Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 280 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1.

Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 280 pages of information about Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1.
truth that we urge the adoption of the convention system.  Reflection will prove that there is no other way of practically applying it.  In its application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; but, after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than without the system.  If two friends aspire to the same office it is certain that both cannot succeed.  Would it not, then, be much less painful to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before, than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be beaten by the common enemy?

Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of the convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small offices no way connected with politics; though we must say we do not perceive that such an application of it would be wrong.

The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress.  The propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth, and therefore needs no further discussion.

The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion.

Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present condition and future prospects of the Whig party.  In almost all the States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to prevail universally among us.  Is there just cause for this?  In 1840 we carried the nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority.  Our opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever they may have believed, we know the charge to be untrue.  Where, now, is that mighty host?  Have they gone over to the enemy?  Let the results of the late elections answer.  Every State which has fallen off from the Whig cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig.  Bouck, who was elected Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by seven or eight thousand.  And so has it been in all the other States which have fallen away from our cause.  From this it is evident that tens of thousands in the late elections have not voted at all.  Who and what are they? is an important question, as respects the future.  They can come forward and give us the victory again.  That all, or nearly all, of them are Whigs is most apparent.  Our opponents, stung to madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever since rallied with more than their usual unanimity.  It has not been they that have been kept from the polls.  These facts show what the result must be, once the people again rally in their entire strength.  Proclaim these facts, and predict this result; and although unthinking opponents may smile at us, the

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Writings of Abraham Lincoln, the — Volume 1: 1832-1843 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.