Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1860-07-25

sas into the Union. He was in word an
ultra Lecomptonite. Our readers will doubt
less remember that during the controversy
| his course was feroely assailed through the
columns of the Mou1,fainger. aud that several
editorial articles appeared in this paper de-
! Tending IT. After the adjournment of the
| Legislature. be continued to sustain the Ma
| tional Administration through the columns of
! the Echo, and denounce its enemies. When
! he placed the name of Breckenridge at the
! head of kis paper as his first choice for the
I Presidency, he declared in editorial that |
! Mr.. Buchanan would have been his first |
choice if he bad been willing to accept the
nomination. When the Senatorial Conferees |
met at Altoona for the purpose of appointing !
a Senatorial delegate, it ascertained that
a majotity of them were anti-Douglas men,
The Conferees from this County urged the |
appointment of Captain Smith. They assur-
ed the Uonfcrees from Clearfeld that he was
reliable administration man, and would op-
pose the Douglasites in the Convention. He
was therefore appointed. We think we can
prove that previous to the meeting Gf the Con
ference, he had given the most solemn
pledges to the Conferees anu others, that if
appointed delegate, he would do his utmost
to prevent the appointment of Douglas dele
gates to Charleston We may add that while
here during March Court he openly stated
that he was opposed to Douglas, and that he
could not be nominated; 1t will also be well
; to remember, that he was appointed not as q
Breckenridge man but as ar 4nti- Douglas
man.
When the Reading Convention met he took
his stand among the Anti Douglas men, and
was by them appointed temporary chairman,
over John Cessna of Bedford, Douglasite.-
He acted with the Anti Dodglas men through
out and when be was appointed deleg ate to
:. Charleston, he was everywhere and by all
parties, set down on the list of Dti-Dopglas
IS delegates.
IS When the Charleston Convention met it
Il was ascertained to a certainty, that John c.
g Breckenridge was not candidate for the
/ Presidency, aud Captain Smith forthwith
l. .Sumlmersetted into the ranks of the Douglas
$ faction He contends that the wilhdrawel OF
e Mr. Breckenrid ge released him from all his
d promises, pledges and public declarations
. and that he was left free to act as he pleased
ID Permit Us to say with all due Difference,
! Captain Smith, that you made strange Sc
lection under the circumstance Your first
I choice was Breckenridge; you knew him to be
'e the advocate of the doctrine that territorial
legislatures do not possess the power to abolish
slavery in the territories, your second choice
- Douglas, held and still holds the opposite doc
70 trine. You thus in moment few from the
y one extreme to the other; from popular sover.
" eighty to squatter sovereignty from the frieDt
. of the National Administration to its malignan
40 maligner, from the man who endorsed youl
q course in advocatingthe admission of ansas uu
IL der the LecomPton Constitution, to the uan wht
~ had denounced you as the advocate Of fraud tyr
IL ranny and corruption in SO doing You knew
- very well, that if the Conferees who appoint
'o ed you delegate to Reading, by which mean
; you secured your selection as delegate t
IL Charleston, had known that your seconc
choice was Stephen y Douglas, they woul,
Ao never have appointed you. You knew tha
"
the four Counties of the district, Cambria an
G. Huntingdon. were bitterly hostile to the non
ination of Douglas. Why even your ow
a. packed County Convention, the other day
n were afraid to pass resolutions endorsing th
he nomination Of Douglas. Moreover, you coul
or not but know, that Stephen A. Douglas wa
- not the man for the crisis; that his nomina
ter ton would not unite the party You kne,
nv that he was the author of the dissension
D which existed in the ranks of the party, an
IN, that but for him the Charleston Couyentio
INT would have been as harmonious as that whic
lo- convened at Cincinnati in 1856. You kner
n that majority of the delegates from ever
nd Democratic State in the Union, with the ez
his ception of two. were opposed to his nomina
h ton. You knew that the Southern State
,as unanimously protested against it. and that b
to would therefore If nominated, be no bette
w. than sectional candidate You knew ,hs
h, the nomination of such a man as Guthrie
LET Dickinson, Seymour, Pierce, Lane or Hunter
mr. would unite the party; aud yet you refused
,a- vote for any Of them, and on every ballot su:
tanned Douglas who, you knew, to be odiou
d. to a majority of your immediate constituents
in to the Democracy of Pennsy lyania and tt
:. Union.
sr- If your object at Charleston and Balsimor
-ds was to break up and disorganize the Demo
Ut cratic Party you performed your work vel
To But if you sincerely desired to mite an