The Caledonian

For the Caledonian.

TO YOUNG MEN. The time will soon come, when we shall be called upon, to exercise one of the most important privileges, guaranteed to us by the Constitution, viz: the elective franchise. Consider well the different principles advocated by the political parties of the day, and be assured, how your vote will tell upon the future welfare and prosperity of the country before you cast it on either side; for a vote once delivered cannot be recalled; and if that vote tells on the wrong side, this fall, it may tend to ruin irrevocably our much beloved Country, and forever destroy that liberty, for which our fathers fought and bled, to obtain, and secure to their posterity. The question is not merely means or measures which might hereafter be repealed; added to these is the annexation of a large territory to the southern part of the Union, which will forever, not only bind the stigma of slavery on us, but will serve to throw the balance of power into such hands, as will use it, to crush every interest which their caprice may lead them to think is incompatible with their own.

The Tariff too is an important subject. Shall we remain idle, and see the industry of our countrymen crushed? Our country flooded with British products, and ourselves made hewers of wood and drawers of water, to that nation whose yoke we have so recently thrown off? What more did Britain then ask of us, than to buy the products of their pauper labor? Shall we do it now? No! No!—It would ruin us young Americans.

A YOUNG MAN.