The Daily Madisonian

NEW YORK CORRESPONDENCE.

New York, Dec., 1843.

As the Baltimore Convention approaches, every sensible man in this State repudiates and condemns the late farce enacted at Syracuse, intended to endorse Mr. Van Buren's popularity and peculiar fitness and claims for re-nomination to the Presidency. Why just look at the modus operandi of electing delegates to the State Convention. A few of the wire pullers congregate in their respective towns and wards, who are connected with Van Buren Standing County Committees. These, by a judicious arrangement, fix upon a county delegation, non-committal to the mass of the voters, but secretly favorable to Mr. Van Buren. These men, when appealed to, prior to the Convention, by the friends of Messrs. Calhoun, Tyler, and Johnson, say that they are all very good and tried men—very eligible candidates, and that they shall all receive the most respectful consideration at their hands.

Very well; the primary meetings take place, and in some instances the delegates are instructed to support the district system, and some other man than Mr. Van Buren. These instructions are violated, the people deceived, Mr. Van Buren is nominated by the State Convention by a wonderful unanimity, as we are told, and the Argus and its kindred prints assure the credulous people that Mr. Van Buren is the choice of the Democracy of the Empire State! The Sage of Lindenwald the favorite of the People! The exponent of Democracy where it is best understood!—The political chief, who is to lead on the Republican legions to do battle victoriously over the Whigs!—Why, sir, no man familiar with Mr. Van Buren's public and private history, the peculiar bias of his mind, his cold and calculating heart, his Jesuitical and casuistical spirit, and added to this, the undeniable aristocracy of the man, will say, without blushing to his finger's ends, that Mr. Van Buren is grounded in the hearts and affections of the Democracy of Republican America. This belief is no where seriously entertained or expressed, but by the exiled dynasty—the ancient regime. They count upon a return to honor and emolument, in the event of the Restoration and the only unanimity of opinion, so far as Mr. Van Buren is concerned exists with them. The unanimity is the offspring of a common fate—a tie which four years' deprivation of the loaves and fishes will very nearly have cemented! It may be uttered as an axiom in political matters that no man can be elevated to the Chief Magistracy of this Union who is not possessed of sterling qualities himself, and for whom the nation does not entertain profound gratitude for distinguished services, either on the Bench, in the Cabinet, the Camp, or the Halls of Legislation.—Look over the annals of our country, and see if Mr. Van Buren has gilded any of its pages by the exercise of great faculties, the development of original genius, or those noble suggestions which, acknowledging the natural equality and inherent rights of man, come spontaneous and gushing from the true American heart! Where is the enthusiasm which he is to enlist, or the devotion he can command? His disbanded legions are not the People, and hardly of them. They cannot command that confidence which shall make them leaders, and they do not possess the requisites which give strength and victory to the rank and file! Look at the conflicting interests in the different portions of the Union at the present time. Is Mr. Van Buren to obviate all difficulties and harmonize them? Can he remove, by that cunning jugglery which is claimed for him, the antipathies that have been heaping up against him during the last four years? And he, who was put so completely hors du combat in the campaign of 1840—is he that spear-proof Achilles which shall render him invulnerable? Has he that invigorating and nerving influence which shall so pervade the masses that in the wheeling charge they shall annihilate the hardy band which so easily triumphed over them in the first onset? I doubt it—doubt it very much—and moreover, I entertain strong hopes that the Democracy will pause ere they adopt a policy that will ruin them in the approaching contest.

The victory is in their hands if they make choice of a popular leader, one who thinks with them, of them, and for them—one, in fine, who has been identified with all the great interests of the country, who has exhibited his capacity by the accomplishment of brilliant actions, and whose whole career is an earnest that the honor, prosperity, and happiness of his country is first and last in his heart. Such a man is John Tyler—such a man has saved the country once and can do it again. Look at the sublime moral courage exhibited in his Vetoes, and then compare it with Kinderhook non-committalism! With the one there is something tangible and permanent: with the other all is a mere Fata Morgana, which, as you approach its seeming locality, like the baseless fabric of a dream, fades into airy nothingness! Men may legislate for themselves, and not for their country, as we too often see, and following out this selfishness, may nominate to the highest offices of the Republic, not the best men, but those personally most available. The sovereign People want no such man—they would have for their leader one who has profound statesmanship, great moral courage, and undoubted amor patriae. Such a one is now at the helm. and when next the owners send the good ship Columbia on her four years' cruise, let that man command her who in a long voyage, with adverse winds and interminable difficulties brought her safely into port without any loss to the underwriters, or even a mast or a plank started: Will the People or the politicians decide? Nous verrons.