Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
History
Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
And yet, strange to say, the Whigs at Washington and the Whigs
throughout every State of the Union claim the vote of Pennsylvania
with the utmost apparent confidence. To secure her vote was one of the
main inducements for the nomination of General Scott over the head of
Millard Fillmore. Is there one unprejudiced citizen of any party in
the United States, who can lay his hand upon his heart and declare
that he believes General Scott would make as good and as safe a
President as Mr. Fillmore? No, fellow-citizens, all of us must concur
in opinion with Mr. Clay, that Fillmore had superior claims and
qualifications to those of Scott for the highest civil station.
Availability, and availability alone, produced the nomination of
Scott.
The Whigs well knew that the Democrats of the Keystone were in the
majority. What must then be done to secure her vote? Pennsylvania
Democrats must be seduced from their party allegiance—they must be
induced to abandon the political altars at which they have so long
worshipped—they must be persuaded to renounce the principles of
Jefferson and of Jackson, by the nomination of a military hero; and
this hero, too, a most bitter and uncompromising Whig. General Scott
is none of your half-way Whigs—he is not like General Taylor, a Whig,
but not an ultra Whig. He goes the whole. Is there a single Whig
doctrine, or a single Whig principle, however odious to the Democracy,
to which he is not devoted, which he has not announced and taught
under his own hand? If there be, I have never heard it mentioned. Nay,
more: these odious doctrines are with him not merely strong opinions,
but they are absolute convictions, rules of faith and of practice. The
Bank of the United States, the Bankrupt Law, the distribution of the
proceeds of the public lands among the States, the abolishment of the
veto power from the Constitution; in short, all the Whig measures
against which the Democracy of the country have always waged incessant
war—are so many articles of General Scott’s political creed. When
asked, in October, 1841, whether, “if nominated as a candidate for the
Presidency, would you accept the nomination?” after expressing his
strong approbation of all the Whig measures to which I have just
referred, as well as others of a similar character, he answers: “I beg
leave respectfully to reply—Yes; provided that I be not required to
renounce any principles professed above. My principles are
convictions.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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