Presidential Candidates:: Containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860Bartlett, D. W. (David W.)
History
Presidential Candidates:: Containing Sketches, Biographical, Personal and Political, of Prominent Candidates for the Presidency in 1860
Bartlett, D. W. (David W.)
Statesmen -- United States; United States -- Biography
"'I might here repeat what I have said on a former occasion'--(you
see it was so important he must repeat it)--'that all
Christendom'--(mark the words)--'is leagued against the South upon
this question of domestic slavery.'
"All Christendom includes a great many people. If that be true,
and if you have got any allies, it is manifest they must be
outside of Christendom, because Mr. Buchanan says all Christendom
is against you; but still he leaves you some allies, and you will
see--it is as plain as demonstration can make it--that your allies
are not included in Christendom. Where are the allies? I will read
the next sentence:
"'They have no other allies to sustain their constitutional rights
except the Democracy of the North.'
"There is a fight for you: all Christendom on one side, and the
Democracy of the North on the other. That is not my version; it is
Mr. Buchanan's. That is the way he backs his friends; for he went
on, after having made this avowal, to claim peculiar consideration
from southern gentlemen, and intimated that he might speak a
little more freely, having previously indorsed them so highly as
this. Well, sir, when all Christendom was on one side, and the
Democracy of the North on the other, and the Democracy of the
North growing less and less every day--a small minority in the New
England States--how could the senator from Illinois be so unkind,
or how could he doubt, if on this vital question he deserted the
Democracy and went over to Christendom, as to how the question
would be answered whether he was to be read out of the party? Read
out, sir. That question was settled long ago. On this great vital
question he is out of the party.
"I would not say anything unkind to that senator, nor would I say
anything uncourteous in the world; but my experience in the
country life of New England does present to my mind an
illustration which I know he will excuse me if I give it. A
neighbor of mine had a very valuable horse. The horse was taken
sick, and he tried all the ways in the world to cure him, but it
was of no avail. The horse grew worse daily. At last, one of his
neighbors said: 'What are you going to do with the horse?' 'I do
not know,' was the reply; 'but I think I shall have to kill him.'
'Well,' said the other, 'he does not want much killing.' You see,
in ordinary times, and on ordinary questions, a little wavering
might be indulged; but when it is on one question, and a great
vital question, and all Christendom is on the one side, and the
northern Democracy on the other, to go over from the ranks of the
Democracy to swell the swollen ranks of Christendom, and then ask
if he is to be read out!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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