Virginia Argus

FROM THE MONITOR.

Our readers will recollect that the editor of the Democratic Press has hitherto been the zealous advocate of Governor Clinton, for president, in the state of Pennsylvania. The following declaration of his convictions of the propriety of supporting Mr. Madison are copied from his paper of the 18th inst. To say nothing of the merits of Messers. Madison and Clinton, the view which Mr. Binns has taken of the subject is extremely just, and cannot fail to have a salutary influence on the mind of every real republican.

From the Philadelphia Democratic Press.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

It has been remarked by the readers of the Press, that for some weeks I have declined any publication on the Presidential Election. Let it not be inferred that I have been an indifferent observer on so important a public question. With patient industry, uncalled attention, and an ardent desire to come to right conclusions, I have read all that has been published on the subject throughout the United States. I have reflected on it with seriousness and anxiety. The result I now submit.

My opinions as to the merits and claims of Mr. Clinton and Mr. Madison, and as to the dangerous tendency of the mode of nominating, remain as they were; and could I believe, as I have done, that there was a probable chance of Mr. Clinton's being elected, by the votes of the Democratic party, he should have my ardent and zealous support. I do not so believe On the contrary, I am thoroughly satisfied that if it were possible Mr. Clinton could succeed, it must be by the aid of the votes of the Federal party, who can have no serious expectation of electing a man of their own principles: I have seen enough, and more than enough, in Pennsylvania, of the evil consequences of elections conducted on such understandings ever to wish to see a Chief Magistrate elected by such unnatural means, as the union of the minority of the democrats with the federal party. With the consequences, deadly and destructive as they have been, of the memorable election of 1805 before my eyes, I should be infatuated, criminally obstinate or corrupt, if I did not cry aloud and spare not against such a coalition.

The causes which have led to those conclusions and determinations are many, I shall state such of them as occur to my mind

A great number of respectable republican meetings in the several states have determined to support James Madison as President, and George Clinton as Vice President of the U. S. not a single meeting, in any district of the Union, has come to a resolution to support Mr. Clinton for President, except the late meeting of township delegates in the county of Northumberland.

That county is assuredly one of the most decidedly democratic counties in this state, and the meeting of the delegates which declared in favor of Mr. Clinton, was composed of some of the most respectable men in that truly respectable county. With most of them I have long had the honor and pleasure to be in habits of personal intimacy and confidential intercourse. I know and venerate the purity of their motives and the soundness of their principles, and I am perfectly satisfied that when the evidence which is daily presenting itself to the public mind shall be presented to theirs, they cannot resist the new current of opinion which has set in favor of Mr. Madison in this state

Next to the regular organization of public meetings for the expression of public opinion, the toasts which are drank on National Festivals, are among the best criteria to ascertain the public sentiment, I have read those drank on the Fourth of July, with care, and marked well that the same preponderance of the public mind which prevailed in favor of Mr. Madison in the calm deliberation of public bodies did, still more decidedly, influence the spontaneous effusions of the American people when commemorating their emancipation from foreign thraldom, and renewing their oaths to Freedom and Independence.

Another and a powerful means of judging as to the state of the public mind is from the public journals. I have observed
It is said, that, with very few exceptions indeed, the Republican papers on the continent have declared for Mr. Madison. These are strong and impressive acts of a domestic and party nature: facts which must seriously affect every democrat who values the integrity of the party, is conscious of the advantages of union, and has no motive but principle or object, but the public good. There are also National considerations, of no light or trifling kind, which press heavy upon this object, and cannot fail to awaken serious apprehensions. A large proportion of the republican papers which do advocate Mr. Clinton, advocate him in such a manner as, must wound his feelings and excite his disapprobation. I make this assertion on the firm confidence I have in the inflexible republican principles of a veteran of the Revolution. He can never lend his name to sanction arguments the object and tendency of which are to give efficacy to federal declamation and put to hazard the peace and prosperity of the country, by obstructing the measures of a wise and virtuous government, which are honestly intended and well calculated, to correct mischief from abroad and prevent evils at home.

The Presidential election is too intimately connected with our foreign relations, not to make the following circumstances deserving of the attention of the people of the U. S. It will not be denied, at this day, in the present state of the European and Commercial worlds, and with the mass of testimony which is before us; that foreign nations feel greatly interested in the decision of the citizens of the United States, as to who shall be their chief magistrate: But if there be well grounded suspicion that any foreign government is attempting either directly or indirectly, to influence the election, it would, as it ought, arouse all the proud spirit of independence, the manliness of national feeling and meet the determined opposition of freemen. It is now ascertained that the federal merchants, the anglofederalists and British agents in the U. S. in their private circles, make no scruple to avow that they would consider the failure of Mr. Madison's election as equivalent to a vote of censure on the principles and measures of the present administration of the general government. Any man, therefore, but Mr. Madison, no matter how pure, no matter how inflexible no matter how determined, would, by them, be welcomed with Hosannahs and his path strewn with flowers as the harbinger of a victory over democratic principles and democratic men. One other fact of a solemn and alarming nature has within a few days come to my knowledge and that in so unquestionable a shape as to leave no loop upon which to hang a doubt of its truth. It is a volume of argument in favor of Mr. Madison. A British Officer in this country declared to the following purport, that he should "consider it a triumph if any other candidate than Madison were to be elected President!!!" All these solicitudes and this extraordinary declaration from a British Officer, be taken in connection with the late tour of the accredited agents of the British government, through the Eastern States, and the anticipations in the federal papers that Mr. Rose is shortly to return to this country, they are abundantly sufficient to excite alarm, jealousy and apprehension, and abundant motives to induce all the lovers of the real and substantial Independence of America to rally round their government and unite as one man in a determined, animated national exertion to defeat the machinations of a government whose inclination and endeavor it is, and ever has been, to humble the just pride and blast the freedom and happiness of the U. States. With anxious and deliberate attention I have considered all the facts, which in the abstract I have now offered. and which so deeply affect the public interest, the harmony and unity of the democratic party and the national honor and independence; and I am frank to confess my decided conviction that it has become necessary for the whole democratic party cordially and faithfully, to unite in the support of James Madison as President and George Clinton as Vice President of the U. States. Such unanimity will be fatal to the aspiring hopes of the enemies of our principles at home and convince the foreign enemies of the U. S. that they have nothing to hope from democratic difference of opinion.