Robert H. Cartmell Diaries Excerpts

              [Page 67]

“form their state constitution. Then decide the question. Those entertaining this view of the question, refused to acquiese in the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas. Left the convention & nominated John C. Breckenridge & Thos Lane for President & vice Pres.
Lincoln stands the last chance of an election What the consequences will be, none but Providence knows, So certain as he undertakes to carry into effect the principles of the leading men of his party. Or attempts to meet the expectations of his party. So certain will this Union be dissolved and Civil War, uncertain in its duration, but certain in its consequences be the result. We are hovering over a volcano ready to burst at any moment. What a pity! To sever, tear up and destroy the best Government ever devised by the ingenuity of man or revealed by heaven, except for the slavery question I believe no other question could sever the bands of Union by which we are united. The Union ought to be preserved. The constitution ought to be carried out and in all of its requirements, the only way to preserve the Union. The North pay but little respect to the fugitive Slave Law. Tho’ a law made to carry into effect a plain provision of the constitution. So far as I am concerned, I will vote for Breckenridge, if it is called the Secession, Dissunion party &c. I believe he occupies true national, constitutional ground, is stronger than Douglas. As for Bell, I have not the distant, most distant liking for even the shadow of knownothingism. I detested k.nothingism & this Bell party is its remains. Driven from that ground, they have no principles, and deal in generalities. Say they are in favor of the constitution when it is construed more ways than one. What kind of a construction do they put on it now: They use to construe it as favoring a divided state
Over to/ 70”
[Page 70]

“Oct 1860
Bank, distribution, internal improvements, a bankrupt law wished to alter it so as to abolish the veto power, &c. Then it was a secret society, bound together by oath. Proscribing foreigners, making war upon the Catholic religion Their moth was Americans should rule America. Now it is The Union, The Constitution, and The inforcement of the laws”. Which simply amount to nothing, have no strength except what the devision in the Democratic party gives them.
	Douglas I believe to be the ablest man, perhaps in the Nation, except for his views on this territorial question I could support him with pleasure.
	As for the candidates for vice President, but one of them Johnson H.V., is a southern man. & he on the Douglas ticket. Hanibal Hamlin of Maine on the Lincoln, Edward Everett on the Bell Ticket, a litterary man. A peesoiler to all intents & purposes. his past record proves him such. Old Tho Lane as he is called on the Breckenridge ticket. I believe to be safe and sound.
Douglas is the only candidate for President of the US. That I am aware of, that ever took the stump, speaking all over the Country. He stands no chance of being elected I hardly know what his object is, unless it be to injure Breckenridge. I heard him in Jackson 23rd instant. He spoke for near 2 hours to perhaps 5000 persons. No person questions his ability as a declaimer, effective before a promiscuous crowd. he is inferior to many of our Tennessee speakers. I do not admire the man as I once did & would not be supprised if 4 years hence if not sooner, he does not turn up Something else. Hope not.
The times are critical, if left to the madness of man. There is no telling when we would drift, but God rules over the destinies of nations as of individuals. He may punish us, as a nation for wickedness. We are corrupt & fast becomeing more so. Things are not as they ought to be. Wether they will become better or worse, time alone can determine, disunion, a servile insurrection, civil war. The consequences. The Historian would be baffled in the attempt to paint the picture in colors sufficiently black whither are we tending.”