Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-07-07


time and self.indulgence.
The candidates nominated at Chicago
nre both men who, as individuals and poll.
ticians, rank in the foremost of the country.
| have heard no objection TO Mr.. Hamln
personally, hut only in his geographical DO.
sition, which is thought by some to be too
tar North and East to allow his personal
good qualities TO exercise their proper in
iuence over the nation at large But the
nomination for the Presidency is the great
controlling act Mr.. Lincoln, his charac-
ter, talents, opinions and history will be
criticised by thousands, while the candidate
for Vice Presidency will be passed over in
comparative silence.
Mr.. Llnsoln's nomination took the pub
lie by surprise, because, until Just before
the event, it was unexpected But really
1t ought not to have excited any surprise,
for such unforeseen nominations are common
in our political history. Polk and Pierce
by the Democrats, and Harrison and Tav-
lor by the Wings, were oil nominated in
this extemporaneouS manner-all of them
we're elected. / have known Mr.. Lincoln
for twenty years, and therefore have a right
to speak of him with some confidence
As an individual he has earned hirh rem.
utation for truth, courage, candor, morals
and amiability, SO that, as man. he is
most trustworthy. Aud in this particular
be is more entitled to our esteem than some
other men, his equals who had far better
opportunities aud aids in early life. His
talents and the will to use them to the best
advantage, are unqueStionable and the
proof is found in the fact that in every no.
siton in life, from his humble beginning to
his present well-earned elevation, he has
more than fulfilled the best hopes of his
friends. And now, in the full vigor of his
manhood and in the honest pride of having
made himself what lie is, the peer of the
first man of the nation, well able to sustain
himself and advance his cause, against any
adversary, and in any field where mind and
knowledge are the weapons used
In politics he has but acted out the prin-
cipeS of his own moral and intellectual
character. He has not concealed his
thoughts nor hidden bis light under bush.
el With the boldness of conscious recti-
tude and the frankneSs of downright hon
esty, he has not failed to avow his opinions
of pubic affairs upon all fitting occasions.
This | know may subject him to the car
ping ccnsure Of that class of politicians
who mistake cunning for wisdom and false.
hood for ingenuity; but such men as Lincoln
must act in keeping with their own charac.
ters, and hopes for success only by advanc.
ing the truth prudenty and maintaining it
bravely. All his old political antecedents
are, in my judgment, exactly right, being
square up to the old Whig standard And
as to his views about the pestlent negro
question: | am not aware that be has gone
one step beyond the doctrine publicly aud
habitually avowed by the great lights of
the Whig party, Clay, Webster, aud their
fellows, and indeed sustained and carried
out by the Democrats themselves, in their
wiser and better days.
The following, suppose, are in brief his
opinions upon that subject l. Slavery
is a domestic institution within the states
which chooses to have it, and it exists with
those states beyond the contrel of Con-
gress. 2. Congress has supreme legislative
power over all the Territories, and may, in
its discretion allow or forbid the existence
of slavery within them. 3. Congress, in
wisdom and sound policy, ought not so to
exercise its power, directly or indirectly, as
to plant and establish slavery in any Ter
ritory Heretofore free 4. And that it is
unwise or impolitc in the Government Of
the United States, to acquire tropical re-
gions for the purpose of converting them
into slave states.
These, believe, are Mr.. LincOln'S opin-
ions upon the matter of slavery in the Ter
ritories, and / concur in them. There are
no inventions, made to suit the exigencieS
of the hour, bat have come down to US, as
the Declaration Of Independence and the
Constitution have, sanctioned by the ven
erabIe authority of the wise and good men
who establish our institutions. They are
conformabIe to law, principle and wise pol
icy, and their utility is proven in practice
by the as yet unbroken current of our po-
ltical history. They will prevail, but also
because a great and still growing majority
of the people believe them to be right. and
the sooner they are allowed to prevail in
peace and harmony, the better for all con-
Cclucut as NCll AuOoO NHO oAS HbHlASe
them as those who are for them.
l am aware that small partisans, in their
little warfare against opposing leaders, do
assail them by the trick of tearing from
their contexts some particular ohjec-
tionable phrases, penned, perhaps, in the
hurry of composition, or spoke in the heat
of oral debate, and holding them up to the
public as the leading doctrines of the per-
son assailed, drawing from them their own
uncharitable inferences. That line Of at
tack betrays little mind conscious of its
weakness; for the falsity of its logic is more
apparent than the injustice of its design.
No public mind can stand that ordeal, aud,
however willing men may be to see it ap'
plieG to themselves. In fact, the man who
never said foolish thing, will hardly be
able to prove that he ever said many wise
ones.
l consider Mr.. Lincoln a sound, safe.
national man. He could not be sectional
if he tried. His birth, his education, the
habits of his life, and his geographical po'
silion, compel him to be national All his
feelings and interests are identified with
the great valley of the Mississippi, near
whose center he has spent his whole ile'
That Valley is not a section, bnt, consplcu'
-, A. I'D Of tho nation, and. large