The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1860-05-16
The First I'm rhe Field.

-, The First I'm Vhe Field.
The Constitutional Union National Con-
'ention at Baltimore hss placed in nOmina-
lion for the Presidency Hon. John Bell, OF
Tennessee, and for the Vice Presidency
Hon. Edward Everett Of Massachusetts,.
In speaking of the candidates, the Pitts.
burg Post says:
The former is a Tennesseean in birth,
having been born rear Nashville 10 l797.-
He commenced his political career in 1877,
when he was elected to the Senate OF his
own State, to which he declined re-elec-
tion, and devoted the next ten years OF his
life to the practice of his profession-the
law. In 1897 he was elected Represent
alive in Congress, and continued to be re.
elected until l54l, officiating as Speaker du'
ring one term. In lS4l he accepted seat
in President Harrison's Cabinet as Secreta'
ry of War, which position he resigned iVe
months after the accession Of President
TYLER. In ls47 he was elected to the Uni.
ted States Senate in which body he has serv.
ed from time, as Chairman of important
committees. He is in the sixty-fourth year
of his age-a man OF no great 0rllllancy OF
taleut-tenacious of his own peculi8r ideas,
and perhaps as unobjectionable as any man
whom that faction of the Republican party
could have nominated.
But the Baltimore Convention has made
its nomination on the contcaI principle. 1t
is biggest at the base. To strengthen the
nomination of Mr.. Bell, the Convention has
placed upon the ticket a man every way
greater than he for Vice President, in the
person OF Edward Everett. Of sachusetts.
Edward Everett was born in Massachu.
setts in 1894, and is now sixty-six years OF
age. He is, perhaps, the best educated man,
ali things considered, whom America hes
vet produced He has, during his whole
life, been ambitious in all things relating to
learning, literature and eloquence. A grad.
unite Of Harvard College, he bore awOy its
first honors at nineteen years Of age; two
years he devoted to divinity, and preached
for q short time as a Unitarian clergyman;
at twenty, he was Professor of Greek Liter
a,ure at Cambridge; two years he studied al
GottiDgen, then visited Paris, London, Ok
ford and Cambridge, Florence, Rome anc
Naples, closing his tour of learning in
classic Greece. In 1919, he returned home
and devoted five years to literary pursuits.
Up to 1924 he had taken no active inter.
est in politics, but in that year the constitu
ency of the MiddIesex district elected hin
to Congress without any solicitation on hit
part. For ten years he was member o
this body, and four years after his retirem en-
therefrom, was elected Governor of Massa
chusetts. In lS4l he was appointed to rep
resent the United States OF the Court of st
James. But twas, ater all, as scholar ant
man of learning, that that position was con
ferred upon him, rather than as a politician
His scholarship was recognized by the cru
dte OF all nations as well as by his owl
countrymen; but great administrative poiit
lea ability was never awarded to him. HI
: never can become a partisan leader, for hi
philosophy will never subscribe to the de
grading demands of party.
From lS45 till l849, he was President o
Harvard College. On the death Of Mr.
Webster, he was appointed Secretary o.
State by President Fillmore, which office
he resigned for q seat in the Senate, which
position he subsequently resigned, and hat
since been leading the great lie of a scho
ar, adding to his already brilliant reputation
by delivering orations on the lie of Wash
ington, and on other topics, all being loI
charitable purposes.
His writings are pure and classic, his ora
tions most eloquent. For his learning
every American admires him, but the felc
of politics is not his vocation. His life has
been like that of Cicero, devoted to the ser
vice of hig countrymeD, but in q peculiar
channel. In the turmoil of Presidential
contest, he would be as far out of his ele-
ment as Oliver Cromwell would have been
in pulpit. This his friends seem to ad-
nit in placing q man far inferior to him at
the head of the ticket. We greatly doubt
whether he will regard the nomination at
Baltimore, for the Vice Presidency, as q
compliment. If he accepts it, it will be
contrary to the spirit OF his life. AS the
evening of his days approaches, more ad-
mrabe peroraiion to his eloquent life would
be to emulate the quiet retirement OF hi;
great contemporary, Washington Irving, thar
to exhaust his remaining strength in an idle
contest for the benefit OF a faction OF a par
ty, many of whose doctrines, and more o
whose practices he is far too wise man Il
approve.
The National Union Convention at Bal
timore, although it has first its candidates
in thefield, has proved most decided failure
Houston or Bolts would have better suitet
the political cabre of the section of tht
Opposition, which the delegates there rep
resented.