New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-07-24
r.a nsrr Pr.arEnRifs.

II is objected to the platform OF the Consntu,
sional Union party that il is vague and indenn'e-
that nobody knows what IL means. me opJevuoa
il net tenable-but the truth is there is dechahg
respect among the people Of all parties, iot lhes
c.axan,;on nIatforms. Instead ofM long strihg OF
uumeaning resolutions, which it has been tfe sash
;nr ~ nraviaus Conventions to impose upon
| .ba,r followers. the friends of Bell and Everett
n,acad Them before the people upon the simple
and easily. understood platform OF devotion to the
Constitution and the Union, and 3 sacred regard
for the integrity and enforcement Of the laws as
they stand upon the statute book and as they are
expounded By the legitimate and accredited legal
tribunals of the country.
We say there is a growing aversion to party
platforms among politicians of all kinds. n re-
cent speech in the Senate Col Jefferson Davis, OF
Mississippi is reported te have said as follows:
90 The fact is that have a declining respect for
platforms. / would sooner have an honest man on
any SORT of rickety platform you could construct
| than to nave q man could not trust On the bese
| platform that could be made"
/ Now. there is some sense in the ahsve declara-
/ ton. Col. Davis hes seen enough Of politics and
| Of xarties to know that these eabot&te platforms
,pat forward by party conventions, ere nothing but
lpoutrivances to catch votes They are not mace
$50 be observed any more than galvanised watches
isare made to keep good time. The latter are made
merely to be sosd-the former are made merely to
sell the people, and to humbug them by fair promi-
SEES and patriotic professions which are never re-
spected, and never intended te'be respected, even
| at the very time they are made.
Ii is modern invention -this thing of platforms.
And, like many other modern inventions, it is a
humbug. Cen. Washington was not elected upon
| any pres cribed patform--nor was Adams, nor JEFF
| ferson, nor Madison, nor anybody else, down TO
| the times of Van Buren, and Polk. The only plat
form these Presidents were elected upon was their
previous records--their services to the country,
and the many evidences they had given of their
unseltish patriotism and of their capacity to dis
charge faithfully the high duties Of the Presiden-
tial office. Nobody would have insulted Washing
ton or Jefferson By rendering either of them a
modern trap called platforn-a Procrustean bed
to which they must adjust their great proportions
Ii is true we have no Washingtons and Madisons at
the present day but it amounts to the same thing.
An honest President will do his duty regardless of
platforms dishonest one will no more regard a
platform as OF binding obligation upon him than he
would the suggestions of a Comanche Indian.
The famous Baltimore Platform of the Demo-
cracy has been so often violated by theyery party
/
to pieces and scattered about that there is
| scarcely sound portion of it left. 1t declared
against high tariffs, but the President who pro
fesses to stand upon it has been eamoring for
higher rates and for specific duties ever since he
went into office 1t declared that the public lands
belonged to the General Government, but the
lands have been given away, millions of acres at
a time, to railroads and to States. 1t declared
|
ernment hut the Northwestern members of the
party load down the Congressional calendar every
year with bills for such purposes. In short, the
Platform was framed mostly by members of Con-
gress, who went back to Washington from Bati-
more, and in few weeks voted for bills which
sanctioned the very principles they had solemnly
denounced short time before.
| No wonder, then, there is growing distrust of
Platforms In 1851 both parties declared in favor
of maintaining the Compromise Of 1850, and
pledged themselves against reopening the slavery
question in any form in Congress. or out of it,,
Two years had not elapsed before slavery agitation
was carried on in Congress and all over the coun.
try, with greater feryor than eyer beforehand il
has continued from that day to this. OF what
value are the professions Of a Platform when they
are openly and shamelessly disregarded almost be
fore the ink becomes dry with which they are
mrittens
Mr.. Davis is right We would sooner have ar
honest and reliable man for President without any
| platform whatever, than tricky and timeserving
| politician with the best platform in the world
The former will do what he believes to be right
| the latter will not be bound by the instructions
with which he is hampered. If any one objects
that the Constitution, the Union and the enforce
meat Of the laws do not constitute platform enough
for John Bell and Edward Everett, we point to the
Tong ges they have spent in the service of the
country, in the highest civil positions-to the re.
1 cords they have made to the moderation, wisdom,
conservatism, and firmness with which they have
discharged every political duty-.to their unim-
peaehable private character and personal honor
to tile affection and respect in which they held
By their neighbors who know them best--to their
Innocence of all the arts of the demagogue-and to
their aversion to everything like trickery, lodging,
double. dealing and duplieity. This is platform
enough for u.s. and we trust it is also for great
majority of the American people.
| POLITICAL ITEMS
/ The Frankfort Commonwealth Of Monday con-
i tain Il long and able communication from a gem