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While editors and letter-writers are informing the people which of the Republican candidates can, and which cannot be elected, if placed in nomination, I desire to express my opinion also.

Since the 10th of November I have traveled in eleven States. “The Old Guard,” the men who have given form and vitality to the Republican Party, felt perfectly free to converse with me where I have been and appeared anxious to express their views in regard to the Presidential election. Among that class of men there exists no doubt that the Republicans will elect their candidate, provided he stands out boldly upon the Republican doctrines avowed at Philadelphia in 1776, and repeated in 1856. Nor have they any less doubt that the Republicans will refuse to go outside their own organization to select a candidate, or, if a candidate outside the party be selected, they hold his defeat inevitable. They say there are half a million of voters among the most ardent and active Republicans, who will, under no circumstances, cast their votes for any who, by his past life or present avowals does not stand pledged to relieve the Federal Government and the people of the Free States from the crime of sustaining the Slave trade, both foreign and domestic, upon the high seas, in our Territories and in the District of Columbia—who will not, in the words of our platform, carry out “the primary object and ulterior design of our Federal Government, by sustaining, to the extent of its constitutional powers, the rights of all men to life, liberty and happiness;” leaving the institution of Slavery entirely with the States in which it exists. No man who denies to the people of the Free States the same right to be entirely purified from the guilt of Slavery, that the Slave States have to sustain that institution, can receive the votes of any true Republican.

That class of Republicans say that our doctrines have been clearly expressed; that the party was founded upon “self-evident truths,” to the support of which all true Republicans stand pledged; that no man can be called a Republican who hesitates to avow his adherence to them; that any change or modification of those doctrines will be to the same extent a change or modification of the party; that the abandoment of these principles will be a disbandment of the party.

This class of men speak from experience when they say it is a thousand times better to fail while supporting great principles, than to elect a candidate without principles, who, when he comes into power, will place in office more of his own character, without maintaining Republican doctrines, and leave the party to disband and reorganize. They say they will not be “Tylerized.” They are honest, they seek no office, and declare they will not be made the dupes of wire workers or office seekers.

They feel indignant at hearing any man who stands upon the Republican doctrines stigmatized as a “radical.” They say all Republicans hold the same political faith—if one be radical, all are radical; if one be conservative, all are conservative.

They express equal indignation when it is said that a certain man has emancipated his slaves, and is therefore a suitable candidate. They ask, at once, is he a Republican? Will he endeavor to emancipate the people of the Free States from the despotism of Slavery?

They regard the proposition to take a candidate whose doctrines are not fully known, or known to be in favor of extending Slavery by admitting more Slave States—giving the slaveholders of such State, for every hundred slaves they profess to own, the same influence over our national and commercial interests which sixty of our educated and liberty-loving freemen possess, as nothing more nor less than an insult to the intelligence and self-respect of the Republican Party. For men they care but little, for principle they would sacrifice life itself. Among the Seceders, the Free Presbyterians, the Wesleyan Methodists, the Quakers, the New School Presbyterians, and the religious denominations of Ohio, there are Republican electors who will not attend an election if a doubtful man be nominated—more than sufficient to render our State doubtful. These men are actuated by religious principle, and will not by their vote aid in the election of any man who will to any extent prostitute the powers of Government to the support of Slavery. Such is also the case in Indiana and Illinois. By that policy we should drive from as nearly the whole of the German vote. They are as reliable Republicans as we have; but they are governed solely by a deep and ardent love of liberty, and will not even go to the polls if they cannot thereby promote the great doctrine of human rights.

I cannot but think those men mistaken who think the people are to be led by the cry of turning out the party in power, while they seek no change of doctrine in the administration of Government.

Nor will they patiently listen to the argument that Pennsylvania will not support the doctrines of the Republican Party unless a candidate be nominated whose position is conservative, rather than Republican. They say if the people of that State would rather remain subject to the party now in power than support the Republican faith, they should be permitted to suffer until they can be instructed in the doctrines set forth in their State at the baptismal font of our Government; until they shall understand the principles avowed by their own Franklin and his associates.

It is my opinion that the people will take the subject into their own hands—will nominate a representative man, and when nominated, will elect him; while editors, politicians and other patriots will do more for our cause by upholding and promulgating our doctrines than by selecting candidates and informing the people whom they must and whom they must not elect. Very respectfully,——————————————____________.