The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-10-02

al cause gathers strength, and the hopes Of the
advocates of constitutional freedom grow bright
er. We can scarcely bring ourselves to believe
that the future has in store any serious disap-
pontments for those who have so heroically bat
tied for the regeneration of Italy. We trust,
therefore, at no distant day, to announce to our
readers that the independence and consolidation
of the various Italian States are accomplished
facts. .
umwEnmnummmx-szzzma@mE1
It is strange to see with what pertinacity the
Republicans hold Mr.. BRECKENRIDGE answerable
for the words and acts of the extremists in the
South, while in the same breath they deny that
Mr. LINCoLN's position can be in any way affected
by the rawlings of the fanatics who support him
in the North handful of hare-brained adyo
Gates of the disruption o. the Union in some of
the cotton States intend to vote for the former,
and he is straghtway branded as the secession
'tcanddate;" and it is more than intmated that
he has no objection to the reopening of the slave
trade because few reckless individuals who
have already violated the laws which prohibit it,
are among his adhereuts. But it is a foul and
slanderous imputation, say the friends of Mr..
LINCOLN, for any one to maintain that the ribald
incoherencies of SUMNER and LovEJoY, or the
more deliberate utterances of Senator WILSON and
HORACE GREELEY are to be taken as indications of
his opinions and purposes. Upon Mr.. BRECKIN-
RIDGE, the Republican journals savagely endeavor
to fasten the responsibility of every reasonable
word that is spoken between the Potomac and
the Gulf; and ut the same time they Indignantly
repudiate, in Mr.. LINcoLNs name every speech
that smacks of disloyalty towards the South.
When, however, We consider the antecedents
and connections OF these candidates, which of
the two, it may be asked, has been least
compromised by the indscreons or absurdities of
his supporters? The political associations of Mr..
BRECKENRIDGE none can cavil at, and no man has
been able to show that he has for moment, coun-
tenanced any movement which was calculated to
lead to a collision between the Northern and
Southern States, that he has ever uttered syl-
liable manifesting hostility, on his part, towards
the institutions of any section, q disposition to
interfere with the rights of any Mr.. LINCOLN on
the other hand, has not only been found, for
years past in political alliance and close compan-
ionship with the most extreme members of the Re-
publican party, but he has taken occasion more
than to endorse their most obnoxious doc
trnes. In his controversy with Judge DOUGLAS,
and in his speech at the Cooper Institute, in New
York, not content with merely expressing his in
dividual repugnance to slavery, violently assailed
the institution itself and the people who upheld it,
and urged his hearers TO remember that they were
engaged In" 'Hssio ih.l>Ssad Eat cease untlall
the States were either or free. 1t is not there
-s+r;- simply because Mr. LINCOLN was nominated
and will be supported by GREELEY and SUMNER, that
his opponents hold him to some accountability for
the views these men known to entertain. 1t is
because his personal and political relations
with them are intimate, and his sentiments are
by his own showing, in accordance with theirs,
that Mr.. LINCOLN is looked upon with disrust and
anxiety by the South
If, when instituting this sort of comparison be
tween these two candidates. we go beyond their
acts and speeches, and contrast together the plat
forms on which they stand we shall find that Mr..
BRECKENRIDGE still occupies the vantage ground.
The resolutions Of the Convention which nomi-
mated him contain no doctrines which, carried to
their logical consequences would lead to an inva-
sion of the rights Of any section. Men may dis
sent decidedly from the principles to which Mr..
impossible for the most rancorous of his opponents
to assert that these resolutions indicate even dis
position on the part of those who approve them to
assail the Institutions of any State Whether
or not slavery should be maintained in the Terri
tories by the Federal Government is question
about which people may differ, but no one
can affect to believe that aggression upon
the North could follow or grow out of
the demand by the South for sucn protection
Mr. Lincoln, however, has accepted platform
OF different character. 1t is one which
GREELEY framed, and which the majority
OF the Abolionists themselves approve. The
chicago Convention did not hesitate to let the
country understand that the Republican party had
olner OBJECTS in contemplation than the abolition of
slavery IN the Territories 1t almost openly placed
lseli IN an,agonism to the institution of slavery
no matter where the latter might exist. and its
reiteraton of the proposition that all men are en-
titled to enjoy equality and freedom, was. consid-
erlng the circumstances under which this postuIate
was reafiimed, TOO significant to be misunderstood
The theories which were propounded to that Con-
vention, and by it endorsed, are simply those
which GARRISON approves and to which JOHN
LINCOLN assents to them Also
Now we do not mean TO assert that Mr..
LINCOLN, having accepted this platform, is
likely to carry out its principles to their ulti-
mate consequences. We do not assume thai
he WILL if elected, directly assa the institution
ofslayery in the South, Or trample wantonly upon
the established rights of that secion for we
cannot honestly say that we believe he will. We
presume that his antlpathy to slavery would be
held in check, not merely by his indisposition TO
provoke the hostility ola large and populous section
of the country, but by a audabIe desire to
leave the Union as strong and as perfect as
he found it. But we do mean to say the
people of the Southern States do him no in
justice, when they hold him responsible for the
sentiments of the more extreme members of his
party-that they have ample reason for believing
him to entertain the most ultra views upon the
slavery question-and that they have good cause TO
look forward with great anxiety to the time when
they must regard him as the Constitutional guar
dian of Southern rights and institutions, ss,.-f.