Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1845-1853.] GENERAL DIX NOMIXATED FOR GOVERNOR. 247

Democratic Convention, then in session at Utica. This communication
was entirely unexpected, no intimation having been made to me, from
any quarter, that the intention of putting me in nomination for that high
and responsible trust was entertained. If I had been apprised of it I
should have endeavored to satisfy the political friends who have thus
honored me with their confidence that the great interests at stake would
have been better promoted by conferring the nomination on some one
more worthy to receive it than myself. But, as it has been their pleasure
to act without consultation with me, I submit myself to their better
judgment by responding with cheerfulness and promptitude to their
call. Holding an office under the authority of the State, I acknowledge
the right of those who were chiefly instrumental in conferring it on me
to nominate me for any other whenever they think proper to do so; and
I deem it my duty to accede to their wishes without regard to my own.
"Whatever objection, arising from considerations personal to myself, I
might have, under ordinary circumstances, to a nomination for an office
the honor of which no one appreciates more highly than I do, all such
objection is outweighed by the public considerations in view of which
it is now presented to me. The State of New York, though not the first,
was among the earliest of the thirteen States which have, through legislative instructions to their Senators and Representatives in Congress, declared themselves opposed to the farther extension of slavery. Her resolutions were presented to the Senate of the United States in the early
part of February, 1847, and during the same month I supported them in
that body to the best of my ability in a speech setting forth at large the
grounds on which New York and her associates, then eleven in number,
among the free States, had placed themselves in opposition to the extension of slavery into Territories in which it does not exist. I also endeavored to show that this course, which they deemed enjoined upon them
by the highest considerations of patriotism and humanity, was in strict
accordance with all their obligations and duties to their sister States.
These positions I have labored to defend, whenever practical questions
involving them have come before the Senate, in a manner which, while it
did full justice to the States assuming them, could not reasonably be
complained of as offensive to those who differed with us in opinion.
Regarding the nomination which has been conferred on me as an approval of this part of my public service in the Senate, it is received as a
gratifying token of the confidence of those you represent. And now,
when the ground in favor of freedom in the Territories, assumed by thirteen of the sovereign States of the Union (and one of them a slave-holding State), is both openly and covertly assailed-the ground taken more
than half a century ago by Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison,,