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
Who can doubt that these dangerous men will participate largely in the
counsels of General Scott, and influence the measures of his
administration? To them he owes his election, should he be elected. He
is bound to them by the ties of gratitude. He is placed in a position
where he would be more or less than a man, if he could withdraw
himself from their influence. Indeed, he has informed us in advance,
in the very act of accepting the nomination, that he would seek to
cultivate harmony and fraternal sentiment throughout the Whig party,
without attempting to reduce its numbers by proscription to exact
conformity to his own views. What does this mean, if not to declare
that the Free Soil Whigs of the North, and the Compromise Whigs of the
South, shall share equally in the honors and offices of the
Administration? In the North, where by far the greatest danger of
agitation exists, the offices will be bestowed upon those Whigs who
detest the Compromise, and who will exert all the influence which
office confers, to abolish the Fugitive Slave Law. To this sad dilemma
has General Scott been reduced.
On the other hand, what will be our condition should General Pierce be
elected? He will owe his election to the great Democratic party of the
country,—a party truly national, which knows no North, no South, no
East, and no West. They are everywhere devoted to the Constitution and
the Union. They everywhere speak the same language. The finality of
the Compromise, in all its parts, is everywhere an article of their
political faith. Their candidate, General Pierce, has always openly
avowed his sentiments on this subject.
He could proudly declare, in accepting the nomination, that there has
been no word nor act of his life in conflict with the platform adopted
by the Democratic National Convention. Should he be elected, all the
power and influence of his administration will be exerted to allay the
dangerous spirit of fanaticism, and to render the Union and the
Constitution immortal. Judge ye, then, between the two candidates, and
decide for yourselves.
And now, fellow-citizens, what a glorious party the Democratic party
has ever been! Man is but the being of a summer’s day, whilst
principles are eternal. The generations of mortals, one after the
other, rise and sink and are forgotten; but the principles of
Democracy, which we have inherited from our revolutionary fathers,
will endure to bless mankind throughout all generations. Is there any
Democrat within the sound of my voice—is there any Democrat throughout
the broad limits of good and great old Democratic Pennsylvania, who
will abandon these sacred principles for the sake of following in the
train of a military conqueror, and shouting for the hero of Lundy’s
Lane, Cerro Gordo, and Chapultepec?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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