other foe to conquer. Its heel was upon the neck of sectionalism, which, if it had not been revived and fanned into new life, would have lain there prostrate still. Like Alexander, it mourned that it had nothing more to conquer; but its old foe has risen up again; like the dragon's teeth, its mischiefs have been sown far and wide.

The democratic party has a new battle to fight. It is called upon to buckle on its armor and take the field anew against every ism that has grown up from the organization of the government to the present moment. Though defeated once and again, they renew the struggle, and who would not be proud to be first and foremost in the great contest? Who would not be proud to be one of the combatants in that great battle for liberty? To preserve inviolate the Constitution against sectionalism in national affairs; to protect every interest in our State policy-not only as regards this domestic question which we have discussed, but every other affecting the social wellbeing; to promote justice, temperance, charity, goodness, truth; to stay up every hand and to correct every abuse; this is the mission of the democratic party; nothing more and nothing less. Its candidates in the field have been placed there not as candidates merely, but as the representatives of great princi ples. They are nominated because it is believed they will represent those principles truly. They are placed before us upon no temporary issue, that commenced in an ism and is to end in one; that originated in the last session of the Legislature, and will have its quietus in the next; but upon principles which concern every individual, every man, woman, and child in Christendom. The ship of state in which we are embarked is freighted with a precious cargo. Every one should endeavor to preserve her, and speed her upon her great errand, carrying the glad tidings of great joy throughout the world-preserving, upholding, and diffusing the principles which have been so successful here-not principles which begin and end in such miserable and narrow questions as that relating to the manufacture or sale of foreign or domestic liquors, but which embrace all interests, all peoples, every section of the globe-principles as broad as the universe and as universal as truth. These principles, my democratic fellow-citizens, we are called upon in this contest to uphold, to cherish, and sustain. It is not the

election of Greene C. Bronson, or the defeat of Myron H. Clark, or whether one man shall drink liquor and another none; but the great principles of democratic equality and constitutional liberty which protect all, uphold all, and rectify all errors and abuses, and they alone are at stake.

Greene C. Bronson stands forth as the exponent of the principles which I have endeavored to inculcate. Myron H. Clark is the champion of his party, with all the isms of the day combined, and stands upon them as the issue alone. Now I call upon my democratic fellow-citizens-and I go fartherI call upon every man of sense and honesty to come forward and say what principles he will maintain in this contest. If beside the great and vital principles to which I have alluded, he would uphold temperance also, but does not wish to join fanaticism with it, but to take a rational and practical view of the question, to preserve and regulate but not destroy the interest, he will support Greene C. Bronson. If he would support Abolitionism, Sectionalism, Maine Law-ism, Woman's Rights-ism, and every other ism that can be conceived of, let him vote for Myron H. Clark, and, if his election be secured, he will have them all mixed together in one universal dragnet. If he desire to place himself upon the liquor question alone, to have his whole political action tested by liquid measure and gauged like a beer-barrel, to have everything determined by its bearing upon the liquor question and degraded to a liquor issue before the country, let him support Horatio Seymour.

But I devoutly trust that this contest will be determined upon no such degrading issue. I trust that the interests, the principles, and the moral feeling of the country are against it. The interest of the liquor dealer is simply, that he have all his rights preserved to him, and nothing more. If he would secure this, he must stand by and help to preserve the rights of others. Men surrender many of their natural rights for the preservation of their social and political rights. Other interests demand the aid of the liquor dealer as much as he demands theirs. Then let all associate and go together, in order to preserve all; but not ask that any one interest be made paramount, either in opposition or support. All that is at issue is in the keeping or under the control of good men, if

they will act together and act efficiently. But when they separate themselves into sections, they are cut up in detail and their influence broken and destroyed. I invoke you, fellowcitizens, in repetition and conclusion, to act together upon this question. It would be a disgrace to see New York, the Empire State of the Union, forgetting all the great interests of society, go off upon the retail liquor question. It might do for Neal Dow and his Maine Law-ites; but would be too much for us to abandon every other interest and every object of great and general public consequence, and make this the great controlling issue of the time.

I thank you, fellow-citizens, for the honor of this enthusi astic reception, and for the patient hearing you have extended to my remarks.

SPEECH

AT A MASS MEETING HELD TO RATIFY THE NOMINATIONS OF THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.

DELIVERED AT THE COURT-HOUSE IN BINGHAMTON, N. Y., June 21, 1856.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS-The exercise of the popular franchise, at all times a subject replete with interest, becomes so in a tenfold degree to the American people when the period approaches for the election of Chief Magistrate of the United States. It is indeed a spectacle of imposing grandeur when nearly thirty millions of free people, composing thirty-one sovereign and independent yet united States, acting in obedience to a constitution and laws of their own voluntary construction, proceed in concert to the election of President and Vice-President by the declaration of popular opinion. No bayonets bristle, no martial airs fall upon the ear, no sentinel guards this portal of liberty, no civil process even is permitted to disturb or intimidate the humblest elector; but he deposits the ballot for the candidate of his choice, the popular heart swells and throbs for a moment with the pulsations of a mighty struggle, as the balances vibrate-the result is declared, and no trace of the agitation remains save in remembrance, and the administration is approved or condemned as it deserves or disappoints the confidence by which it was created.

The beneficent Being who rules over us has given us a land abounding in all the elements of good; stretching from beyond the Great Lakes to the territory of the Montezumasfrom the St. John's to the Pacific; embracing almost every variety of soil, climate, and production, and teeming with a free, happy, and intelligent people. No standing armies dis

figure and demoralize; no grievous taxation consumes; but industry enjoys its liberal reward, the means of education are laid at every door, and each worships God according to the dictates of his own conscience. Contrast for a moment this happy condition with the despotisms and monarchies of the earth. See their self-created, consuming, pensioned aristocracy; their standing armies, crushing out the life-blood of the people and wasting their own in unholy and murderous wars;-their system of taxation which robs labor of its reward and rolls on its ponderous chariot-wheels from generation to generation over the necks of a subjugated people, regardless of the cry of breadless children who have long raised up their little hands in judgment against it; and when we have looked upon and contemplated both systems, we shall be the better able to appreciate the value of the institutions under which it has pleased Heaven to cast our destiny, and to determine whether a fountain from which so much goodness flows is worthy of preservation. It was the fruit of a great and mighty struggle waged by opinion upon the king-craft of earth. Its guaranties were written in the heart-blood of patriotic devotion and sanctified by the tears of widows and orphans. Its Constitution was framed in the spirit which inspired the Revolution; in that exalted patriotism which yields individual advantage for the general good, and temporary and minor benefits to those more comprehensive and enduring. O, that it might be upheld and all its provisions maintained in the same generous spirit of true national liberty; that the last vestige of sectional spirit and strife might be banished from amongst us forever, and that we might go on our way in the discharge of liberty's benign mission, to the consummation of that glorious destiny before us.

In obedience to usage, as the Presidential election approaches, the several political parties have entered the lists and placed their candidates in nomination. The names of Buchanan and Breckinridge represent the Democratic party; Fillmore and Donelson the American, and Fremont and Dayton the Republican. If the question were merely whether one or the other of these tickets should be elected; whether one or another should enjoy a high office and administer the government and distribute the patronage; however great the