To that time, no one had undertaken to speak for him. There were no headquarters where his friends could meet even for consultation. There was no leader—no one whose opinions upon questions of policy were controlling, and but for this almost accidental combination of his friends in Cincinnati, it was apparent that Mr. Buchanan could not have been nominated, simply because of this utter lack of that ordinary preliminary organization necessary to success, which was by his opponents alleged to be the foundation of his strength, but which in fact was wholly without existence. Mr. Slidell undertook this task, and before the meeting of the convention Mr. Buchanan’s success was assured.[27] Footnote 27: The prominence given by Mr. Barlow to Mr. Slidell, as an active and earnest friend of Mr. Buchanan, led me to ask him to add a sketch of that distinguished man; and I have been at the greater pains to show the strong friendship that subsisted between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Slidell, because, as will be seen hereafter, when the secession troubles of the last year of Mr. Buchanan’s administration came on, this friendship was one of the first sacrifices made by him to his public duty, for he did not allow it to influence his course in the slightest degree; and although he had to accept with pain the alienation which Mr. Slidell and all his other Southern friends, in the ardor of their feelings, deemed unavoidable, he accepted it as one of the sad necessities of his position and of the time. I think he and Mr. Slidell never met, after the month of January, 1861. The following is Mr. Barlow’s sketch of John Slidell:— “He was born in the city of New York in 1795; was graduated at Columbia College in 1810, and entered commercial life, which he soon abandoned for the study of the law. He removed to Louisiana in 1825, and was shortly afterwards admitted to the bar of that State. In 1829 he was appointed United States district attorney for the Louisiana district by President Jackson, and from that time took an active part in the politics of the State. He was soon recognized, not only as one of the ablest and most careful lawyers, but as the practical political head of the Democratic party of the Southwest. “In 1842 he was elected to Congress from the New Orleans district. In 1845 he was appointed by President Polk as minister to Mexico. This mission was foredoomed to failure. The annexation of Texas made a war with Mexico inevitable, but the broad sense shown by Mr. Slidell in his despatches from Mexico was fully recognized by the administration of President Polk, and his views were maintained, and his advice was followed, to the time of the breaking out of hostilities.