supporters. His votes were of those who, in the language of their party, of two evils choose the least; meaning thereby, the candidate most repugnant to democrats. In 1812, another instance occurred of dissent from the decision of a presidential convention The preferences of the democracy were divided between Mr. Madison, who was a candidate for re-election and Mr. Clinton. A nominating convention met at Washington, May 17, 1812. Out of 133 democratic members of Congress, only 82 would attend, and they voted unanimously for Mr. Madison. The friends of Mr. Clinton stigmatized this meeting as a convention of only Mr. Madison's supporters, and hence deemed Mr. Clinton not implicated by its decision. The people thought differently. To fly a court, will not, in such a case invalidate a verdict. The Legislature of New-York contained 91 democratic members, of whom the whole (excepting 4) nominated, unanimously, Mr. Clinton for the Presidency, eleven days after the congressional nomination of Mr. Madison. In an address to the people of the United States, they say: "We offer you a chief magistrate, whose principles you cannot doubt, and of whose competency and talents you are well convinced. Gratify us by his election. He enjoys our utmost confidence. He inherits the blood, the principles, the firmness of that hero, whom we and our fathers long delighted to honor,-who was the guardian of our State when the enemy desolated our lands, and burned our towns; and whose valor and wisdom contributed eminently to the triumph of America. We urge these facts as a claim; but if we urged them even as a persuasive, what American heart susceptible of feeling or gratitude, would repel our claim?" The American people did repel the claim, indignantly and triumphantly. The American heart is tender in a good cause, but it is also adamantine, when its rights are usurped. Whether Mr. Clinton or Mr Madison should be the President had become merged in the greater question of whether, like the ancient English, we should enlist under the personal banners of a white rose and a red, or contend as heretofore under the stars of the Union. The address in favor of Mr. Clinton said much, but it was cold in comparison with the fervor with which that extraordinary man was cherished by the State. I have seen him in our State Senate when the slightest intimation of his judgment commanded the deference of the most sagacious of its members. He was young in comparison with many of his colleagues, but the most aged yielded him reverence. Nature had formed him beautiful, and the constant indication of his superiority had given him the port of authority. His elevation was fearfully high, and, in an instant, he fell. A change so complete in the fortunes of an individual, a reversal so sudden, men seldom witness. History records of the first Brutus, that having as judge condemned to death his two sons for conspiring to place executive power where the Romans had not willed it; and having waited to see the young men stripped, beaten with rods, and beheaded, he retired from the tribunal to indulge in secret his parental feelings. So New-York still loved Clinton amid her sternest inflictions. Yet not till years of penance, and the most signal benefactions, could he regain power. Even then, while the splendor of his achievements rolled forward his triumphal car, it was cheered most by those whom in better days he had resisted; and amid their loudest plaudits, he must occasionally, like Napoleon, have mourned the absence of the more inspiring early cry, "Live the Democracy!" Ostensibly, Mr. Clinton had but acquiesced in the wishes of the State, yet so accustomed were the people to sympa. thize with his desires, that with more justice than is at first. apparent, they held him accountable for their own aberrations. The legislative members who nominated him were never blamed, for they but obeyed the wishes of their constituents. In accepting the nomination, the same palliation was not permitted to Mr. Clinton. The whole Union are the constituency of a President, and the commands of the Union can alone legitimate an aspiration to the office. We thus discover that the two instances which have occurred, of opposition to the general will, have proceeded from New-York. In both instances New-York has also punished the defection, till the sternest justice became satisfied; and now, by one of those retributions with which Providence delights occasionally to visits States as well as individuals, the principles which her severities upheld are to be exercised for her benefit, thus proving that honesty is as good policy for nations as for men. Still, though New-York honors the individual* who is nominated for the Presidency; though he is emphatically her favorite son, (self-nurtured in her woodlands wild,) and one from whose services to the Union she expects honor, she sent to the Convention with no instructions but to ascertain on whom the preferences of the nation rested, and him having ascertained she would support. And I err greatly if the individual who was nominated, would not have urged the Convention to disregard him, if another person united the preferences of a larger portion than he, of the democratic party. Nay, he would not in such a case have accepted the nomination. He would join no proceedings whose object was the frustration of the general will. *Martin Van Buren. So conscious of this, are his political enemies, that he has never been sullied by their support. Like the honest magnet, he repels as unequivocally as he attracts. The North will never possess a candidate more entitled to the confidence of the South. But he needs no delineation, nor is his capacity the question before the nation; but rather whether democratic councils shall continue to prevail or party become a chaos. Should this occur, I fondly believe in the energies of the people to recover a healthful existence. Yet party confidence will have received an ungracious stab. Party confidence is the strongest bond of the Union. Like the relation of husband and wife, it destroys individualities. Instead of a Southern interest, a Western, and an Eastern interest, it provides a general interest; and makes the election of every President, a triumph not of a section, but of the whole. I have supposed that the antipathy which the people entertain for federalism,—the instinct by which they discover it, under whatever name it seeks concealment,—and the delusion which induces our opponents to persevere, and causes them (flattered by the smallest victories) to hope that they shall eventually subdue the majority, are all benevolent dispensations of Providence, to divert us from the fatal divisions to which we are exposed by local prejudices. Finally, I will not speculate on improbable evils. The nomination of the Convention will be sustained, and with too feeble a resistance to yield to patriotism the excitement of a contested triumph. The late elections in Virginia are an evidence of the haste with which the South will rush to the rescue of their character from the imputation, that conventions are obligatory only when Southern men are to be nominated. The South will perform its duty, and the West; and this first serious attempt to show practically |