Year: 1860

THE NO-CHANCE" ARGUMENT


We are sure that our readers have marked with
satisfaction the daily increasing evidences Of the
popular favor which every where attends the nomi-
nations of the Constitutional Union party It's
one of the pecuarites of the pending canvass that
while each of the organizations competing with this
party has its peculiar adherents and especial patrons,
they all alike unite in accepting the policy and the
candidates of the Constitutional Union movement
as their "second choice" The ardent friends Of
Breckenridge and Lane, of Douglas and johnson,
of Lincoln and Hamlin, in default of securing the
election of their political favorites, look with COM
placency upon the success of Bell and Everett
The fact is not without its easy explanation, and
constitutes in itself merited tribute not only to
the high personal worth of the candidates thus dis
tingushed by the preferences of friends and Of op
ponents, but also bears strong testimony to the
pre-eminently national and satisfactory public sem
timent which they represent. The exponents of a
policy which looks to the pacifcation of the sections
SO long arrayed against each other in antagonism
as unnatural in its beginnings as needless in its
continuance, these honored names are already ac-
cepted by the consenting voice Of their countrymen
the harbnger of repose if only repose be deemed
matter of the first necessity. As no practical in
terests of either secton according to the admission
of those who respectively profess themselves the
peculiar champions of each, are suspended upon the
success defeat of either the Republican or the
Democratic candidates, it remains to be seen whe-
ther the delusive force of party names will prove
sufficiently strong to repress {" the sober second
thought" which propitiates the favor of political
opponents in behalf policy whose triumph it is
recognised by all would secure the ends Of Justice,
moderation and peace


! The only opposition which the Constitutional
Union party seems called to encounter in the North
ern States is based on the alleged paucity of its
supporters in that quarter. 1t would thus appear
that Conservative Republicans at the North, in
common with Union-loving Democrats at the South,
have no charge to bring against Bell and Everett
which they cannot remove by giving to these
eminent statesmen the hearty and united support
which they admitted to deserve at the hands of
men in all sections and of all political denomina-
tons One of the most intelligent, as certainly one
among the most candid, ofthe Republican journals
We allude to the New York Commercial Advertiser
has not hesitated to admit that the Constitutional
| Union party adopts "the standard which should
represent the popular mind if it be true that owing
to the evil of the times, it may not bo said 20 raKe
the standard which does represent the actual state
of the irritated sections To this purport that ez
cellent journal recently remarked as follows, in
speaking of the party we have named


Connected with unquesonably of our coun-


ys best and sincerest patriots but they have fallen
into the of suppong that they make party be-
of their high personal characters and positions in the
country For their platform they look within themselves
instead ofnto the popular mind They take the standard
that should represent the popular mind instead of that
which does, and the inevitable consequence that instead
OF raying the masses around them they muster in their
ranks only the select ew and weaken other parties with
out becoming party themselves


Recent events have greatly modified the seeming
force of the only allegation here brought forward in
excuse for Withholding from the Constitutional
Union movement the support to which it is admitted
to be entitled grounds of moral obligation if only
that moral obligation can be conclated with the
practical wisdom which respects, in their due sub
ordination, the fats as they are We do not know
that called in the forum of politics, any more
than in the forum of conscience to wer the stan
dard which should represent the popular mind
in order to make way for that which does The
casustry which demands that the right should also
be proved the erpedient before it may justly chal
leuge the homage of men has long since been driven
in disgrace from the schools, though, from the at
tention recently given by some of our contempora-
res to calculations of political chances and proba-
bilities it would that there is still one domain
in which it is not deemed safe to strike brav ly for
the right unless assured that the strongest battaons
are also arrayed its side For the benefit Of such
halting spirits we have only to cite the Virgilian
maxim which points the inspiring force of high re-
solve in the prospect of prize held up as the in
centive and the reward of manly and persevering
efforts possunt quia posse Uidentur. For if it were
true that any considerable weight should have been
justly gwen at any time to the "no-chance srgu-
ment," it has ben satiricay called, it must be
conceded that the time has now passed, and that
the friends of Bell and Everett may every where
labor for the success of their chosen candidates
under auspices which afford the reasonable hope Of
success in the line of patriotic duty.