Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-09-15
GEN, McCLELLAN's LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE.

| We have the satisfaction of placing before oul
readers to-day the admirable and patriotic letter in
which Gen. MCCLELLAN has signifed his acceptance
oil the nomination conferred upon him by the Demo-
cratic Convention which recently assembled at Chi
cago. Ii there be any one who can read this let
ter without admiration for the pure and elevated
patriotism which 1T breathes or without respect for
the writer, it must be one in whom the spirit of
party has quenched all generous sensiblity to pr-
vate worth or public virtue outside of his own po-
ltical circle. Certain it is that no lover of the
Union and no friend of the Constitution can find
aught against which to object in this clear, calm
and frank exposition, and it is only the minds Of
men may be warped by their addiction to some
policy or purpose lying outside of the Union and
Constitution that they can find ground for even
the prctext of exception to this compend of polit-
cal doctrine In our view it covers the whole duty
of true patriots at this crisis and coming it does
from man who, both in public and in private life,
well by the dignity of the one as by the purity
of the other, has given full guarantee for the hon
esty and steadfastness with which he holds his
opinions this manly confession of political faith
will 60 TO the hearts Of the people as it obviously
comes from the heart of the writer.
Weare not of those who, in this hour of the nations
hand Of man. But as men placed in high command
over the interests and welfare OF the people the
instruments, under Providence, of those counsels,
purposes, and policies on which the veal or woe Of
the nation mainly depends we do feel that, in this
Juncture, the American people, more than at any
former period Of their history, called to weigh
candidly and deliberately the character of the man
in whose hands they shall confde the tremendous
issues of the next four years, far those issues
can be determined by the action of the Chief Ma
gstrate Of the country.
TIE critical times in which we live call for
man in the Presidential chair who shall look with
single eye to the restoration and preservation of
the Union under the Constitution, without having
his attention diverted by extraneous objects which
command paramount adhesion to the detriment
of the Union and the violation of the Constitution.
The revolutionary times in which we live call for
a man who has faith in the fundamental princi-
Piles of the Government, and who, when the foun-
base, will not suffer himself to be misled by the
false lights Of radical fanaticism. The change
full times in which we live call for man who is
just and tenacious of his purposes, one not to be
moved from his deliberate resolve or from his con-
scientious convictions by any outside pressure
of faction. The solemn times in which we live
call for man who, understanding his epoch, shall
address himself to the momentous tasks he is called
to perform with gravity and sobrety which shall
be at the farthest from trihing and levity.
The difficult times in which we live call for man
of vigorous intellect expanded by ripe culture, and
at the same time sharpened by contact with men /,
and raised to the height Of great emergencies By
the discipline of active life. Such, all will agree,
are the demands of our age and land. Two
men are set before the people as the candidates
named by their respective adherents to meet these
requirements. On the one hand is Abraham Lin
coin on the other is George b. Mcclellan. Each
has made up for himself the issues and the record
on which he challenges the popular ordeal. 1t is
for the people to choose between them, and in
choosing to decide whether the Union is the para
mount obj cot of the nations aspiration in the pre-
sent struggle, or whether the destinies Of the
Union are to be complicated with pledges and
commitments which we verify believe must be as
fatal to its practical restoration in theory they
are alien to the spirit and letter Of the Constitution
FROM THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY