Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2) — John Shaqi
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
I will do him the justice to declare that he has never yet recanted or
renounced any one of these principles. They are still convictions with
him; and yet the Democracy of Pennsylvania are asked to recant and
renounce their own most solemn and deliberate convictions, and vote
for a candidate for the Presidency, merely on account of his military
fame, who, if elected, would exert the power and influence of his
administration to subvert and to destroy all the essential principles
which bind us together as members of the great and glorious Democratic
party of the Union. Is not the bare imputation, much more the
confident belief, that the Democrats of Pennsylvania will renounce
their birthright for such a miserable mess of pottage, the highest
insult which can be offered to them? The Whigs, in effect, say to you:
We know you are Democrats—we know you are in the majority; but yet we
believe you will renounce the political faith of your fathers, that
you may shout hosannas to a successful general, and bow down before
the image of military glory which we have erected for the purpose of
captivating your senses.
Thank Heaven! thus far, at least, these advocates of availability have
been disappointed. The soup societies and the fuss and feather clubs
have yet produced but little impression on the public mind. They have
failed even to raise enthusiastic shouts among the Whigs, much less to
make any apostates from the Democratic ranks.
What a subject it is for felicitation in every patriotic heart, that
the days have passed away, I trust, forever, when mere military
services, however distinguished, shall be a passport to the chief
civil magistracy of the country!
I would lay down this broad and strong proposition, which ought in all
future time to be held sacred as an article of Democratic faith, that
no man ought ever to be transferred by the people from the chief
command of the army of the United States to the highest civil office
within their gift. The reasons for this rule of faith to guide the
practice of a Republican people are overwhelming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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