timents are on this and other subjects." Accordingly,
the next day, in the afternoon, when the miners from the country were
in town and had nothing else to do than to be amused, I mounted a
platform erected for the purpose in the main street, and commenced
speaking. I soon had a crowd of listeners. I began about my candidacy,
and stated what I expected to do if elected. I referred to the
necessity of giving greater jurisdiction to the local magistrates, in
order that contests of miners respecting their claims might be tried
in their vicinity. As things then existed the right to a mule could
not be litigated without going to the county seat, at a cost greater
than the value of the animal. I was in favor of legislation which
would protect miners in their claims, and exempt their tents, rockers,
and utensils used in mining from forced sale. I was in favor of
dividing the county, and making Nevada the seat of the new county. I
had heard of numerous measures they wanted, and I told them how many
of these measures I advocated. Having got their attention and excited
their interest, I referred to the charge made against me of being
an abolitionist, and denounced it as a base calumny. In proof of
the charge I was told that I had a brother in New York who was a
free-soiler. So I had, I replied, and a noble fellow he is--God bless
him wherever he may be. But I added, I have another brother who is a
slaveholder in Tennessee, and with which one, I asked, in the name
of all that is good, were they going to place me. I wondered if these
"honorable" men, who sought by such littleness to defeat me, did not
find out whether I did not have some other relatives,--women, perhaps,
who believed in things unearthly and spiritual,--whose opinions they
could quote to defeat me. Shame on such tactics, I said, and the crowd
answered by loud cheering. I then went on to give my views of our
government, of the relation between the general government of the
Union and the government of the States, to show that the former
was created for national purposes which the States could not well
accomplish--that we might have uniformity of commercial regulations,
one army and one navy, a common currency, and the same postal system,
and present ourselves as one nation to foreign countries--but that all
matters of domestic concern were under the control and management of
the States, with which outsiders could not interfere; that slavery
was a domestic institution w