"So much for the slavery issue. How does Mr. Buchanan stand upon the tariff? Will the Sentinel say that he is sound, or justify his "low wages" speech? How does he stand upon the French Spoliation bill, which President Polk and President Pierce vetoed? Everybody knows that he was in favor of it. How does he stand upon the Pacific Railroad? He declared himself in favor of an appropriation of public money to build it, as is notorious. In fact, is there a single Federal measure except that of the United States Bank, upon which he is not recorded against Democratic principles? How can we hope to carry the united South with such a record? Will Southern Democrats overlook this record? Will Northern Nebraska men overlook this ignoring of Pierce and Dougla.s.s? Is there no danger that in admitting the abolitionist Trumbull, we may not dishearten the gallant Dougla.s.s? Is there no fear that in reinstating the free-soil Hickman, who is in favor of Reeder, we may not palsy the arm of Richardson? In fine, is there no fear that in hoping for free-soil aid, we may not lose the few real friends the South has in the North? It is evident to the commonest understanding, that the first step of Northern Black Republicanism is to kill off all those influential men at the North, like Pierce or Dougla.s.s, who have actively partic.i.p.ated in the fight for our rights. Is not the South aiding them in this first step, when it not only ignores its own sons, but also ignores, upon the ground of availability, those Northern men identified with the late Kansas-Nebraska bill? This is a question the South would do well to ponder. If Mr. Buchanan is to be nominated, and Pierce and Dougla.s.s in the North ignored, let the responsibility rest elsewhere than upon the State of Virginia. He may be, and probably is sound, but these are times when more than ordinary caution is necessary. It may become the duty of the South to support him. When that time arrives I can discharge the duty; but I do think that the reasons above stated exempt me from any blame for not advocating him until that responsibility devolves upon me. Very respectfully, CHAS.
IRVING.
The Southern Dough-faces of the Foreign Catholic party pretend to hold Mr. Fillmore responsible for a letter he wrote more than twenty years ago, in which he answers certain interrogatories in reference to slavery, _affirmatively_, and in opposition to the extension of slavery!
The _latest_ record of Buchanan is in 1844, and proves him to be an ABOLITIONIST OF THE BLACKEST DYE. About the last speech he ever made in Congress, was IN OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY, in secret session of the Senate, just before Mr. Polk, in opposition to the wishes of Gen. Jackson, gave him a seat in his cabinet. This speech will be found in the Congressional Globe for 1844, an extract from which is in these _explicit_ and _memorable_ words:
"In arriving at the conclusion to support this treaty, I had to encounter _but one serious obstacle_, AND THAT WAS THE QUESTION OF SLAVERY. Whilst I have ever maintained, and ever shall maintain, in their full force and vigor, the const.i.tutional rights of the Southern States over their slave property, I yet feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the limits of the Union over a new slaveholding territory. After mature reflection, however, I overcame these scruples, and now believe that the acquisition of Texas will be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery.
"In the government of the world, Providence generally produces great changes by gradual means. There is nothing rash in the counsels of the Almighty. May not, then, the acquisition of Texas be the means of gradually drawing the slaves far to the South to a climate more congenial to their nature; and may they not finally pa.s.s off into Mexico, and THERE MINGLE WITH A RACE WHERE NO PREJUDICE EXISTS AGAINST THEIR COLOR? The Mexican nation is composed of Spaniards, Indians, and Negroes, blended together in every variety, who would receive our slaves on terms of perfect social equality. To this condition they never can be admitted in the United States.
"That the acquisition of Texas would ere long convert Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and probably others of the more Northern Slave States, into free States, I entertain not a doubt....
"But should Texas be annexed to the Union, causes will be brought into operation which must inevitably remove slavery from what may be called the farming States. From the best information, it is no longer profitable to raise wheat, rye, and corn, by slave labor. Where these articles are the only staples of agriculture, in the pointed and expressive language of Randolph, if the slave does not run away from his master, the master must run away from the slave. The slave will naturally be removed from such a country, where his labor is scarcely adequate to his own support, to a region where he can not only maintain himself, but yield large profits to his master. Texas will open an outlet; and slavery itself may thus finally pa.s.s the Del Norte, and be lost in Mexico. One thing is certain, the present number of slaves cannot be increased by the annexation of Texas.
"I have never apprehended the preponderance of the slave States in the councils of the nation. Such a fear has always appeared to me visionary. But those who entertain such apprehensions need not be alarmed by the acquisition of Texas. More than one-half of its territory is wholly unfit for the slave labor; and, therefore, in the nature of things must be free. Mr. Clay, in his letter of the 17th of April last, on the subject of annexation, states that, according to his information--
""The Territory of Texas is susceptible of a division into five States of convenient size and form. Of these, two only would be adapted to those peculiar inst.i.tutions (slavery) to which I have referred; and the other three, lying west and north of San Antonio, being only adapted to farming and grazing purposes, from the nature of their soil, climate, and productions, would not admit of these inst.i.tutions. In the end, therefore, there would be two slave and three free States probably added to the Union."
"And here permit me to observe, that there is one defect in the treaty which ought to be amended if we all did not know that it is destined to be rejected. The treaty itself ought to determine how many free and how many slave States should be made out of this territory."
On the 11th of April, 1826, James Buchanan, who is now being supported by _Southern slaveholders_, made a speech in Congress, _eleven years after_ his Fourth of July oration, from which the following is taken:
"Permit me here, Mr. Chairman, for a moment, to speak upon a subject to which I have never before adverted upon this floor, and to which, I trust, I may never again have occasion to advert. I mean the subject of slavery. I BELIEVE IT TO BE A GREAT POLITICAL AND A GREAT MORAL EVIL. I THANK G.o.d, MY LOT HAS BEEN CAST IN A STATE WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST.... IT HAS BEEN A CURSE ENTAILED UPON US BY THAT NATION WHICH MAKES IT A SUBJECT OF REPROACH TO OUR INSt.i.tUTIONS." (See Gales and Seaton"s Register of Debates, page 2180, vol. ii., part 2.)
MORE BUCHANAN ANTECEDENTS.
When a "_Uniform Bankrupt Law_" was enacted by Congress, after the election of General Harrison, there were on the files of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate _fifty-one pet.i.tions_, praying for the pa.s.sage of such a law. Twenty-nine of these were from New York, five from New Jersey, three from Ohio, two from Indiana, two from Ma.s.sachusetts, and _one_ from each of the States of Tennessee and Mississippi. There were _twenty-five_ other pet.i.tions praying for "_A General Bankrupt Law_;"
_fifteen_ of which were from New York, and eight from Pennsylvania; and how will the Democracy like to see it hereafter proven that BUCHANAN presented these pet.i.tions, and voted for the law? If it shall turn out that "Old Buck" did really go for the "odious Bankrupt Law," let his friends defend him on the ground that his _State_ desired it, and had always favored the measure!
In the House of Representatives, in Congress, January 3, 1815, _Mr.
Ingersoll_, a notorious Democrat from Pennsylvania, and a _Boy Tory_ of the war of the Revolution, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill to establish _a uniform law of Bankruptcy throughout the United States_! If these facts should not turn out to be a sufficient justification of _Mr. Buchanan"s course_, provided he went for this Bankrupt Law, let his friends present these facts, and show that he was in good old Federal Democratic _company_:
NUMBER 1. On the 5th of September, 1837, Mr. Van Buren"s _Democratic_ Secretary of the Treasury made a report to Congress, praying the pa.s.sage of a _uniform Bankrupt Law_, which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
NUMBER 2. On the 13th day of January, 1840, _Mr. Norvell_, a Democratic Senator from Michigan, moved that the Judiciary be instructed to inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill for the establishment of a _General Bankrupt Law_.
NUMBER 3. On the 22d of April, 1840, _Garret D. Wall_, a flaming Democratic Senator in Congress, reported certain amendments to a Bankrupt Law, from a minority of the Committee; which were referred to the Senate"s select Committee, and reported by Mr. Wall, and pa.s.sed--21 to 19--and sent to the House.
NUMBER 4. In the Senate, July 23, 1841, _Mr. Nicholson_, a Democratic Senator from Tennessee, delivered an able speech in favor of a uniform system of Bankruptcy, and moved to amend the bill then pending, by inserting "BANKS AND OTHER CORPORATIONS;" which motion was lost by a vote of 34 to 16.
NUMBER 5. That great light of Democracy, _Col. Richard M. Johnson_, late Vice-President of the United States, wrote and spoke in favor of a General Bankrupt Law. In a letter of his, now before us, dated Washington, January 18, 1841, he says, speaking of such a law: "_My opinion is that it will redound to the honor of our country._"
But we will do Mr. Buchanan justice, by stating that he said he would vote _against_ the Bankrupt Law of 1840, because he did not like its features. When Mr. Webster spoke in favor of the law, and of the character of the _pet.i.tioners_, many of whom presented their pet.i.tions through Mr. Buchanan, the latter spoke on the 24th of February, 1840; and, to satisfy Mr. Webster and others that he was not opposed to the _principle_ in former days, stated, "_He came to the other House of Congress, many years since_, A FRIEND OF A BANKRUPT LAW. The subject was before the House when he entered the body twenty years ago." He added, "He was _open to conviction_, and might change his purpose!"
Thus, it will be seen that Mr. Buchanan, in this, as in every thing else, _was on both sides_! And how does it look in a Presidential candidate, to have supported a _General Bankrupt Law_ for the relief of _rich, extravagant, and aristocratic_ gentlemen, and then to turn round and advocate "ten cents per day" for poor folks and laboring men? It will look rather bad; but, then, Sag Nicht Democracy can go any thing!
This old "ten cents per day" champion of Democracy advocated, in so many words, the reduction of all paper money prices to the real Cuba standard of solid money! We take extracts from his speech, which will be found in the Appendix to the Congressional Globe, page 135:
"In Germany, where the currency is purely metallic, and the cost of every thing is REDUCED to a hard money standard, a piece of broadcloth can be manufactured for fifty dollars; the manufacture of which in our country, from the expansion of paper currency, would cost one hundred dollars. What is the consequence? The foreign French and German manufacturer imports this cloth into our country, and sells it for a hundred. Does not every person perceive that the redundancy of our currency is equal to a premium of one hundred per cent. in favor of the manufacturer?"
"No tariff of protection, unless it amounted to prohibition, could counteract this advantage in favor of foreign manufactures. I would to heaven that I could arouse the attention of every manufacturer of the nation to this important subject."
"What is the reason that, with all these advantages, and with the protective duties which our laws afford to the domestic manufacturer of cotton, we cannot obtain exclusive possession of the home market, and successfully contend for the markets of the world? It is simply because we manufacture at the nominal prices of our inflated currency, and are compelled to sell at the real prices of other nations. REDUCE OUR NOMINAL STANDARD OF PRICES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, and you cover our country with blessings and benefits."
"The comparative LOW PRICES of France and Germany have afforded such a stimulus to their manufactures, that they are now rapidly extending themselves, and would obtain possession, in no small degree, even of the English home market, IF IT WERE NOT FOR THEIR PROTECTING DUTIES. While British manufactures are now languishing, those of the continent are springing into a healthy and vigorous existence."
How will the _Free Trade Democracy_ of the South relish these "protecting duties" of an old Federal politician? They are about as consistent in their support of the Cincinnati nominee as "Clay Whigs"
are, when they know that Buchanan was the only man living who had it in his power to do Clay justice, in reference to the "bargain and intrigue"
calumny, and obstinately refused!
CLAY AND BUCHANAN.
In 1825, Mr. Buchanan, then a member of the House, entered the room of Mr. Clay, who was at the time in company with his only messmate, Hon. R.
P. Letcher, also a member of the House, and since Governor of Kentucky.
Buchanan introduced the subject of the approaching Presidential election, Letcher witnessing what was said; and after that, when Mr.
Clay was hotly a.s.sailed with the charge of "bargain, intrigue, and corruption," notified Mr. Buchanan of his intention to publish the conversation, but was induced, by the _earnest entreaties of Buchanan_, to forbear. And Mr. Clay died with a letter in his possession, from Buchanan, which, if published, as it should be, would place Buchanan without the pale of Democracy, and disgrace him in the eyes of all honorable men. _That_ letter, too, would explain why Gen. Jackson had no confidence in him, and was opposed to his taking a seat in Polk"s cabinet. Let it come!
_Keep it before the People_, That it was the vote of James Buchanan which, in the Senate, in 1832, secured the pa.s.sage of the "Black Tariff," so offensive to the "Free Trade" Democracy of Tennessee, South Carolina, and other Southern States, and which Gov. JONES threw up to Col. Polk with so much effect in their race of 1843!
_Keep it before the People_, That the Cincinnati Platform unblushingly affirms that "the Const.i.tution does not confer upon the Federal government authority to a.s.sume the debts of the several States, contracted for local internal improvements, or for other State purposes;" while the Democratic members of Congress annually violate this principle by voting away hundreds of acres of public lands to the States, for purposes of railroads and other improvements.
_Keep it before the People_, That the same Platform hypocritically a.s.serts, that "it is the duty of every branch of our Government to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs;" when the expenditures of Pierce"s administration are TWENTY MILLIONS PER ANNUM over that of MILLARD FILLMORE!
_Keep it before the People_, That the 8th of the series in this Platform declares, that "the attempt to abridge the privilege of becoming citizens and owners of soil amongst us ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute book:" and then the hypocritical builders of the platform turned about and nominated James Buchanan, who commenced public life as the advocate of the "alien and sedition laws," and sustained, in and out of Congress, the Federal party, who pa.s.sed these laws.
_Keep it before the People_, That the Cincinnati Platform, which prates so loudly about the privilege of becoming "owners of the soil," and which rebukes all efforts to amend our naturalization laws as oppressive to foreigners, nominated a man for the Presidency who spoke publicly in this language: "Above all, we ought to drive from our sh.o.r.es foreign influence, which has been in every age the curse of republics!"
_Keep it before the People_, That this Cincinnati Platform pledges itself to the "Acts known as the Compromise Measures," and then resolves "to resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of slavery;" while the second best nags before the Convention were Dougla.s.s and Pierce, who brought forward the bill repealing the Missouri Compromise line, and opening up anew the slavery agitation, while Pierce signed the bill and adopted it as an Administration measure!
_Keep it before the People_, That this same Platform a.s.serts, as an indispensable article of the Democratic faith, that "the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the Const.i.tution;" and yet a majority of the Democracy, in one branch of Congress, unhesitatingly voted for a bill introduced by Robert M. T. Hunter, a leader of "the most straitest sect" of Democratic Pharisees, which proposed to give away the whole body of the public lands to squatters, at the nominal price of ninepence an acre, and at five years" credit!
_Keep it before the People_, That this same platform deprecates a policy which legislates for the few at the expense of the many; yet its builders nominated a man for the Presidency who has avowed himself on the floor of the Senate in favor of reducing the wages of poor white men to the Cuban standard of TEN CENTS per day!
_Keep it before the People_, That this Cincinnati Platform utterly fails to come up to that high Southern standard, which the country looked for from a party so lavish of promises, and that it has deliberately and completely shirked the slavery issue, the only apology for which is found in their having nominated an old anti-slavery Federalist.
_Keep it before the People_, That JAMES BUCHANAN was opposed to the war of 1812, but is in favor of the next war--while a Federalist he was conservative in his views, but is now square upon a Filibustering Platform--his nomination, an overture to the Sumner Wing of Democracy, is the very nomination for the Nullifiers, Fire-eaters, and Disunionists of the South--that while we cry North, shout South, every faction is united.
THE CINCINNATI VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE.
_John C. Breckenridge_, of Kentucky, is now the Democratic candidate for the Vice Presidency; and in our devotion to the _head_ of the ticket, we do not wish to neglect the _tail_. Mr. Breckenridge is a good speaker, and is about as good a selection as his party could make. He has not been long enough in public life to attain any experience as a statesman, nor has he been guilty of any great indiscretion in his short Congressional career. He will be unable to carry Kentucky for his party, though he has some elements of strength. Standing out in violent opposition to his relatives upon the _Know Nothing_ issues, he will be acceptable to all Foreigners, and the Catholics in particular! Being on the very best of terms with _Ca.s.sius M. Clay_, and voting with the Emanc.i.p.ationists of Kentucky, he will be rather acceptable to the Anti-Slavery men than otherwise! He was a zealous supporter of the bill in Congress appropriating a million or two dollars to works of Internal Improvement, which was _vetoed_ by Pierce. That bill provided $50,000 for the improvement of the Kentucky River, to which he urged an amendment insisting on $150,000. This will give him strength with the Democracy of the North and North-West, who advocated the doctrine of Internal Improvements by the General Government!
On May 20th, 1856, the _Charleston Mercury_ came out advising the South as to the selection of candidates, which advice, if adhered to, would prove ruinous alike to Buchanan and Breckenridge. A brief extract from that article is in these words: