signs multiply Of a fana-
teal and growing party which denies that under
the Constitution, or by any other law, slave pro-
perry can exist and ultimately the struggle
must come between this party and the national
Democracy, sustained by all the other conserva-
tive elements in the Union.
; I think it will be impossible for candid
, mind to discover hostility to the Union, or a
faint of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted
by the Convention. The Constitution and the
Union repose on the equality of the States, which
, lies like broad foundation underneath our
whole political structure. As [ construe them
, the resolutions simply assert this equality
They demand nothing for any State or section
that is not cheerfully conceded to all the rest
Il IL j..