Our Presidents and how we make themMcClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
History
Our Presidents and how we make them
McClure, Alexander K. (Alexander Kelly)
Presidents -- United States -- Election
The platform adopted by the Whigs was brief but expressive. The Whig
faith was tersely given in a single resolution. The other resolutions
were simply eloquent tributes to Clay and Frelinghuysen, and the
convention adjourned, making the welkin ring with cheers for “Harry
Clay of the West” and for the “Mill Boy of the Slashes,” and absolutely
confident of the triumphant election of their great leader to the
highest honors of the Republic. The first Whig national platform was as
follows:
_Resolved_, That, in presenting to the country the names of Henry Clay
for President and of Theodore Frelinghuysen for Vice-President of the
United States, this convention is actuated by the conviction that all
the great principles of the Whig party—principles inseparable from the
public honor and prosperity—will be maintained and advanced by these
candidates.
_Resolved_, That these principles may be summed as comprising:
a well-regulated currency; a tariff for revenue to defray the
necessary expenses of the Government, and discriminating with special
reference to the protection of the domestic labor of the country; the
distribution of the proceeds from the sales of the public lands; a
single term for the presidency; a reform of executive usurpations;
and generally such an administration of the affairs of the country
as shall impart to every branch of the public service the greatest
practical efficiency, controlled by a well-regulated and wise economy.
_Resolved_, That the name of Henry Clay needs no eulogy. The history
of the country since his first appearance in public life is his
history. Its brightest pages of prosperity and success are identified
with the principles which he has upheld, as its darkest and more
disastrous pages are with every material departure in our public
policy from those principles.
_Resolved_, That in Theodore Frelinghuysen we present a man pledged
alike by his Revolutionary ancestry and his own public course to every
measure calculated to sustain the honor and interest of the country.
Inheriting the principles as well as the name of a father who, with
Washington, on the fields of Trenton and of Monmouth, perilled life
in the contest for liberty, and afterward, as a Senator of the United
States, acted with Washington in establishing and perpetuating that
liberty, Theodore Frelinghuysen, by his course as Attorney-General
of the State of New Jersey for twelve years, and subsequently as a
Senator of the United States for several years, was always strenuous
on the side of law, order, and the Constitution, while, as a private
man, his head, his hand, and his heart have been given without stint
to the cause of morals, education, philanthropy, and religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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