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Europe are turned admiringly and hopefully upon us as the only guardians of true liberty, -as having set the only safe example for them to follow? Shall enlightened patriots and republicans now desert their posts and quit their ranks, without an effort, to accomplish that which they know to be right,- to put the government of the country in wise and safe . hands? We say, No, no.

"We hope and believe that Massachusetts at least will not despair, nor adopt the counsels of Fear. Massachusetts ! that has always been faithful to liberty, may she not hope that her voice will be heard and respected when Whigs are consulting upon the general welfare? Has Massachusetts been second to any of her sister states in upholding and advancing whig principles? She now presents one of her sons to become the leader, - to bear the banner of the

whig party, a veteran in the ranks of the party; one who can show as many scars received in the conflicts of that party as the stoutest and the bravest,one who can exhibit as many splendid trophies won in those conflicts, as any other. She asks that the man of her choice be taken, or, if he be rejected, that he be rejected upon some better plea and for some sounder reason, than that he is too strong, too much distinguished, too pre-eminent, to be approved by the popular voice. We are willing to trust the people. Our candidate is willing to trust the people. We and he are anxious to take their decision, and not the decision of those who assume to speak for them.

"Massachusetts presents the name of Daniel Webster, because she has tried him long. She has

tried him in the councils of her own commonwealth and in the councils of the nation. The nation has tried him, and, in every public station, in every department, he has come up to the highest point of excellence, reached by any who preceded him in the same station or department. The approbation of Massachusetts comes up for Daniel Webster, as was well said by the present speaker of the House of Representatives,* on a public occasion in Philadelphia, 'from every hill-side, from every river-side, from every sea-side, and from every fire-side, in the old Bay State of the Revolution.' Nor is she likely to forget his services, now, when he has come back to her, bowed to the very earth with domestic affliction,† but yet with spirit enough and strength enough to contend, as no other man can contend, for those principles of liberty that are dear to the heart of the state which has honored and trusted him.

"We have no authority to speak for others, but we believe that the delegates who shall represent Massachusetts in the Whig Convention that is to assemble in the Hall of Independence on the seventh day of June next, will urge, to the very last moment, the nomination of Daniel Webster to the office of President of the United States; and we trust they will not be left to contend alone for his nomination."

April 3, 1848.

Hon. Robert C. Winthrop.

† Mr. Webster was then in Massachusetts, called from his place in the Senate, to attend the funeral of his youngest son, and the death-bed of his only daughter.

AVAILABILITY.

"As an inhabitant of Massachusetts we feel humbled and mortified, when we hear, as we do daily, and in the most public places, men of character and

influence declare that Daniel Webster is their first choice for President, and if he should fail to receive the nomination of the Whig Convention, on the first ballot, then their choice is Zachary Taylor. In our opinion, it is pretty safe to conclude that those who make this declaration are not friends to Mr. Webster's nomination. Indeed, we begin to fear that there is some truth in the charge of insincerity among a certain portion of the Whigs, to which we alluded some days ago. If those, who hold and advocate this doctrine of availability, do really wish to see Mr. Webster nominated by the Whig Convention, it would seem that, as a matter of policy, they would say nothing of a second choice. To say that they should rejoice to place Mr. Webster in the Presidency, but that they know that he cannot be elected, is equivalent to saying to their opponents, Give us whom you please; we should be pleased, if you would give us Webster; but give us Taylor, or whom you please, and we accept the nomination. Now the friends of Gen. Taylor, or any other southern candidate, will never become so stultified, as to allow even a complimentary vote of the Convention to be given to Mr. Webster, while the pliant Whigs of the free states pronounce beforehand their readiness to give up their own preference to the nomination of the slaveholding power. Why should they? They have only to persevere in their adherence

to a slaveholder, or a southern man, knowing, or believing, as they have reason to believe, that the friends of Mr. Webster will give way, and meanly submit to be imposed upon with an available candidate.

"There is but one straight-forward course for the Massachusetts delegates to pursue,—and that is, to let it be distinctly known that they have no second choice of a candidate ;- that Webster is their first and second and last and only choice. It may be said that Gen. Taylor can be nominated by a majority, without the aid of Massachusetts. If so, so let it be. But it is said, If Massachusetts should refuse to accept the nomination of the Convention, she will stand alone. Well, she had better stand alone, than aid in elevating to the Presidency a man who has no qualification for the office, or any man who is inferior to the best. Thank Heaven, she is able to stand alone. She would gain nothing by drawing the triumphal car of the available candidate. A few of her degenerate sons might, perhaps, be permitted to feed on the crumbs, which fall from his table during the inauguration dinner; but Massachusetts, as a state, stands in no need of such patronage. She is better without it.

"We do not yet despair, and hope that the voice of the delegation of the free men from the free states may not be without influence. But the southern men, (who, by the way, never acknowledge any second choice, nor even talk of an available candidate,) have an overcoming faith in doughfaces, and their faith generally saves them from defeat."

May 27, 1848.

Here ended my efforts to support the election of Mr. Webster. The Convention nominated General Taylor, and all discussion relating to the justice or propriety of the nomination would have been superfluous and unavailing. Mr. Webster was again sacrificed to the senseless notion of "availability." With a magnanimous spirit, like that which he had manifested on former similar occasions, he acquiesced in the decision of the Convention, and suffered immolation at the shrine of an ungrateful party. I would have traveled from Dan to Beersheba to make him President. My doubts of the fitness of General Taylor for that high office were too firmly fixed to be changed by the decision of a political caucus. Conscientiously, I could not bow to "the rising sun" of the political firmament; and soon after retired from the position I had held as an editor for almost forty years.

The articles, which immediately follow, have been taken, almost promiscuously, from the files of ten successive years, - bearing no relation to political affairs or to topics of popular agitation, and therefore calling for no explanatory remarks: —

MAGNIFICENT PHENOMENON.

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