be incidents temporarily painful; but,
after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than
without the system. If two friends aspire to the same office it is
certain that both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much less
painful to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before,
than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be
beaten by the common enemy?

Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do not
understand the resolution as intended to recommend the application of
the convention system to the nomination of candidates for the small
offices no way connected with politics; though we must say we do not
perceive that such an application of it would be wrong.

The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district conventions
in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Congress. The
propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with that of the sixth,
and therefore needs no further discussion.

The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical application of
the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion.

Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present
condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all the
States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems to
prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for this? In 1840 we
carried the nation by more than a hundred and forty thousand majority.
Our opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent voting; but whatever
they may have believed, we know the charge to be untrue. Where, now, is
that mighty host? Have they gone over to the enemy? Let the results of
the late elections answer. Every State which has fallen off from the
Whig cause since 1840 has done so not by giving more Democratic votes
than they did then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected
Democratic Governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority,
had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten by
seven or eight thousand. And so has it been in all the other States
which have fallen away from our cause. From this it is evident that tens
of thousands in the late elections have not voted at all. Who and what
are they? is an important question, as respects the future. They can
come forward and give us the victory again. That all, or nearly all, of
them are Whigs is most apparent. Our opponents, stung to madness by
the def