Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)Curtis, George Ticknor
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Life of James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States. v. 2 (of 2)
Curtis, George Ticknor
Buchanan, James, 1791-1868
But in this respect, a change has come over the spirit of General
Scott’s dream. Of this the Whigs are satisfied. If they were not,
small would be his chance—much smaller even than it now is, of
reaching the Presidential chair. In his letter, accepting the
nomination, he says:—“In regard to the general policy of the
administration, if elected, I should, of course, look among those who
may approve that policy, for the agents to carry it into execution;
and I would seek to cultivate harmony and fraternal sentiment
throughout the Whig party, without attempting to reduce its members by
proscription to exact conformity to my own views!”
“Harmony and fraternal sentiment throughout the Whig party!” His
charity, though large for Whigs, does not extend to Democrats. He
knows, however, that his own party are divided into supporters of
himself for his own sake, whilst spitting upon the platform on which
he stands—and those who love the platform so well that for its sake
they have even consented, though reluctantly, to acquiesce in his
nomination—into those Free Soil Whigs who denounce the Fugitive Slave
Law, and those Whigs who are devoted heart and soul to its
maintenance. In this dilemma, he will not attempt to reduce the
discordant brethren by proscription to exact conformity to his own
views. Southern Whigs and Northern Free Soilers are therefore both
embraced within the broad sweep of his charity. He seeks to cultivate
harmony and fraternal sentiment among the Seward Whigs and the
National Whigs by seating them all together at the same table to enjoy
the loaves and the fishes. But woe to the vanquished—woe to the
Democrats! They shall not even receive a single crumb which may fall
from the table of the Presidential banquet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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