design to trespass many moments on the Senate ; but allow me to read and offer a very few comments upon some portions of the Democratic platform. The first resolution that treats upon the subject is in these wordsI read just so much of it as is applicable to my present remarks:

Take all these resolutions together, and the deduction which we must necessarily draw from them is a denial to Congress of any power whatever to legislate upon the subject of Slavery. The last resolution denies to the people of the Territories any power over that subject, save when they shall have a sufficient number to form a coninstitution and become a State, and also denies that Congress has any power over the subject; and so the resolutions hold that this power is at least in abeyance while the Territory is in a Territorial condition. That is the only conclusion which you can draw from these resolutions. Alas! for short-lived Territorial Sovereignty! It came to its death in the house of its friends; it was buried by the same hands which had given it baptism!

"That Congress has no power under the Constitution to terfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and that all such States are the sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited

by the Constitution."

I take it that this language, thus far, is language which meets a willing and ready response from every Senator here-certainly it does from me. But in the following resolution I find these words:

"Resolved, That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to embrace, the whole subject of Slavery agitation in Congress."

But, sir, I did not rise for the purpose of discussing these resolutions, but only to read them, and state the action which I propose to take in view of them. I may -I probably shall take some subsequent occasion, when The first resolution which I read was adopted years I shall endeavor to present to the Senate and the counago in Democratic Conventions. The second resolution try a fair account of what is the true issue presented to which I read was adopted in subsequent years, when a the people for their consideration and decision. different state of things had arisen, and it became neces- My object now is to show only that the Cincinnati Consary to apply an abstract proposition relating to the vention has indorsed and approved of the repeal of the States, to the Territories. Hence the adoption of the lan- Missouri Compromise, from which so many evils have guage contained in the second Resolution which I have already flowed-from which, I fear, more and worse read. evils must yet be anticipated. It would of course, be exNow, sir, I deny the position thus assumed by the Cin-pected that the Presidential nominee of that Convention cinnati Convention. In the language of the Senator from would accept, cordially and cheerfully, the platform preKentucky (Mr. Crittenden), so ably and so appropriately pared for him by his party friends. No person can obused on Tuesday last, I hold that the entire and unquali-ject to that. There is no equivocation on his part about fied sovereignty of the Territories is in Congress. That the matter. I beg leave to read a short extract from a is my judgment; but this resolution brings the Territories speech of that gentleman, made at his own home within precisely within the same limitations which are applied the last few days. In reply to the Keystone Club, which to the States in the resolution which I first read. The paid him a visit there, Mr. Buchanan said: two taken together deny to Congress any power of legislation in the Territories.

Follow on, and let us see what remains. Adopted as a part of the present platform, and as necessary to a new state of things, and to meet an emergency now existing, the Convention says:

"The American Democracy recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic law establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as embodying the only sound and safe solution of the Slavery question, upon which the great national idea of the people of this whole country can repose, in its determined conservatism of the Union-non-interference by Congress with Slavery in the States and Territories."

Then follows the last resolution:

"Resolved, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the fairly-expressed will of the majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a constitution, with or without domestic Slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States."

"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made you a longer speech; but now I have been placed on a platform of which I most heartily approve, and that can speak for me. Being the representative of the great Democratic party, and cording to the platform of the party, and insert no new plank, not simply James Buchanan, I must square my conduct acnor take one from it."

These events leave to me only one unpleasant duty, which is to declare here that I can maintain political associations with no party that insists upon such doctrines; that I can support no man for President who avows and recognizes them; and that the little of that power with which God has endowed me shall be employed to battle manfully, firmly, and consistently for his defeat, demanded as it is by the highest interests of the country which owns all my allegiance.

The President.-The question is on the motion of the Senator from Maine to be excused from further service on the Committee on Commerce.

The motion was agreed to.

ACCEPTANCE OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.

MESSRS. LINCOLN AND HAMLIN ACCEPT.

THE following is the correspondence between the officers of the Republican National Convention and the candidates thereof for President and Vice-President:

CHICAGO, May 18, 1860.

To the HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, of Illinois.

SIR: The representatives of the Republican Party of the United States, assembled in Convention at Chicago, have this day, by a unanimous vote, selected you as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States to be supported at the next election; and the undersigned were appointed a Committee of the Convention to apprise you of this nomination, and respectfully to request that you will accept it. A declaration of the principles and sentiments adopted by the Convention accompanies this communication.

In the performance of this agreeable duty we take leave to add our confident assurance that the nomination of the Chicago Convention will be ratified by the suffrages of the people.

We have the honor to be, with great respect and regard, your friends and fellow-citizens.

GEORGE ASHMUN, of Massachusetts,
President of the Convention.

WM. M. EVARTS, of New-York,

JOEL BURLINGAME, of Oregon,

EPHRAIM MARSH, of New-Jersey,
GIDEON WELLS, of Connecticut,
D. K. CARTER, of Ohio,

CARL SCHURZ, of Wisconsin,

JAMES F. SIMMONS, of Rhode Island,
JOHN W. NORTH, of Minnesota,

GEO. D. BLAKEY, of Kentucky,

PETER T. WASHBURN, of Vermont,

A. C. WILDER, of Kansas,

EDWARD H. ROLLINS, of New-Hampshire,
FRANCIS S. CORKRAN, of Maryland,
NORMAN B. JUDD, of Illinois,
N. B. SMITHERS, of Delaware,
WM. H. MCCRILLIS, of Maine,
ALFRED CALDWELL, of Virginia,
CALEB B. SMITH, of Indiana,
AUSTIN BLAIR, of Michigan,
WM. P. CLARKE, of Iowa,
B. GRATZ BROWN, of Missouri,
F. P. TRACY. of California,

E. D. WEBSTER, of Nebraska,

G. A. HALL, of District of Columbia,
JOHN A. ANDREW, of Massachusetts,
A. H. REEDER, of Pennsylvania.
SPRINGFILD, ILL., May 28, 1860.
HON. GEORGE ASHMUN, President of the Republican
National Convention.

SIR: I accept the nomination tendered me by the
Convention over which you presided, and of which I am

formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose.

The declaration of principles and sentiments, which accompanies your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to violate, or disregard it, in any part.

Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention; to the rights of all the States, and Territories, and people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most happy to cooperate for the practical success of the principles declared by the Convention.

Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

A similar letter was sent to the nominee for the Vice-Presidency, to which the following is the reply.

WASHINGTON, May 80, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your official communication of the 18th instant, informing me that the representatives of the Republican party of the United States, assembled at Chicago, on that day, had, by a unanimous vote, selected me as their candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States, has been received, together with the resolutions adopted by the Convention as its declaration of principles.

as just and necessary to 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 it, and having resolved to sustain it, I feel that it does not become me to select the position I shall occupy, nor to shrink from the responsi bilities of the post to which I have been assigned. Accordingly, I accept the nomination from a sense of public duty, and, as I think, uninfluenced in any degree by the allurements of ambition.

I avail myself of this occasion to say that the confidence in my personal and public character implied by the action of the Convention, will always be gratefully remembered; and it is but just, also, to my own feelings, to express my gratification at the association of my name with that of my friend Gen. Lane, a patriot and a soldier, whose great services in the field and in council entitle him to the gratitude and confidence of his countrymen.

The resolutions adopted by the Convention have my cordial approval. They are just to all parts of the Union, to all our citizens, native and naturalized, and they form a noble policy for any administration.

The questions touching the rights of persons and property, which have of late been much discussed, find in these resolutions a constitutional solution. Our Union is a Confederacy of equal sovereign States, for the purposes enumerated in the Federal Constitution. Whatever the common Government 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. Those resolutions enunciate clearly and forcibly the The Territorial Governments are subordinate and tempoprinciples which unite us, and the objects proposed to be rary, and not sovereign; hence they cannot destroy or accomplished. They address themselves to all, and there impair the rights of persons or property. While they is neither necessity nor propriety in my entering upon a continue to be Territories they are under the control of discussion of any of them. They have the approval of Congress, but the Constitution nowhere confers on any my judgment, and in any action of mine will be faith-branch of the Federal Government the power to discrimi fully and cordially sustained. nate against the rights of the States or the property of their citizens in the Territories. It follows that the citizens of all the States may enter the Territories of the Union with their property, of whatever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial condition without let or hindrance, either by Congress or by the subordinate Territorial Governments.

I am profoundly grateful to those with whom it is my pride and pleasure politically to coöperate, for the nomination so unexpectedly conferred; and I desire to tender through you, to the members of the Convention, my sincere thanks for the confidence thus reposed in me. Should the nomination, which I now accept, be ratified by the people, and the duties devolve upon me of presiding over the Senate of the United States, it will be my earnest endeavor faithfully to discharge them with a just regard for the rights of all.

It is to be observed, in connection with the doings of the Republican Convention, that a paramount_object with us is to preserve the normal condition of our Territotorial Domain as homes for Free men. The able advocate and defender of Republican principles, whom you have nominated for the highest place that can gratify the ambition of man, comes from a State which has been made what it is, by special action, in that respect, of the wise and good men who founded our institutions. The rights of free labor have there been vindicated and maintained. The thrift and enterprise which so distinguish Illinois, one of the most flourishing States of the glorious West, we would see secured to all the Territories of the Union; and restore peace and harmony to the whole country, by bringing back the Government to what it was under the wise and patriotic men who created it. If the Republicans shall succeed in that object, as they hope to, they will be held in grateful remembrance by the busy and teeming millions of future ages.

MR. BRECKINRIDGE ACCEPTS.

WASHINGTON CITY, July 6, 1860. DEAR SIR: I have your letter of the 23d ultimo, 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.

I have not sought nor desired to be placed before the country for the office of President. When my name was presented to the Convention at Charleston, it was withdrawn by a friend in obedience to my expressed wishes. My views had not changed when the Convention reassembled at Baltimore, 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 nominations, and which are or soon will be well understood by the country, I have only to say that I approved,

These principles flow directly from the absence of sovereignty in the Territorial Governments, 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 legislatively settled judiciously, and are sustained Ly right reason. They rest on the rock of the Constitutionthey will preserve the Union.

66

It is idle to attempt to smother these great issues, or to misrepresent them by the use of partisan phrases, which are misleading and delusive. The people will look beneath such expressions as "Intervention," " Congressional Slave Code," and the like, and will penetrate to the real questions involved. The friends of Constitutional equality do not and never did demand a Congressional Slave Code," nor any other code in regard to property in the Territories. They hold the doctrine of non-intervention by Congress, or by a Territorial Legislature, either to establish or prohibit Slavery; but they assert (fortifi ed by the highest judicial tribunal in the Union) the plain duty of the Federal Government, in all its departments, to secure, when necessary, to the citizens of all the States, the enjoyment of their property in the common Territories, as everywhere else within its jurisdiction. The only logical answer to this would seem to be to claim sovereign power for the Territories, 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 its steady way through clouds and passion, compels the country to meet the issue. 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 the other conservative elements in the Union.

The

I think it will be impossible for a candid mind to discover hostility to the Union or a taint of sectionalism in the resolutions adopted by the Convention. Constitution and the Union repose on the equality of the States, which lies like a broad foundation underneath our whole political structure. As I construe them, the resolutions simply assert this equality. They demand nothing for any State or section that is not cheerfully conceded to all the rest. It is well to remember that the chief disorders which have afflicted our country have grown out of the violation of State equality, and that as long as this great principle has been respected

If the Constitution establishes the right of every citizen During the memorable period of our political history, to enter the common territory with whatever property he when the advocates of Federal intervention upon the sublegally possesses, it necessarily devolves on the Federal ject of Slavery in the Territories had well-nigh “precipiGovernment the duty to protect this right of the citizen tated the country into revolution," the Northern intervenwhenever and wherever assailed or infringed. The De- tionists demanding the Wilmot Proviso for the prohibition mocratic party honestly meets this agitating question, of Slavery, and the Southern interventionists, then few in which is threatening to sever and destroy this brotherhood number, and without a single Representative in either of States. It does not propose to legislate for the exten- House of Congress, insisting upon Congressional legislasion of Slavery, nor for its restriction, but to give to each tion for the protection of Slavery in opposition to the State and to every citizen all that our forefathers proposed wishes of the people in either case, it will be remembered to give-namely, perfect equality of rights, and then to that it required all the wisdom, power and influence of a commit to the people, to climate, and to soil, the determi- Clay and a Webster and a Cass, supported by the consernation as to the kind of institution best fitted to their re-vative and patriotic men of the Whig and Democratic parquirements in their constitutional limits, and declaring as a fundamental maxim, that the people of a Territory can only establish or prohibit Slavery when they come to form a constitution, preparatory to their admission as a State into the Union.

try. If we now depart from that wise and just policy | the propriety of acting in so grave a matter with greater which produced these happy results, and permit the coun- deliberation, I concluded, as I informed you at the time try to be again distracted; if precipitated into revolution by a private note, to defer a formal acceptance until after by a sectional contest between Pro-Slavery and Anti-Sla- my arrival at home. very interventionists, where shall we look for another Clay, another Webster, or another Cass to pilot the ship of State over the breakers into a haven of peace and safety? The Federal Union must be preserved. The Constitution must be maintained inviolate in all its parts. Every right guaranteed by the Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation is necessary to its enjoyment. The judicial authority, as provided in the Constitution, must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and faithfully executed. The laws must be administered and the constituted authorities upheld, and all unlawful resistance to these things must be put down with firmness, impartiality and fidelity, if we expect to enjoy and transmit unimpaired to our posterity, that blessed inheritance which we have received in trust from the patriots and sages of the Revolution.

With sincere thanks for the kind and agreeable manner in which you have made known to me the action of the Convention, I have the honor to be,

Your friend and fellow citizen,
S. A. DOUGLAS.
Hon. Wм. H. LUDLOW, of New-York; R. P. DICK, of
North Carolina; P. C. WICKLIFF, of Louisiana, and others
of Committee.

MR. FITZPATRICK DECLINES.

WASHINGTON, June 25, 1860. GENTLEMEN: Your letter of to-day, informing me that I "have been unanimously nominated by the National Convention of the Democratic party, which met at Charleston on the 23d day of April last, and adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the 18th day of June, as their candidate for the office of Vice-President," was duly received.

Acknowledging with the liveliest sensibility this distinguished mark of your confidence and regard, it is with no ordinary feelings of regret that considerations, the recital of which I will not impose upon you, constrain me to decline the nomination so flatteringly tendered. My designation as a candidate for this high position would have been more gratifying to me if it had proceeded from the united Democracy-united both as to principles and men. The distracting differences at present existing in the ranks of the Democratic party were strikingly exemplified both at Charleston and at Baltimore, and, in my humble opinion, distinctly admonish me that I should in no way contribute to these unfortunate divisions.

The Black Republicans have harmoniously (at least in Convention) presented their candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. So have the Constitutional Union party (as it is termed). Each party is already engaged in the contest. In the presence of such organizations we still, unfortunately, exhibit a divided camp. What a melancholy spectacle! It is calculated to cause every Democratic citizen who cherishes the Constitution of his country to despord, if not to despair, of the durability of the Union. Desirous, as far as I am capable of exercising any influence, to remove every obstacle which may prevent a restoration of the peace, harmony, and perfect concord of that glorious old party to which I have been inflexibly devoted from early manhood-a party which, in my deliberate opinion, is the only real and reliable ligament which binds the South, the North, the East, and the West together upon constitutional principles-no alternative was left to me but that which I have herein most respectfully communicated to you.

For the agreeable manner in which you have conveyed to me the action of the Convention, accept my sincere thanks.

Very truly your friend and obedient servant,
To WM. H. LUDLOW, of New-York, and others.

B. FITZPATRICK.

The Democratic National Committee subsequently nominated the Hon. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, who accepted the position.

MR. BELL ACCEPTS.

NASHVILLE, May 21, 1860. DEAR SIR: Official information of my nomination to the Presidency by the National Union Convention, of which you were the presiding officer, was communicated to me by your letter of the 11th inst., at Philadelphia, on the eve of my departure with my family for my place of residence in Tennessee; and diffident as I was of my worthiness, I did not hesitate to signify my intention to accept the position assigned to me by that distinguished and patriotic body. But for convenience, and under a sense of

Now that I have had all the leisure I could desire for reflection upon the circumstances under which the nomination was made, the purity of the motives and the lofty spirit of patriotism by which the Convention was animated, as evinced in all its proceedings, I can appreciate more justly the honor done me by the nomination; and, though it might have been more fortunate for the country had it fallen upon some one of the many distinguished statesmen whose names were brought to the notice of the Convention, rather than myself, I accept it, with all its possiWhatever may be the issue of the ble responsibilities. ensuing canvass, as for myself, I shall ever regard it as a proud distinction-one worth a lifelong effort to attainto be pronounced worthy to receive the highest office in the Government at such a time as the present, and by such a Convention as that which recently met in Baltimore-a Convention far less imposing by the number of its members, large as it was, than by their high character. In it were men venerable alike for their age and their public services, who could not have been called from their voluntary retirement from public life, but by the strongest sense of patriotic duty; others, though still in the prime of life, ranking with the first men of the country by honors and distinctions already acquired in high official positions, State and national, many of them statesmen worthy to fill the highest office in the government; a still greater number occupying the highest rank in their respective professional pursuits; others distinguished by their intelligence and well-earned influence in various walks of private life, and all animated and united by one spirit and one purpose the result of a strong conviction that our political system, under the operation of a complication of disorders, is rapidly approaching a crisis when a speedy change must take place, indicating, as in diseases of the physical body, recovery or death.

The Convention, in discarding the use of platforms, exact no pledge from those whom they deem worthy of the highest trusts under the Government; wisely considering that the surest guaranty of a man's future usefulness and fidelity to the great interests of the country, in any official station to which he may be chosen, is to be found in his past history connected with the public service. The pledge implied in my acceptance of the nomination of the National Union Convention is, that should I be elected, I will not depart from the spirit and tenor of my past course; and the obligation to keep this pledge derives a double force from the consideration that none is required from me.

You, sir, in your letter containing the official announcement of my nomination, have been pleased to ascribe to me the merit of moderation and justice in my past public career. You have likewise given me credit for a uniform support of all wise and beneficent measures of legislation, for a firm resistance to all measures calculated to engender sectional discord, and for a lifelong devotion to the Union, harmony, and prosperity of these States. Whether your personal partiality has led you to overstate my merits as a public man or not in your enumeration of them, you have presented a summary-a basis of all sound American statesmanship. It may be objected that nothing is said in this summary, in express terms, of the obligations imposed by the Constitution; but the duty to respect and observe them is clearly implied, for without due observance in the conduct of the Government of the Constitution, its restrictions, and requirements, fairly interpreted in accordance with its spirit and objects, there can be no end to sectional discord-no security for the harmony of the Union.

I have not the vanity to assume that in my past connection with the public service I have exemplified the course of a sound American statesman; but if I have deserved the favorable view taken of it in your letter, I may hope, by a faithful adherence to the maxims by which I have heretofore been guided, not altogether to disappoint the confidence and expectations of those who have placed me in my present relation to the public; and if, under Providence, I should be called to preside over the affairs of this great country as the Executive Chief of the Government, the only further pledge I feel called upon to make is, that the utmost of my ability, and with whatever strength of will I can command, all the powers and influence belonging to my official station,shall be employed and directed for the promotion of all the great objects for which the Government was instituted, but more espe cially for the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union against all imposing influences and tendencies.

I cannot conclude this letter without expressing my high gratification at the nomination to the second office under the Government, of the eminently-gifted and dis