The mountain Democrat., 1864-04-02

not 30 much concern the country IN gen.
eral as the Republican organization. To
tbat organization Mr.. Lincoln is under .
heavy obligation Of gratitude. It made
him all that he is; it elevated him once
from the obscurily Of country attorney
to the CHIEF magistracy Of q great nation.
II does not become q man who owes 30
much to his party, and has been elevated
by it over the heads Of so many of its
more distinguished members, to attempt
to deprive it Of the free exercise of its
choice-in the selection Of its next candi.
date. What right has he to innovate up
on tae 'gsxges OF rne PG0y w6rca created
him That party has always made its
presidential nomination by a national
convention, and so little has that body
felt bound by any previous arrangements
or expectations, that, both in 1855 and in
1860, it set aside eminent pretentions in
favor of men littlc thought of by the par
ty What claim has he to forestall the
action Of the party and deprive it of the
liberty of choice it has always heretofore
exercised Considering what that party
has done for him, it is an unseemly obliv-
iousneSs Of his obligations to attempt to
innovate upon its established usages, and
degrade its regular convention into a mere
ratification meeting, in which the claims
of no rival can be even so much as dis
ANpssed much less voted on; still less pre-
pred to his own. In concert with his
friends, he has made arrangements for his
own nomination on the 22d of February,
in such way as to preclude the nomina-
tion Of any other Republican candidate,
except by members of the party who are
willing to assume the attitude of boilers
A candidate who thus tramples upon
free choice exerted through customary
forms in his own party, to which he is
under the deepest obligations of gratitude,
is little likely to feel any tenderness for
freedom Of choice among his avowcd po.
litical enemies. He who reduces the Ra-
tional convention of his party to o mere
ratifying or registering body, without
choice, thereby accustoms his mind to re-
gard regular forms as convenient nulli.
ty, and will pay as little respect to un-
trammeled voting in an election as in a
nomination. We accordingly see the plan
for election himself moving on in even
step with the plan for nominating himself
He is setting up ESQ -called) state govern.
ments in Louisiana, in Arkansas, in Ten
nessee, and probably has in contemplation
one in North Carolina, another in Florida,
and another in Texas. These pretended
state government will be so completely
subservient to his will, and subject to his
control that their electoral votes will have
precisely the same significance as if the
man Abraham Lincoln should, without
any intermediate agency, make up the
record of their number and send them to
the Senate to be counted in his favor
He has infallibly secured this result BY
prescribing, as a qualification for the
elective franchise, an oath which it is
certain that none but black Republicans
will ever consent to take. By foreStallng
ne expects to get the nomination; and
then, by forestalling the action of a suffi-
cient number of the electoral colleges, he
intends to secure his election.
But will the people submit to fraud
which amounts to destruction of the
elective system and subversion of our
institutions? This is contingency against
which Mr.. Lincoln is well provided, as
will be seen by glance at the third part
Of his plan, which depends upon the action
Of the army. He relies, first on the politi-
cal action Of the army to turn the scale in
his favor Independently Of his rotten DO.
roughs in the "reconStituted" states and
secondly, to resist and crush out oppos-
ton if the rotten borough votes are rcqui,
site to give him majority. Each of the
loyal states has in the army a number of
soldiers greater by far than any majority
which it ever gave in a presidential cleo.
ton. In respect to states where no pro.
vision has been made (o' allowing soldiers
to vote at places where they are stationed,
Mr.. Lincoln is master Of the situation, in.
asmuch as he can furlough all the Repub-
lican soldiers to go home and vote, and
ietain the Democratic soldiers on duty.
His control will scarcely be less complete
over the soldiers who vote in their camps.
What he did not scruple to do in Mary
land and Delaware, he will not be likely
to stick at in the army, where his will is
the supreme law. In the states named,
the ballots of the abolition party were
distinguished by different color, and
persons offering to vote any other were
kept away from the polls by force. The
same motive for interference will exist in
the army, intensified in force by the i'm.
portance of a presidential election, and
acting under no restraint from the pres
ence of state authorities.
But if, after all, the vote of the loyal
states should be against him, and he is
obliged to depend upon that OF the rot
ten boroughs to make ont majority, Mr..
Lincoln has command of an enormous
and wcllequipped army, and will be bet
ter prepared to crush opposition to an
illegal election in the North t. an he was
to cope with legal election in the South.
A COUNTRY WITHOUT REPTILE. Cap.