The Evansville Daily Journal

Facing the Music The Two Lives of Cass.

Independent, the Washington correspondent of the North American, presents the following evidence of the hand which Gen. Cass had in the base and fraudulent attempt to palm himself upon the two great sections of the country in different garbs at the same time. Who can read the recital of the base conspiracy to cheat the people and not feel disgust and loathing for the man whom the office holders have put in nomination for the Chief Magistracy.

Mr. Hale of New Hampshire the "Liberty candidate for the Presidency — is not only a man of cleverness and parts, but withal a very good fellow and no little of a wag. During the discursive debate in the Senate yesterday, upon an interrogatory being propounded to Mr. Foote — as to the conduct of Gen. Cass — Mr. Hale, with much affected gravity, raised a point of order, alleging that it seemed to him entirely inconsistent, when a Presidential candidate had resigned his seat to avoid expressing his opinions, that his friends should be catechised as to those opinions.

Mr. Foote. As the Senator from N. Hampshire is an aspirant himself, what does he think a candidate ought to do? Mr. Hale. (with promptitude and humor;) why stand up and face the music.

Now this is precisely the objection to Mr. Cass. At best it is difficult to get him to stand up, and when he does; he will not "face the music." At Cleveland he dodged — in his letter to the Chicago Convention he dodged, and at this very hour, his friends in the Senate are claiming him on both sides of the question. — The graphic idea of Mr. Hale, is not only full of meaning, but it is full of truth, and pictures the Locofoco candidate in his true colors —

During the debate on the Resolution of adjournment on Monday last, when Mr. Mangum established the infamous fraud that the Locofocos had published two editions of the life of Mr. Cass — one appealing to the South, and the other to the North — which Mr. Reverdy Johnson most effectually clinched, by disproving the explanation offered by Mr. Hannegan, and producing the testimony to the inspection of the whole Senate; it was stated that Mr. Cass was in no manner responsible for this disgraceful transaction, nor were his leading friends in Congress. It was very natural that Mr. Hannegan should desire to palliate the offence of his associates, but, it would have been more becoming had he accompanied the statement with at least the semblance of evidence to sustain it. Mr. Hannegan expressed his opinion, founded upon misplaced confidence. I shall now express mine, founded upon experience — upon the evidence of my own eyes and the conviction that the party of which Gen. Cass is the head, will adopt any means however corrupt or nefarious, to carry the election. They succeeded in 1844 by the basest deceptions and by combinations with the gamblers and ruffians. Have they grown purer since then? It is my judgment, then, that this double publication was a deliberate fraud — that it was conjured up by prominent members of Congress and that it only forms part of a system of tactics; which has been in vogue for 20 years.

During the canvass of 1844, Mr. Walker — now Secretary of the Treasury — prepared a pamphlet entitled "The South in Danger," which was designed to operate against Mr. Clay, and to call out the prejudices of the Southern States on the Texas question, and favor of Mr. Polk. It was spread broadcast in the State of Maryland, pending the gubernatorial canvass, and it produced serious effect against the Whig candidate, Gov. Pratt. This document was adduced to prove the sectional character of the canvass, and to show to the people of the free States that while they were urged to support Mr. Polk as a friend of the Tariff of '42, and on northern grounds, this was the sort of appeal addressed to the South. — Mr. Walker denied the charge. and the document, with the imprint of the Congressional Globe — the same mint from which this two-faced life of Cass is now issued — was produced to convict his falsehood — more than this, the original envelopes containing the pamphlet, franked by Mr. Walker to citizens of Maryland were brought forward, and then — when escape was impossible — he adjourned the issue to the Democratic Association, at the head of which they had placed an ignorant tool, incapable of detecting a fraud, even if he had the integrity to punish it.

So far from the leaders being innocent of this fraud of imposing two different lives of their candidate upon the country, Gen. Cass was himself privy in knowledge, if not in participation, to the base transaction. All that I shall say on this subject is derived from Democratic authority, and emanates from a prominent member of the party in the House of Representatives.

This member states that, sometime previous to the meeting of the Baltimore Convention, he called at the Congressional Globe office for the purpose of purchasing documents to distribute among his constituents — among others the life of Gen. Cass. Upon examination of the sketch, he discovered the citation from the Nicholson letter and the commentary of the Biographer, and declined sending it to his district, which strongly fraternizes with the Barnburning movement. At an interview with Gen. Cass immediately following this discovery, the General inquired of him whether his letter to the Chicago Convention was doing much mischief. The member replied that he thought not. The letter was short, and he wished that all his other letters, particularly that to Mr. Nicholson, were equally so. He also told him that it was bad enough to write the letter at all, but to permit extracts from it, with sectional commentaries, to be published in a sketch of his life, would be ruin to his cause in the free States. Gen. Cass received the suggestions as became a politic partizan, and doubtless acted upon them accordingly. — At all events, the same member called again, a few weeks ago, at the office of the Congressional Globe, and was then informed that another life of Gen. Cass had been issued better suited to his section — that the first (which he had refused) had been published to secure the nomination, and the last to secure the election.

This statement cannot be gainsaid, for the witness is on the spot, and his party dare not confront or challenge his testimony. It is then established, that Mr. Cass was a party to this base conspiracy — to this fraudulent attempt to palm himself upon the two great sections of the country, in different garbs at the same time — in other words, to stand as a Wilmot Proviso man at the north and a pro-slavery man at the South.

Now I appeal to all honest and reflecting men; aside from politics, whether a party or a candidate, who could be guilty of such vile practices, is worthy of their confidence or their support? If this system is permitted to grow upon us, if we do not crush the hydra-headed monster now, it will rise and crush us, and our ruin will be the signal for the downfall of the Republic.