ral expressions of
devotion to the Union were mere empty sounds, calculated to secure
votes, but utterly false and hypocritical; for, while indulging in these
pharasaical expressions of love for the Union, they nominate, at the
same time, as their candidate for the Vice President, an avowed
secessionist and disunionist. We have nothing to do with the abstract
opinions or wishes of Mr. Pendleton as regards the Union. Jefferson
Davis repeatedly, and up to the very period of secession, expressed
quite as much devotion to the old flag and to the Union as Mr.
Pendleton. But Mr. Davis soon became the head of the rebellion which Mr.
Pendleton declares we ought not, and have no constitutional power, to
suppress by force. Far all practical purposes, then, Mr. Pendleton is
just as much a secessionist and disunionist as Jefferson Davis. Nor can
it be alleged that Mr. Pendleton has changed these views. On the
contrary, as late as this year he voted in Congress against the test
resolution of Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, declaring 'that it is the
political, civil, moral, and sacred duty of the people to meet the
rebellion, fight it, crush it, and forever destroy it.' Now then, the
Chicago Convention, with a full knowledge of these votes and speeches,
nominated Mr. Pendleton for the Vice Presidency, and contingently for
the Presidency of the United States. They knew full well that Mr.
Pendleton had declared the effort to crush the rebellion impracticable
and unconstitutional, and that, therefore, if the power they proposed to
give him were ratified by his election, he could, and under his oath of
office to support the Constitution, he must, disband our armies,
terminate the war, and permit the dissolution of the Union to be
consummated; or he might repeat his own words of 1861: Let the seceding
States depart in peace; let them establish their government and empire,
and work out their destiny according to the wisdom which God has given
them.' It is, then, a sufficient objection to the Chicago candidates
that Mr. Pendleton, one of the candidates, inseparably connected with
General McClellan on the same electoral ticket, is, as we have seen,
opposed to the war, and for all practical purposes as much a
secessionist and disunionist as Jefferson Davis. This being clear, if
General McClellan is really for the war to save the Union, by crushing
the rebellion, he must refuse to run on the same electoral ticket with
Mr. Pendleton; and if he do