Year: 1860

Washington, July 6, 1860. DEAR SIR: have your letter of the 23d ult., by which I am officially informed of my nomination for the office of President of the United States, by the democratic national convention lately assembled at Baltimore

 The circumstances of this nomination will justify me in referring to its personal aspect.

 have not souget nor desired to beplaced before the country for the office of Presi- dent. When my name was presented to the convention at Charleston 1t was with drawn by friend in obedience to my ex pressed wishes My views had not changed when the convention re assembled at Balti more, and when I heard of the differences which occurred there, my indisposition to be connected prominently with the canvass, was confirmed, and expressed to many friends.

 Without discussing the occurrences which preceded the nomination, and which are, or soon will be, well understood by the country, l have only to say that Iapproved, as just and necessary for the preservation of the national organization, and the sacred right of representation, the action of the convention over which you continued to preside, and thus approving 1t and having resolved to sustain it, I feel that it does not become me to select the position shall occupy, nor to shrink from the responsi- bilities of the post to which I have been assigned. Accordingly, accept the nomi- nation from sense of public duty; and as think, uninhuenced in any degree by the allurements of ambition.

 1 avail myself of this occasion to say that the confidence in my personal and public character implied by the action of the con vention will always be gratefully remem- bered; and it is but just also to my own feelings to express my qualification at the | association of my name with that of my friend Gen. Lane, a patriot and soldier, whose great services in the field and in council enttle him to the gratitude and con fdence of his countrvmen.

 The resolutions adopted by the conven- tion have my cordial approval. They are just to all parts of the Union, to all our cit izens, native and naturalizod, and they form noble policy for any administration.

 The questions touching the rights of per sons and property which have of late been much discussed, find in these resolutions a constitutional solution Our Union is a coniederacy of equal sovereign States, for | the purposes enumerated in the federal con- stitution. Whatever the common govern ment holds in trust for all the States must be enjoyed equally by each. It controls the territories in trust for all the States. Nothing less than sovereignty can destroy or impair the rights of persons or property. | The territorial government are subordinate and temporary, and not sovereign; hence they cannot destroy or Impair the rights oi persons or property. While they continue to be territories they are under the control of Congress, but the constitution nowhere confers on any branch of the federal govern ment the power to discriminate against the rights of the States or the property of thei1 citizens in the territories. It follows that territories of the Union with thar property of whatever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial condition, without let or hin drance, either by Congress or by the subor- dinate territorial government

 These principles flow directly from the absence of sovereignty in the territorial government, and from the equality of the States. Indeed, they are essential to that equality, which is and ever has been the vital principle of our constitutional Union. They have been settled legi>latively, set tied judically and are sustained by right and reason. They rest on the reck of the constitution. They will preserve the con stitution-they will preserve the Union.

 IL is aidle t. attempt to smother these great issues, OF 10 misiepreaent them by the use of partisan phrases, which are mislead- ing and dclusive. The people will look beneathSuch expressions as intervention, ? 'congressinnal slave code" and the like, and will penetrate to the real questions in volved The friends of constitutional equality do not and never did demand a ''congressional slave code," nor any other coaein regard property in the territories. They hold the doctrine of on-intervention by Congress or by territorial legislature, either to establish or prohibit slavery; but they assert fortified by the highest judicial tribunal in the Union, the plain duty of the federal government, in all its depart ments, to secure, when necessary, to the citizens of all the States, the enjoyment of their property in the common territories. The only logical answer to this would seem l +C ha To 1,i, ritories, or to deny that the constitution recognizes property in the services of negro slaves, or to deny that such property can exist

 Inexorable logic. which works it's steady way through clouds and passion, compels the country to meet the issu.. There is no evasive middle ground. Already the signs multiply of a fanatical and growing party, which denies that under the constitution, or by any other law, slave property can exist and ultimately the struggle must come between this party and the national democracy, sustained by all other conser. vative elements in the Union.

 think 1t will be impossible for candid mind to discover hostility to the Union ol a taint of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted by the convention. The constitu- and the Union reposes on the equality o the States, which lies like broad fourda tion underneath our whole political structure As 1 construe them, the resolutions simply assert this equality. They demand noth ing for any State or section that is not cheertully conceded to all the rest It is we'll to remember that the chief disorders which have afflicted our country have growr out of the violation of State equality; and that as long as this great principle has heer respected, we have been blessed with har. mony and peace. Nor will it be easy te persuade the country that resolutions are sectional which command the support of | majority of the States, and are approved by the bone and body of the old democracy and by vast mass of conservative opinior everywhere, without regard to party.

 It haS been necessary more than once II our history to palise ant soIemnly asSer the true character of this government. memorable inStan e occurred in the strug gle which en jel in the civil revolution o 1900. The republicans of that day, lik, the demo .racv of this, were stigmatized a