The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-03-28

common countryI With union we have every
! thing to hope-with division everything tc
fear. Personal preferences must be laid aside
for the good of the whole.
Upon the action at Charleston everything
depends. Give us a sound, conservative, cool
headed statesman as our standard-bearer and
a declaration of principle, broad and national
as the Constitution, and we are bound to ti'
umph. That these requirements will be met
we have an abiding confidence. We can
boast in our ranks a number of tried statesmen,
with any one of whom as our standard-beare
we might with safety enter the hight. Ihe
names of Dickinson, Hunter, Wise, Cobb, Guth.
RE, Breckenridge, Pierce-present an array OF
worth, and patriotism, and craftsmanship, that
embarrassos us only in making a selection
They all have their friends and admirers, and
any one of them would do honor to the party
by a nomination. We of the Pacific coast,
however, without disparagement to either OF
these distinguished gentlemen, might well
have a different choice. We are remote from
the other States of the Union. We have in
terests peculiar to ourselves, which require
not the less the fostering care of Government.
If, therefore, we can Put forward a claimant
for the high office of President, equally emf
nent, and capable, and patriotic, and popular,
every consideration of self-interest would i'm
pei us to do so. In fact, in the fierce conflict
of sections, to take a man removed from the
theatre of the boisterous and dangerous pass
ions thereby engendered, would seem a master
stroke of policy. A man for the occasion and
the times we fortunately have-a man whose
claims have been largely canvassed, and whose
name looms up among the most prominent In
that connection. It is needless to say that we
refer to General Joseph Lane of Oregon.
Since 184S the fortunes of this distinguish
Il L.. L41- nD1 hlanI
ed with those of the Pacific frontier. Born
in North Carolina, educated in Kentucky, his
manhood developed in Indiana, following the
westward course of Empire, he emigrated in
1913 along the buffalo trail and Indian war
path to Oregon. From that time to this he
has devoted all of his great energies to the de-
velopment of his adopted land. He has been
her Governor, her Representative in Congress,
and now her Senator. II higher honors are
not in store for him, he will, despite the i'm
portation of foreign candidates or the impo-
tent cont-ivances of home schemers, be re-
elected to this latter position. In every ca
pacity in which Gen. Lane has been tried, he
has proved himself a true man-an honest
mana diligent, pains-taklng and devoted
public servant. For twenty years, dating back
to this majority, he served his country in the
House and Senate of the Indiana Legislature.
There, he was never known to favor a corrupt
scheme or an un-Democratic measure. In the
conflict with Mexico, having volunteered as q
private, he won, as Brigadier General, the
proud title of the "Marion of the Mexican
War" Even as a fat-boatman, which occu-
patton he followed on the Mississippi, he won
distinction, for it became a proverb that "Joe
Lane never sold a short cord" In his repre-
capacity at Washington he has earn
ed e'golden opinions from all sorts of people,"
Rafora bis Roman fyednoSS and honesty Of
purpose, even the tongues of his enemies are
No one has ever impugned the mo-
of General Lane.
On all national questions he is sound to the
core. Between the extremes of the North
and South he occupies an elevated, coHserva-
mean. If elected to the Presidency he
enter upon the discharge of his duties
With a determination to respect the rights Of
Ill sections. If he knew a North and a South,
ne would know them only to respect and en-
iorce their constitutional rights. The COM
non-plac,, "he knows no North, no South, no
East, no West" although uttered in a patriot
C spirit, like many other common-places, is
'eally without point, wisdom, or patriotism
We are a people, having all of these geo.
graphical divisions. Not only this, but they
re all diverse in interests. Therefore they
hould all be respected, all be regarded, and
ii be treated as having equal rights under
If any one section have a pc
uliar institution distasteful to a majority of
he other section, it does not follow that the
Objectionable interest should the less receive
he fostering regard or equal consideration of
he General Government. Minorities, in con-
governments, have their rights as
1el as majorities. Whenever prejudice, or
~assion, or local antipathies in the majority
verlook or discharge these, the social compact
morally dissolved: 1t may not be in fact
t may require force to accomplish it. But it
nevertheless destroyed. Such a condition
f things is fast being precipitated upon our
ouRtry. The issue is now-the Democracy
nd the Union-Black Rcpublicanism and dis
Turn the matter and sift it as you
ill, and it resolves itself at last into this.
In view, then, of this momentous issue, let
s of the Pacific slope-removed from the
leatre of sectional conflict and geographical
ntagenism going on in the East-present an
mpire candidate, who will conduct the gov
rnment on high conservative grounds. Let
s u-ite in favor of Gen. Lane. His nomina
would be hailed with enthusiasm by all
.ections. 1t would be a distinguished compli-
lent to our young and rising State and her
Dung sister, Oregon. Not only this, but it
'ould be a guaranty that our peculiar inter
SITS would receive the fostering aid and en-
engagement of the administration that would
nsue. California Democrats should have no
in sending Lane delegates to Charles
IN. Gen. Lane is of us and among us-his
,terests are our interests-his aspirations are
1rs-his fortunes, home and house hold gods
re all on our coast. Let all then, whose desti-
les are thus identified, unite in sending dele
ates to the National Convention in favor of
he Pacific candidate for the Presidency, Gen
oseph Lane.