The New Hampshire Gazette And Republican Union

From the Charleston Mercury, Aug 21.

THE DECLARATION OF THE CALHOUN SECTION OF THE DEMOCRACY, RELATIVE TO THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

[EXTRACT.]

If, then, General Taylor is a whig, and the nominee of the whigs for the Presidency; if the whig party, on all past issues, have been against us, and on the slavery question, as a party, in the free States, are worse than the democrats, and even in the South have divided against us, disastrously defeating the late compromise in Congress; and if their candidate has refused to pledge himself to stand between his party and the safety of the South; what justification can we find for deserting the old democratic standard, and enlisting in the ranks of a leader whose sole claim to the sympathy and support of Southern democrats-the position of an independent candidate, uncontaminated by the touch of party conventions—he has himself unequivocally and anxiously renounced?

That there are grave objections to Gen. Cass we do not deny. At the proper time we set forth and insisted upon these objections, as conclusive reasons why the people of South Carolina should refuse to take any decided part in the Presidential election.

We had desired unless the developments of the times should make it a plain duty for us to adopt a candidate of our own that, unembarrassed and undistracted by popular agitation, the Legislature of South Carolina might be left free to decide upon the vote of the State, influenced only by a sense of what was due to her principles and her honor. It is the position which, from the first, we insisted on as the true one for the State, and which the closing events of the late session of Congress have most impressively shown to be the only one consistent with her principles, and with the exertion of any influence favorable to the adjustment of questions identified with her own and the common safety of the South.

We bear no part-we should be deeply mortified if we thought we had afforded any one with a pretext to charge us with bearing any part-of the responsibility of the movements which have induced perhaps a majority of our friends to yield this position of neutrality. The necessity has been forced upon them by the nomination of General Taylor in their midst, and the organization of a party to advance his election. In regard to such a movement we cannot permit our position to be questionable; and as the proper answer to it, and because a position of neutrality in such circumstances would be a position of imbecility, when forced to a choice between the nominees of the whig party and the democratic party, we declare our preference for the latter; and we cannot doubt, that, for the same reasons, the Legislature of South Carolina will cast the vote of the State for Cass and Butler.

Extracts from Mr. Calhoun's speech at the meeting in Charleston.

Mr. Calhoun said that his colleagues had so fully detailed the proceedings in Congress upon the questions involving the rights of the South, that he would confine himself to what he conceived to be the more immediate object of this meeting-the question of the Presidency. His attention had been early and earnestly directed to this matter. and the conclusion he had arrived at was, that the proper policy of the State was to stand aloof from the contest, and in this sentiment he had the concurrence of all his colleagues of the South Carolina delegation in Congress, with perhaps but one exception.

There were several reasons for this determination--among them may be mentioned that neither of the candidates come up to our requirements of principles or policy; and by entering into an active and heated political contest, each party abusing the candidates of their opponents, and praising their own as exemplars of perfection, the State would be degraded to the level which they occupied. He had never doubted but that when the time came the State would cast her vote; but let us cast it without heat, without excitement, and in the direction which the safety and dignity of the State requires that it should be cast.

As to respective candidates, many gave the preference to Gen. Taylor, because he is a planter and a Southern man; others again preferred Gen. Cass, because he was a member of the party with which they usually act. These preferences were natural and allowable, if the division to which they led were conducted without asperity or bitterness; but they would be most mischievous if their effect was to divide us at this crisis, when harmony and union among ourselves was more than ever desirable.

If the South is united there is yet hope of saving the Union. We can rally a great Southern republican party, based on principles above the mere making of Presidents; and with such party, we can command our terms and control the North.-- So long as the South permits any candidate who claims her support to tamper with the abolitionists for their votes, her influence will be lost, and her rights disregarded. By rallying a great Southern party, that will support no man not pledged to the maintenance of the rights of the South and the guarantees of the constitution, a party will be formed in the North, who will cooperate with us.

But if this fails to arrest the spirit of aggression now so manifest, and the alternative is forced upon us of resistance or submission, who can doubt the result? Though the Union is dear to us, our honor and our liberty are dearer. And we would be abundantly able to maintain ourselves. The North is rich and powerful, but she has many elements of division and weakness Fourierites-the vote-yourself-a-farm men-the strife of labor with capital-a spirit of anarchy and misrule, already developed, which, sooner or later, will end in her overthrow.

The South, on the contrary. has a homogenous population, and a common bond of union, - which would render us powerful and united. Wherever Southern men have been placed upon the battlefield, from the closing events of our revolutionary war down to the entrance of our army into the city of Mexico, they have shown themselves in generalship and soldiership, at least equal to those of any other section of the Union.

Our custom houses would afford us a revenue ample for every purpose; almost as great in amount as that now collected by the Federal Government. The South now exports to the Northern States more than all the exports of the North to foreign countries, and it is a well established principle that the imports of a community are based upon its exports, and that they nearly equal each other. In whatever aspect then we consider it, we will be as well prepared for the struggle as the North. He did not court it. but he would not shun it; and as old as he was he was willing to go through his share of the contest.