Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-08-18

A great position shonld be greatly sought
Put off thy shoes for the place where
on thou stapdest is holy ground" is an ad
monition, which in spirit should be heard
and needed by an aspraut to the Presiden
cy of these United States. That is a sta
tion requiring more ability and comforting
more real though transitory power than
almost any European throne. He who
approaches it should be sobered to gravity
and chastened to dignity by conscious
ness OF its vast responsibilities 1t is diff
cult even to imaginea Washington strolling
over state after state, harauguing crowd
after crowd, fattering joking, hobnobbing.
and shaking hands, ia the hope of thereby
winning votes for the Chief Magistracy of
the country he had all but created. John
Adams and Thomas Jefferson were vehe-
ment politicians and eager aspirants, who
could speak well on fit occasions but ne.
ther could have faced an audience while
making speech intended to facilitate his
own election as President. Even Mr.. Clay
the prince of canvassers, whether on the
stump or off it, whose ardent desire to be
President was never concealed, always con.
sdered bis lips sealed by the proprieties Of
bis position from the moment he had been
nominated for the Presidency until the
struggle had terminated. Gen. jackson
and Gen. Harrison were each induced to
speak while candidates but in their respect
i've states only. Gen. Cass and Gen. Scott
were fairly compelled to say something
while candidates to the crowds who gath.
cred around them as the former was re.
turning from Washington to his home,
there to remain during the canvass, and
the latter was on a tour of official duty
but the experiment was in neither case a
happy one. The candidate who Travelled
and spoke was beaten by his rival who
staid at home kept silence Mr. Fillmore,
coming home from Europe after his nomi-
nation to the Presidency, was induced to
speak twice or thrice briefly on his way
from shipboard to homestead, aud those
little speeches damaged his supporters more
than all that was said by their adversaries.
Mr. Buchanan's one little speech to those
who came to apprise him officially of
his nomination--that wherein he remark.
ed that he was "no more James Buchanan,
but platform" belittleh him in the gen
eral estimation. Col Fremont was pro-
fouudy and wisely tacturn throughout the
canvass For in fact the candidate who
makes speeches is naturally supposed anx-
iOus to secure his election Mr.. Lowndes'S
remark that "the Presidency is sta
tion neither to be sought nor declined" !" fuls
ly commendS itself to the public sense of
fitness and National dignity. The multi
tude will rush TO see q candidate for Presi-
dent, just as they would to see hanging
or six-legged horse [; yet the crowds who
feasted on clans with Mr.. Douglas at his
Rhode Island ovation and then defiIed past
him for a shake of the possibly Presiden.
tial hand, as be stood, cigar in mouth and
sinister list graSping stout cane, to press
palms with the moving mass of humanity,
will ever after cherish lower estimate OF
the Presidential Office should he be chosen to
it. The clans were very well in their way,
and they liked the idea Of having a candi-
date for President as the cynosure of their
feast but there is silent monitor in eve
ry human breast which says-the feast be-
ing over the crowd dispersed--that it is
not thus that Presidents should be made.
But to Mr.. Douglas and his canvass
The reader of the daily journals will
have been struck with the poverty Of ideas
and the wealth of assurance evinced by
the least of all giants on his stamping tour.
That candidate must weigh we'll his words,
and be sure that he is not led away by the
heat of his Imagination to say what will
offend some portion of his supporters, is
quite true but this affords argument not
for speaking poorly but for declining to
speak at all But when Mr.. Douglas the
Paganini of politicians, harps from day to
day on the one threadbare string of Pop
ular Sovereignty" deducing therefrom the
right of some men to hold Others in life
long bondage, aud asking, why should
the crossing of river from state into a
Territory dvest American citizens Of
rights of selfgovernment which no one
ever denied them before ?" he provokes the
crushing answer, " You, Mr.. Douglas ! are
the very man who shonld answer this ques
ton ! You inserted in your Kansas Ne
braska bill, after stating that it was intend
ed to leave the Territories perfectly free
to have slavery or not, the condition sub
iect only to the Constitution of the United
States,' which were in one sense sheer sur,
plusage, but in another aspect were plain
ly calculated to suggest that doubt of the
right of the people of Territory to ex
| clude slavery which has since broadened in
to an absolute denial of that right. You
thus opened and held open door through
which the slaYeholding majority of the
Supreme Court might walk in and render
Popular Sovereignty in the Territories q
swindlng mockery and the fact that they
might have broken in at any rate does not
excuse you, since you are seen to have ex
pected aud invited the incursion. You ig
nored Popular Sovereignty when you voteC
March p 1851 against Mr.. Chase
amendment, expressly affirming the righ
of the people Of the Territories Of Kansa
aud Nebraska to prohibit slavery therein
and when on that same day You votet
against Mr.. Chase's further amendmen
that the people of those Territories shout
elect their own Governor. What is tn
reason, Mr.. Douglas that an America
citizen who is undoubtedly competent I
vote for a Governor ON one side of
river becomes incompetent to dschsrg
that duty Immediately, on passing tina
river Z Yet you aud all your band stan
recorded as voting against Mr., Chase