Daily National Democrat

Tribute to Breckinridge

It is now reported that Breckinridge ran upon the ticket which he did, with the understanding that, in case he was defeated and Lincoln elected, he (Breckinridge) should be President of a Southern Republic.

It seems hardly possible that a man could be so wholly lost to all patriotism as to accept a nomination upon such a ground. We have all along believed that, while Mr. Breckinridge himself had some lingering regard for the Union of the States, he was yet in bad company and influenced by men whose ultimate purposes were nothing more nor less than a breaking up of this Confederacy. We are reluctant to believe that Mr. Breckinridge has so soon graduated through all the degrees of a traitor as to have accepted his nomination for the Presidency, upon the understanding that, in case he was not elected, he was to lend himself to a dissolution of the Union. We cannot believe that he has all his life so played the hypocrite, or that, having been hitherto sincere, he has so soon revolutionized his whole character, and become an enemy of his country.

We sincerely hope that the report we have heard is untrue, and that Mr. Breckinridge will ere long distinctly come forth from that most dangerous band of conspirators against the Government with whom he has been associated.