which then commanded the highest respect of the people, a position which in these latter days it has done much to forfeit by its servility to executive power. He spoke on the various great questions that came before the Senate, and his speeches were remarkable for the evidences they contained of various, extensive, and well-digested attainments, their vigorous logic, and their strict pertinence to the subjects under discussion. No senator was more respected, or enjoyed a larger measure of public confidence and esteem. His retirement from the public service was a loss that was felt, the more so that the Senate was losing its high character through the withdrawal from it of many of its oldest and best members. We have understood that if President Taylor had lived, Senator Dayton was to have been appointed to one of the first diplomatic posts within his gift, and doubtless he would have filled the place with that usefulness which has marked all his official life.

The nomination of Mr. Dayton is on all accounts an excellent one. His long experience in the Senate has made him familiar with the order of proceeding in that body, and qualified him to preside over its deliberations. His character is ure, and commends him to the confidence of the

people. It was due to the Whigs, so many of whom are engaged in the movement against the extension of slavery, that one of the nominees should be selected from among their old leaders, and in naming Mr. Dayton as the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, the Philadelphia Convention did no more than justice to a numerous and influential portion of the opposition, whose hostility to the encroachments of slavery in past times is the best guaranty for their present sincerity and for their future labors being rightly directed. On the leading question of the day, that to settle which in favor of freedom has caused so many old political foes to forget past quarrels, and to unite in order the better to labor for their country's welfare, Mr. Dayton's views are every thing that could be desired. He is no sudden convert to the party of freedom, as the views of that party concerning the power of Congress to legislate with respect to slavery in the territories were entertained by him years ago, and were boldly expressed long before the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was thought of. "It does seem to me," he said, in his speech on the Treaty with Mexico, "that if there ever were any doubts on this question as to the power of Congress to legislate with respect to slavery in the territories, those doubts must be held settled

by the past conduct of the government." It is well known that President Taylor intended to settle the disputes about slavery that he found existing when he came into power, in a manner which would have been very liberal to the North, and at the same time have been strictly just to the South. His death the most serious loss our country ever sustained in that way, as it opened up the political field to a gang of political agitators, who sought to make "political capital" out of the slavery question caused the failure of his plans, and the triumph of the pro-slavery interest under the lead of Northern flunkies. Mr. Dayton was one of the most intimate and influential advisers of President Taylor, in this matter, and was first among those who were relied upon to carry the proper measures through the Senate. The country would never have been cursed, and insulted, and degraded in the eyes of the world, by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law, had the views of Mr. Dayton and his friends prevailed, as would have been the case had President Taylor lived. Such a man is well worthy of the votes of all who would have something done to put a stop to the usurpations of the slave power, and who would have the high places of government filled with high-minded and able statesmen. The oppo

sition can carry the country if they choose to do so. They have it in their power, through union, to strike down the revolutionists at Washington, and to place the government once more in the hands of men who will administer it according to the terms of the Constitution. With such candidates as FREMONT and DAYTON they can unite with perfect propriety, those candidates being the representatives of ideas that are entertained by three fourths of the voters of the country, and which therefore ought to predominate in and control the councils of government. Union is victory always, but it is emphatically so in this election, on the part of the opposition. The very fact that the electoral system operates most unequally against us should cause us to contend the more earnestly, so that our success shall be the more striking, and more the result of our labors than of the favors of fortune.

COL. FREMONT'S LETTER OF ACCEPT

ANCE.

NEW YORK, July 8, 1856. Gentlemen-You call me to a high responsibility by placing me in the van of a great movement of the people of the United States, who, without regard to past differences, are uniting in a common effort to bring back the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson. Comprehending the magnitude of the trust which they have declared themselves willing to place in my hands, and deeply sensible to the honor which their unreserved confidence in this threatening position of the public affairs implies, I feel that I cannot better respond than by a sincere declaration that, in the event of my election to the Presidency, I should enter upon the execution of its duties with a single-hearted determination to promote the good of the whole country, and to direct solely to this end all the power of the government, irrespective of party issues, and regardless of sec tional strifes.

The declaration of principles embodied in the re

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