Men forego every consideration of public honor and private
conscience for the sake of electing a party candidate. The man at the helm
of the party ship has declared that he will sail due north, or south, or
east, or west, whatever happens, and his crew laugh together and keep no
lookout; they even feel a certain pride in their leader, who thus defies
the accidents of nature for the sake of sailing in a fixed direction.
"What is the result of all this? It is here before us. The country is
splitting into parties. Three candidates are set up for the office of
President. Three distinct parties stand in the field, each one vowing
vengeance, secession, revolution, utter dismemberment of the Union, unless
its chosen champion is elected to be chief of the Executive Department. Is
this to be the life of our Republic in future? Is this all that so many
millions of free citizens can do for the public good and for public
harmony? What shall we gain by electing the candidate from the North, if
the defeated candidate from the South is determined to produce a
revolution; and if the disappointed candidate from the West threatens to
touch off the dry powder and spring the mine of a great western secession?
Have we not seen all this before? Has not the bitter cry of a nation's
broken heart gone up to heaven already in mortal agony for these very
things to which our uncontrollable political passions are hourly leading
us?
"The contest is between political passion on the one hand and universal
liberty on the other.
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