Our Presidents and how we make them

by Alexander K. McClure

Resolved, That, in view of the condition of popular institutions in the Old World, a high and sacred duty is devolved, with increased responsibility, upon the Democracy of this country, as the party of the people, to uphold and maintain the rights of every State, and thereby the union of States, and to sustain and advance among them constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those principles and compromises of the Constitution which are broad enough and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it is, and the Union as it should be, in the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progressive people.

The nomination of Pierce was received very generally by the Democrats with great enthusiasm. The spirit of young Democracy had grown up in the party and become very formidable. The Democratic Review, the monthly organ of Democracy, had been reorganized with an able and most aggressive staff devoted to the overthrow of “old fogyism” in the party, and when Pierce was nominated the boys who do the shouting were almost wholly in sympathy with the young Democracy, and the old-timers had to fall in the rear of the procession. With the Democratic party united on candidates who were free from factional complication, and with the Compromise Measures, on which they could unite both the North and South, they started in the contest with every advantage and maintained it until election day, when the Whig party suffered its Waterloo.

The Whig convention met in Baltimore on the 16th of June with every State represented, and John G. Chapman, of Maryland, was made the presiding officer. The Southern delegates fortified themselves before the meeting of the convention by a caucus declaration of the party platform, and it was an open secret that if the convention accepted the platform, enough Southern men would support Scott to give him the nomination. They knew that Fillmore could not be elected, and that Webster was even weaker than Fillmore, and they were willing to accept Scott, who was the candidate of the antislavery element of the party, if the Compromise Measures were squarely affirmed by the party convention, while Scott was willing to accept the nomination with any platform the convention might formulate. Fillmore had carried the Compromise Measures and forced the Whigs to accept them in the party platform, but the insincerity of that expression was manifested by the refusal to nominate Fillmore, and by the nomination of Scott, who represented the anti-Compromise Whigs of the country. There were 53 ballots for President, but during the long struggle there was little exhibition of ill-temper. Scott started with 131 to 133 for Fillmore and 29 for Webster, and ended with 159 for Scott to 112 for Fillmore and 21 for Webster. The following table presents the ballots in detail:

BALLOTS.	Scott.	Fillmore.	Webster.
1	131	133	29
2	133	131	29
3	133	131	29
4	134	130	29
5	130	133	30
6	133	131	29
7	131	133	28
8	133	131	28
9	133	133	29
10	135	130	29
11	134	131	28
12	134	130	28
13	134	130	28
14	133	130	29
15	133	130	29
16	135	129	28
17	132	131	29
18	132	131	28
19	132	131	29
20	132	131	29
21	133	131	28
22	132	130	30
23	132	130	30
24	133	129	30
25	133	128	31
26	134	128	30
27	134	128	30
28	134	128	30
29	134	128	30
30	134	128	29
31	134	128	30
32	134	128	30
33	134	128	29
34	134	126	28
35	134	128	28
36	136	127	28
37	133	128	28
38	136	127	29
39	134	128	30
40	132	129	32
41	132	129	32
42	134	128	30
43	134	128	30
44	133	129	30
45	133	127	32
46	134	127	31
47	135	129	29
48	137	124	30
49	139	122	30
50	142	122	28
51	142	120	29
52	146	119	27
53	159	112	21
Necessary to choose, 147

The nomination of Scott was made unanimous, and William A. Graham, of North Carolina, who was Secretary of the Navy under the Fillmore administration, was given a unanimous nomination for Vice-President on the 2d ballot. The following platform was adopted without opposition, excepting as to the eighth and last, affirming the new and stringent Fugitive Slave law. After an earnest debate it was adopted by a vote of 212 to 70. Many of the friends of General Scott voted for that resolution from considerations of expediency. General Scott in his letter of acceptance broadly affirmed the platform in its entirety.

The Whigs of the United States, in convention assembled, adhering to the great conservative principles by which they are controlled and governed, and now, as ever, relying upon the intelligence of the American people, with an abiding confidence in their capacity for self-government, and their devotion to the Constitution and the Union, do proclaim the following as the political sentiments and determination for the establishment and maintenance of which their national organization as a party was effected:

First. The Government of the United States is of a limited character, and it is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted by the Constitution, and such as may be necessary and proper for carrying the granted powers into full execution, and that powers not granted or necessarily implied are reserved to the States respectively and to the people.

Second. The State governments should be held secure to their reserved rights, and the General Government sustained on its constitutional powers, and that the Union should be revered and watched over as the palladium of our liberties.

Third. That while struggling freedom everywhere enlists the warmest sympathy of the Whig party, we still adhere to the doctrines of the Father of his Country, as announced in his Farewell Address, of keeping ourselves free from all entangling alliances with foreign countries, and of never quitting our own to stand upon foreign ground; that our mission as a republic is not to propagate our opinions, or impose on other countries our forms of government by artifice or force; but to teach by example, and show by our success, moderation and justice, the blessings of self-government and the advantage of free institutions.

Fourth. That, as the people make and control the Government, they should obey its Constitution, laws, and treaties, as they would retain their self-respect and the respect which they claim and will enforce from foreign powers.