Editorial: The Presidency in Congress; THE ZOUAVES AT WEST POINT; GENERAL CITY NEWS (7/27/1860)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 7/27/1860

[Homer_J_Simpson]

To the intelligent foreigner, who has studied DE TOCQUEVILLE, and looks with interest at the working of American institutions, the most striking peculiarity of the actual Presidential canvass must be the professed readiness of popular leaders to defeat the popular will. Of the six candidates named, two alone calculate upon and work for an election by the people. The remainder, while professing absolute allegiance to the democratic principle, pretend to base their hopes of elevation to office upon the defeat of the popular will, and an election to be effected in one or the other branch of Congress of some candidate against whom a majority of the people will have pronounced. Setting aside the audacity of those who are now appealing to the masses of the people for suffrages which it is their design, if practicable, to nullify and dispense with, and the circumstance that a provision inserted in the Constitution as a last resort, to save the country from anarchy in case the people fail to elect, is to be used like a clever rule of legerdemain to make a President of the last man whom two-thirds of his countrymen would wish to see in that office, it may be worth while to inquire carefully into the probable result of this disfranchisement of thirty millions of population. And it is important in this connection to remember that the politicians who adopt this policy are those who are loudest in their professions of attachment to the Union, and in their assertions that its salvation is the disinterested aim of their labors.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harper’s Ferry, the election of 1860, secession – all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Editorial: The Presidency in Congress – 2
The Zouaves at West Point – 2-3
General City News – 3
Police Reports – 3
Brooklyn News: Burglaries – 3