ebook img

Life of James Buchanan Volume 2 of 2 George Ticknor Curtis PDF

316 Pages·2021·3.18 MB·English
by  
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview Life of James Buchanan Volume 2 of 2 George Ticknor Curtis

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of James Buchanan, v. 2 (of 2), by George Tickner Curtis This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: Life of James Buchanan, v. 2 (of 2) Fifteenth President of the United States Author: George Tickner Curtis Release Date: April 7, 2017 [EBook #54503] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN, V. 2 *** Produced by KD Weeks, David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: Footnotes have been collected at the end of each chapter, and are linked for ease of reference. Errors which are attributable to the printer, have been corrected. The corrected text appears in the text with a gray underline. The original text will be displayed when the mouse places atop the highlighted word or phrase. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. The cover image has been created, based on title page information, and is added to the public domain. JAMES BUCHANAN LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN Fifteenth President of the United States BY GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS IN TWO VOLUMES Vol. II. NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1883 Copyright, 1883, by George Ticknor Curtis. All rights reserved. Stereotyped by Smith & McDougal. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. 1848-1852. PAGE Purchase of Wheatland—Nomination and Election of General Taylor—His Death and the Accession of President Fillmore—The Compromise Measures of 1850—Letters to Miss Lane—Public Letters on Political Topics 1 CHAPTER II. 1852. The Presidential Nominations of 1852—Election of General Franklin Pierce to the Presidency— Buchanan’s Course in regard to the Nomination and the Election—His Efforts to defeat the Whig Candidate 34 CHAPTER III. 1852-1853. Personal and Political Relations with the President—Elect and with Mr. Marcy, his Secretary of State —Buchanan is offered the Mission to England—His own Account of the Offer, and his Reasons for accepting it—Parting with his Friends and Neighbors in Lancaster—Correspondence with his Niece 68 CHAPTER IV. 1853-1856. Arrival in London—Presentation to the Queen at Osborne—The Ministry of Lord Aberdeen—Mr. Marcy’s Circular about Court Costumes, and the Dress Question at the English Court—Letters to Miss Lane 99 CHAPTER V. 1853-1856. Negotiations with Lord Clarendon—The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty and Affairs in Central America— The Crimean War and the new British Doctrine respecting the Property of Neutrals 126 CHAPTER VI. 1853-1856. British Enlistments in the United States—Recall of the English Minister at Washington—The Ostend Conference 134 CHAPTER VII. 1854-1855. The Social Position of Mr. Buchanan and his Niece in England 142 CHAPTER VIII. 1856. Return to America—Nomination and Election to the Presidency—Significance of Mr. Buchanan’s Election in respect to the Sectional Questions—Private Correspondence 169 iii iv CHAPTER IX. 1857-1858. Inauguration as President—Selection of a Cabinet—The Disturbances in Kansas—Mr. Buchanan’s Construction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and of the “Platform” on which he was elected—Final Admission of Kansas into the Union 187 CHAPTER X. 1857-1861. Foreign Relations during Mr. Buchanan’s Administration 211 CHAPTER XI. 1858-1860. Complimentary Gift from Prince Albert to Mr. Buchanan—Visit of the Prince of Wales— Correspondence with the Queen—Minor Incidents of the Administration—Traits of Character— Letters to Miss Lane—Marriage of a young Friend 228 CHAPTER XII. 1860—March and June. The so-called “Covode Investigation.” 246 CHAPTER XIII. Summary of the Slavery Questions from 1787 to 1860—The Anti-Slavery Agitation in the North— Growth and Political Triumph of the Republican Party—Fatal Divisions among the Democrats— Mr. Buchanan declines to be regarded as a Candidate for a second Election 262 CHAPTER XIV. 1860—October. General Scott’s “Views.” 297 CHAPTER XV. 1860—November. Election of President Lincoln—The Secession of South Carolina—Nature of the Doctrine of Secession—President Buchanan prepares to encounter the Secession Movement—Distinction between making War on a State and enforcing the Laws of the United States 315 CHAPTER XVI. 1860—December. The President’s Annual Message of December 3, 1860 330 CHAPTER XVII. 1860—December. Reception of the President’s Message in the Cabinet, in Congress, and in the Country—The firm Attitude and wise Policy of Mr. Buchanan 352 CHAPTER XVIII. v vi 1860—December. General Scott again advises the President—Major Anderson’s Removal from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter—Arrival of Commissioners from South Carolina in Washington—Their Interview and Communication with the President—The supposed Pledge of the Status Quo—The “Cabinet Crisis” of December 29th—Reply of the President to the South Carolina Commissioners—The anonymous Diarist of the North American Review confuted 365 CHAPTER XIX. December, 1860-January, 1861. Resignation of General Cass from the Department of State—Reconstruction of the Cabinet which followed after the Resignations of Messrs. Cobb, Thompson, and Thomas 396 CHAPTER XX. 1860—December. The Resignation of Secretary Floyd, and its Cause—Refutation of the Story of his stealing the Arms of the United States—General Scott’s Assertions disproved 406 CHAPTER XXI. November, 1860-March, 1861. The Action of Congress on the Recommendations of the President’s Annual Message—The “Crittenden Compromise”—Strange Course of the New York Tribune—Special Message of January 8, 1861 418 WHEATLAND. LIFE OF JAMES BUCHANAN. 1 CHAPTER I. 1848-1852. PURCHASE OF WHEATLAND—NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR—HIS DEATH AND THE ACCESSION OF PRESIDENT FILLMORE—THE COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850—LETTERS TO MISS LANE —PUBLIC LETTERS ON POLITICAL TOPICS. At the distance of a little more than a mile from that part of the city of Lancaster where Mr. Buchanan had lived for many years, and a little beyond the corporate limits, there had long stood a substantial brick mansion on a small estate of twenty-two acres known as Wheatland, and sometimes called “The Wheatlands.” The house, although not imposing, or indeed of any architectural beauty, was nevertheless a sort of beau ideal of a statesman’s abode, with ample room and verge for all the wants of a moderate establishment. Without and within, the place has an air of comfort, respectability, and repose. It had been for some years owned and occupied as a summer residence by the Hon. Wm. M. Meredith of Philadelphia, a very eminent lawyer, who became Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Taylor. The house stands about half way up a gently rising ground, and has a wide lawn stretching down to the county road, shaded by oaks, elms, and larches, interspersed with evergreens. The view from the front of the house, looking to the west of north, ranges over a broad expanse of the county of Lancaster, one of the richest of Pennsylvania’s lovely domains, spread out in a map of highly cultivated farms, and dotted by the homesteads of a wealthy agricultural population. Behind the house stands a noble wood, which is reached through the gardens; and from the crown of the hill, in a southerly direction, the eye ranges over another fine valley of smaller extent. Coolness and peace pervade this attractive old place, and it is not singular that a man of Mr. Buchanan’s habits and temperament, who could not afford time and had no strong tastes for large pursuits of agriculture, should have coveted this his neighbor’s dwelling. But he did not break the commandment in seeking it. A treaty between two persons for the purchase of an estate is not ordinarily a matter of much interest. But this one was conducted in a manner so honorable to both parties that a few words may be given to it. The buyer and the seller had always been on opposite political sides; but they were friends, and they were gentlemen. In the month of June, 1848, Mr. Buchanan, having heard that Mr. Meredith wished to sell this property, addressed to him the following letter: [MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.] Washington, June 12, 1848. My Dear Sir: I have received an intimation from our friends Fordney and Reynolds that you are willing to sell the Wheatlands, for the price which you gave Mr. Potter for them. As I intend, in any event, to retire from public life on the 4th of March next, I should be pleased to become the purchaser. The terms of payment I could make agreeable to yourself; and I should be glad if you would retain the possession until the autumn. In making this offer, I desire to purchase from you just what you purchased from Mr. Potter, and to pay you the same price which you paid him. If I have been misinformed in regard to your desire to sell, I know you will pardon this intrusion. Yours, very respectfully, James Buchanan. To this letter Mr. Meredith replied as follows: [MR. MEREDITH TO MR. BUCHANAN.] Philadelphia, June 19, 1848. My Dear Sir:— On my return home a day or two since I had the pleasure of finding your letter. A month ago, I should probably have accepted your offer, as I had then an opportunity of securing a place in this neighborhood that would have suited me better in point of proximity than Wheatland. I have missed that, and it is now too late to make new arrangements for my family for the summer. I should not like to occupy the place after having sold it, for several reasons, and principally because the certainty of leaving it would tend to render the children uncomfortable through the season. These little people are imaginative and live very much on the future, and it would scarcely do to destroy all their little plans, and schemes, and expectations connected with the place at the very commencement of their holidays. I will therefore, with your permission, postpone the subject to the autumn, when, if I should be disposed to part with the place, I will do myself the pleasure of writing to you. Of course your offer does not stand over; but I will certainly make no disposition of the property without first offering it to you. With great esteem, I am, sir, yours most respectfully, W. M. Meredith. In the autumn, Mr. Buchanan again wrote: [MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.] Washington, September 25, 1848. My Dear Sir:— Upon my return to this city, on Saturday night, I found your letter to Mr. Fordney kindly offering to dispose of Wheatland, including all that you bought from Mr. Potter, to myself at the price you paid, and the matting in the house at a valuation. I accept this proposition, and you may consider the bargain closed. Of the purchase-money I can conveniently pay $1750 at present, and the remainder on or before the first of January. If, however, you should need it sooner, I can procure it without much difficulty. You can make the deed when you think proper, and the affair of the matting may be arranged at any time. 2 3 4 With many thanks for your kindness, I remain yours very respectfully, James Buchanan. In the succeeding month of November, the following letters passed between the two gentlemen: [MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.] (Private.) Lancaster, November 21, 1848. My Dear Sir:— I have seen Mr. Fordney since I came here, who read me a part of your second letter. From this I infer that you regret you had parted with Wheatland. Now, my dear sir, if you have the least inclination to retain it, speak the word and our bargain shall be as if it never had been. It will not put me to the least inconvenience, as I have an excellent house in Lancaster. Indeed I feel a personal interest in having you in the midst of our society; and if you should retain Wheatland, I know that after you shall be satisfied with fame and fortune, you will make this beautiful residence your place of permanent abode. Please to address me at Paradise P. O., Lancaster county, as I shall be at my brother’s, near that place, to-morrow evening, where I shall remain until Thursday evening. From your friend, very respectfully, James Buchanan. [MR. MEREDITH TO MR. BUCHANAN.] Philadelphia, November 23, 1848. My Dear Sir:— Your very kind letter was received yesterday, just as I was going to court in the morning, where I was kept without dinner till near six. I was then obliged to attend an evening engagement at seven. I mention these details to excuse myself for the apparent want of promptness in replying. I have in the first place to express to you my deep sense of the courtesy and consideration which induced you to make me the offer which your letter contains. I cannot accept it, because to do so would be to take advantage of your friendly impulses, which I ought not and cannot do. I have no doubt I shall find a place somewhere in the same county, and hope to call neighbors with you yet. I need not say how much I regret that Mr. Fordney should have been so indiscreet as to communicate my letter to you. My furniture, etc., is now removed, and I will deliver possession at once, and I wish you heartily, my dear sir, many years of happiness there. I am, always your obliged friend and servant, W. M. Meredith. In December the purchase-money was paid and the deed of the property was executed by Mr. Meredith. Mr. Buchanan soon afterwards transferred his household goods to Wheatland, and from that time until his death it was his permanent abode, when he did not occupy some official residence in Washington or in London. He removed to Wheatland the furniture which he had hitherto used in Washington and Lancaster, and made some new purchases. The style of everything was solid, comfortable, and dignified, without any show. The library was in the eastern wing of the house, and was entered by a hall running transversely from the main hall, which extended through the house from east and west, and was also entered from the principal parlor. At the window of the library farthest from the main hall was Mr. Buchanan’s accustomed seat. Long years of honorable public service, however, and sore trials, are to be traced, before we reach the period when he finally retired to the repose of this peaceful retreat. He left office on the 4th of March, 1849, with a fixed purpose not to re-enter public life. But although he held no public position during the four years of General Taylor’s and Mr. Fillmore’s term, he could not avoid taking an active interest in public affairs; and it will be seen that he was not at liberty to decline all public service when his party in 1853 again came into power. But it is now necessary to revert to the spring and summer of 1848, and to the state of things consequent upon the treaty which had been concluded with Mexico. The great acquisitions of territory made by the annexation of Texas, and the cession of New Mexico and California to the United States, had opened questions on which the Democratic and the Whig parties occupied very different positions. The acquisition of these countries was a Democratic measure; and had that party retained its control of the Federal Government, it is probable that its Northern and its Southern branches would have united upon some plan for disposing of the question of slavery in these new regions. The Whigs, on the other hand, although constituting the opposition, and as such acting against the administration of Mr. Polk and its measures, were far from being unanimous in their resistance to the treaty which Mr. Polk proposed to make with Mexico. There were very eminent Whigs who were opposed to all acquisitions of new territory, for various reasons, and especially because of the tendency of such acquisitions to re-open questions about slavery. There were other very prominent men in the Whig party who were willing to have New Mexico and California added to the Union, and to trust to the chances of a harmonious settlement of all questions that might follow in regard to the organization of governments for those extensive regions. It may not only now be seen, but it was apparent to thoughtful observers at the time, that the true course for the Whig party to pursue, was to adopt as its candidate for the Presidency some one of its most eminent and experienced statesmen, who would represent a definite policy on this whole subject, either by an application of the so-called “Wilmot Proviso,” or what was far better, considering the sectional feelings involved, by an extension to the Pacific Ocean of the Missouri Compromise line of division between free and slave territory. But there came about in the winter of 1848 one of those states of popular feeling, in which the people of this country have sometimes taken it for granted that military success, united with certain traits of character, is a good ground for assuming fitness of an individual for the highest civil station. Along with this somewhat hazardous assumption there runs at such times the vague and scarcely expressed idea that the Presidency of the United States is to be treated as a reward for distinguished military services. After General Taylor’s return from his Mexican campaign, in which a series of brilliant victories were gained, on each occasion with a force 5 6 numerically inferior to that of the enemy, he became at once a sort of popular idol. There were a good many elements in his personal character, which entitled him to strong esteem, and some which easily account for his sudden popularity. He had a blunt honesty and sincerity of purpose, which were backed by great strength of will, and prodigious energy as a warrior. The appellation of “Old Rough and Ready,” bestowed on him by his soldiers, went straight to the popular heart. These indications of what has been called “availability” in the political nomenclature which has acquired a peculiar significance, were not lost upon that class of Whig politicians who were most disposed to be on the lookout for such means of political success. General Taylor, although never a politician, and although, from his military life, he had rarely even voted at elections, was known to be a Whig, but, as he described himself, not an “Ultra Whig.” He was at no pains to seek a nomination for the Presidency, but it was pretty well known that if it came to him unsought, he would accept it. At the same time, with the modesty and sincerity that belonged to his honest nature, he did not affect to conceal his own distrust of his fitness for the office. It was, with him, a matter which the people of the country were to decide. If they chose to call him to the office, he would discharge its duties to the best of his ability. The sagacity of that portion of the Whigs who expected to win a political victory with such a candidate, was not at fault. When the Whig national convention, which was to make the nomination, assembled at Philadelphia in June, (1848), it was found that both Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were to be disregarded; and on the fourth ballotting General Taylor received 171 votes out of 279. It is a remarkable fact, that although this nomination was made by a national convention of all the Whigs, several attempts to have it declared by resolution that it must be accepted as a “Whig” nomination, and to declare what the principles of the Whig party were, were voted down. One proposal was to have it declared that Whig principles were “no extension of slavery—no acquisition of foreign territory—protection to American industry, and opposition to executive usurpation.” But singularly enough, these propositions were ruled to be out of order: and although the nomination of Millard Fillmore of New York, as Vice President, might seem to give the whole proceeding a Whig aspect, Mr. Fillmore’s name, unconnected with any annunciation of a distinctive Whig policy, to be upheld in the election, could do nothing more than to acquire for the “ticket” such weight as his personal character, not then very extensively known, could give to it. It was plain enough, therefore, that the election of General Taylor as President, if it should occur, would settle nothing in regard to the very serious questions that were already resulting from the Mexican war. It was this step on the part of the Whigs—nominating a candidate without any declared policy—that entailed upon that party, at the beginning of General Taylor’s administration, the most embarrassing questions, and increased the danger of the formation of a third party, on the subject of slavery, whose sphere of operations would be confined to the Northern States, and which might, for the first time in our political history, lead to a sectional division between the North and the South. On the other hand, the Democratic party had to nominate a candidate for the Presidency who, besides being of sufficient consideration throughout the country to counteract the popular furore about General Taylor, would represent some distinctive policy in regard to the new territories and the questions growing out of their acquisition. The friends of General Cass, who, although he wore a military title, was not in the category of military heroes, claimed that his party services and public position entitled him to the nomination. Mr. Buchanan was by far the fittest candidate whom the Democrats could have adopted; but he had made it a rule not to press his claims upon the consideration of his party, at the risk of impairing its harmony and efficiency. He had adhered to this rule on more than one previous occasion, and he did not now depart from it. General Cass was nominated by the Democratic Convention, and along with the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, W. O. Butler of Kentucky, he was vigorously supported in the canvass by Mr. Buchanan.[1] But the Whig candidates, Taylor and Fillmore, received one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes, being seventeen more than were necessary to a choice. General Taylor was inaugurated as President on the 4th of March, 1849. Although he was a citizen of Louisiana and a slaveholder, he had received the electoral votes of the free States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These, with the votes of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida, had elected him. All the other States had been obtained for the Democratic candidates; for although the Northern Whigs who were dissatisfied with such a candidate as General Taylor, and who had begun to call themselves “Conscience Whigs,” together with a faction of the Northern Democracy known as “barn-burners” had put in nomination Ex-President Van Buren of New York and Mr. Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts, this singularly combined party did not obtain the electoral vote of a single State. While General Taylor, therefore, entered upon the administration of the Government under circumstances which indicated much popular strength, the situation of the country, and his want of the higher qualities of statesmanship and civil experience, were not favorable to his success as a President of the United States. His cabinet, moreover, was not, comparatively speaking, a strong one. The Secretary of State, the Hon. John M. Clayton of Delaware, was scarcely the equal of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Buchanan, his immediate predecessors; and his negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was one of the most unfortunate occurrences in our diplomatic history. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Meredith, was simply an accomplished lawyer and a most estimable gentleman. The Attorney-General, the Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Baltimore, was a very eminent advocate in the Supreme Court of the United States, but not a wise and far-seeing statesman. The ablest man in the cabinet, intellectually, was the Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio. The other Secretaries were not men of much renown or force. When this administration took charge of the executive department of the Government, a session of Congress was not to commence until December, 1849. At that session, California, which had adopted a State constitution and one that prohibited slavery, demanded admission into the Union as a free State. New Mexico and Utah required the organization of territorial governments. The whole South was in a state of sensitiveness in regard to these matters, and also in regard to the escape of slaves into free territory and to the growing unwillingness of many of the people of the Northern States to have executed that provision of the Constitution which required the surrender of fugitives from service. General Taylor’s policy on these dangerous subjects was not a statesman-like or a practicable one. In his annual message (December, 1849), he recommended the admission of California as a State; but he proposed that the other 7 8 9 10 Territories should be left as they were until they had formed State governments and had applied for admission into the Union. Practically, this would have involved the necessity for governing those regions largely by military power; for the peace must be kept between the inhabitants of Texas and the inhabitants of New Mexico, and between the United States and Texas, in reference to her boundaries. In the opposite sections of the Union popular feeling was rising to a point of great excitement. In the North, the “Wilmot Proviso” was most insisted upon. In the South, this was resented as an indignity. By the end of January, 1850, the angry discussion of these subjects in Congress had obstructed almost all public business, and this excitement pervaded the legislative bodies of the States and the whole press of both sections. It seemed as if harmony and judicious legislation were impossible. It was at this extraordinary juncture that Mr. Clay came forward in the Senate with his celebrated propositions which became known as the “Compromise Measures of 1850.”[2] The discussion of these measures went on until the 9th of July (1850), on which day General Taylor died, after a short illness. His policy was characterized by Mr. Webster as marked by the foresight of a soldier, but not by the foresight of a statesman. It was attended with the danger of a collision between the United States and Texas, which might have led to a civil war. Mr. Fillmore, however, who as Vice-President succeeded to General Taylor, and who was sworn into office as President on the 10th of July, was a civilian and was not without experience as a public man, although not hitherto very conspicuous. Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun[3] had all strenuously advocated the Compromise Measures. A particular description of this great settlement must be deferred to a future chapter. But in order that these measures might receive their consummation, a reconstruction of the cabinet became necessary. All of the Secretaries appointed by General Taylor resigned. The State Department was offered to and accepted by Mr. Webster. Thomas Corwin of Ohio became Secretary of the Treasury; Charles M. Conrad of Louisiana, Secretary of War; William A. Graham of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Nathan K. Hall of New York, Postmaster-General; John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Attorney-General; and Alexander H. H. Stuart of Virginia, Secretary of the Interior. Thus a new Whig administration, pledged to the pacification of the country by a policy very different from that of General Taylor, came into the Executive Department. The Compromise Measures became laws before the adjournment of Congress, which occurred on the 30th of September; and then came the question whether they were to be efficacious in quieting the sectional controversies about slavery, and were to be acquiesced in by the North and the South. Mr. Buchanan, although not in official life, in common with many other patriotic men of both the principal parties, lent all his influence to the support of this great settlement. In November, 1850, he had to address a letter to a public meeting in Philadelphia, called to sustain the Compromise Measures, in which he said: [LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING.] “Wheatland, near Lancaster, Nov. 19, 1850. . . . . . . . . I now say that the platform of our blessed Union is strong enough and broad enough to sustain all true-hearted Americans. It is an elevated—it is a glorious platform on which the down-trodden nations of the earth gaze with hope and desire, with admiration and astonishment. Our Union is the star of the West, whose genial and steadily increasing influence will at last, should we remain an united people, dispel the gloom of despotism from the ancient nations of the world. Its moral power will prove to be more potent than millions of armed mercenaries. And shall this glorious star set in darkness before it has accomplished half its mission? Heaven forbid! Let us all exclaim with the heroic Jackson, ‘The Union must and shall be preserved.’ And what a Union has this been! The history of the human race presents no parallel to it. The bit of striped bunting which was to be swept from the ocean by a British navy, according to the predictions of a British statesman, previous to the war of 1812, is now displayed on every sea, and in every port of the habitable globe. Our glorious stars and stripes, the flag of our country, now protects Americans in every clime. ‘I am a Roman citizen!’ was once the proud exclamation which everywhere shielded an ancient Roman from insult and injustice. ‘I am an American citizen!’ is now an exclamation of almost equal potency throughout the civilized world. This is a tribute due to the power and resources of these thirty-one United States. In a just cause, we may defy the world in arms. We have lately presented a spectacle which has astonished the greatest captain of the age. At the call of their country, an irresistible host of armed men, and men, too, skilled in the use of arms, sprang up like the soldiers of Cadmus, from the mountains and valleys of our confederacy. The struggle among them was not who should remain at home, but who should enjoy the privilege of enduring the dangers and privations of a foreign war, in defence of their country’s rights. Heaven forbid that the question of slavery should ever prove to be the stone thrown into their midst by Cadmus, to make them turn their arms against each other, and die in mutual conflict. . . . . . . . . The common sufferings and common glories of the past, the prosperity of the present, and the brilliant hopes of the future, must impress every patriotic heart with deep love and devotion for the Union. Who that is now a citizen of this vast Republic, extending from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, does not shudder at the idea of being transformed into a citizen of one of its broken, jealous and hostile fragments? What patriot had not rather shed the last drop of his blood, than see the thirty-one brilliant stars, which now float proudly upon our country’s flag, rudely torn from the national banner, and scattered in confusion over the face of the earth? Rest assured that all the patriotic emotions of every true-hearted Pennsylvanian, in favor of the Union and Constitution, are shared by Southern people. What battle-field has not been illustrated by their gallant deeds; and when in our history have they ever shrunk from sacrifices and sufferings in the cause of their country? What, then, means the muttering thunder which we hear from the South? The signs of the times are truly portentous. Whilst many in the South openly advocate the cause of secession and union, a large majority, as I firmly believe, still fondly cling to the Union, awaiting with deep anxiety the action of the North on the compromise lately effected in Congress. Should this be disregarded and nullified by the citizens of the North, the Southern people may become united, and then farewell, a long farewell, to our blessed Union. I am no alarmist; but a brave and wise man looks danger steadily in the face. This is the best means of avoiding it. I am deeply impressed with the conviction that the North neither sufficiently understands nor appreciates the danger. For my own part, I have been steadily 11 12 watching its progress for the last fifteen years. During that period I have often sounded the alarm; but my feeble warnings have been disregarded. I now solemnly declare, as the deliberate conviction of my judgment, that two things are necessary to preserve this Union from danger: ‘1. Agitation in the North on the subject of Southern slavery must be rebuked and put down by a strong and enlightened public opinion. ‘2. The Fugitive Slave Law must be enforced in its spirit.’ On each of these points I shall offer a few observations. Those are greatly mistaken who suppose that the tempest that is now raging in the South has been raised solely by the acts or omissions of the present Congress. The minds of the Southern people have been gradually prepared for this explosion by the events of the last fifteen years. Much and devotedly as they love the Union, many of them are now taught to believe that the peace of their own firesides, and the security of their families, cannot be preserved without separation from us. The crusade of the Abolitionists against their domestic peace and security commenced in 1835. General Jackson, in his annual message to Congress, in December of that year, speaks of it in the following emphatic language: ‘I must also invite your attention to the painful excitement produced in the South by attempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals, addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints and various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate them to insurrection, and produce all the horrors of a servile war.‘ From that period the agitation in the North against Southern slavery has been incessant, by means of the press, of State Legislatures, of State and County conventions, Abolition lectures, and every other method which fanatics and demagogues could devise. The time of Congress has been wasted in violent harangues on the subject of slavery. Inflammatory appeals have been sent forth from this central point throughout the country, the inevitable effect of which has been to create geographical parties, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, and to estrange the northern and southern divisions of the Union from each other. Before the Wilmot proviso was interposed, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia had been the chief theme of agitation. Petitions for this purpose, by thousands, poured into Congress, session after session. The rights and the wishes of the owners of slaves within the District were boldly disregarded. Slavery was denounced as a national disgrace, which the laws of God and the laws of men ought to abolish, cost what it might. It mattered not to the fanatics that the abolition of slavery in the District would convert it into a citadel, in the midst of two slaveholding States, from which the Abolitionist could securely scatter arrows, firebrands and death all around. It mattered not with them that the abolition of slavery in the District would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution and of the implied faith pledged to Maryland and Virginia, because the whole world knows that those States would never have ceded it to the Union, had they imagined it could ever be converted by Congress into a place from which their domestic peace and security might be assailed by fanatics and Abolitionists. Nay, the Abolitionists went even still further. They agitated for the purpose of abolishing slavery in the forts, arsenals and navy-yards which the Southern States had ceded to the Union, under the Constitution, for the protection and defence of the country. Thus stood the question when the Wilmot proviso was interposed, to add fuel to the flame, and to excite the Southern people to madness. . . . . . . . . It would be the extreme of dangerous infatuation to suppose that the Union was not then in serious danger. Had the Wilmot proviso become a law, or had slavery been abolished in the District of Columbia, nothing short of a special interposition of Divine Providence could have prevented the secession of most, if not all, the slaveholding States. It was from this great and glorious old Commonwealth, rightly denominated the ‘Keystone of the Arch,‘ that the first ray of light emanated to dispel the gloom. She stands now as the days-man, between the North and the South, and can lay her hand on either party, and say, thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. The wisdom, moderation and firmness of her people qualify her eminently to act as the just and equitable umpire between the extremes. It was the vote in our State House of Representatives, refusing to consider the instructing resolution in favor of the Wilmot Proviso, which first cheered the heart of every patriot in the land. This was speedily followed by a vote of the House of Representatives at Washington, nailing the Wilmot Proviso itself to the table. And here I ought not to forget the great meeting held in Philadelphia on the birthday of the Father of his Country, in favor of the Union, which gave a happy and irresistible impulse to public opinion throughout the State, and I may add throughout the Union. The honor of the South has been saved by the Compromise. The Wilmot Proviso is forever dead, and slavery will never be abolished in the District of Columbia whilst it continues to exist in Maryland. The receding storm in the South still continues to dash with violence, but it will gradually subside, should agitation cease in the North. All that is necessary for us to do ‘is to execute the Fugitive Slave Law,‘ and to let the Southern people alone, suffering them to manage their own domestic concerns in their own way...... 2. I shall proceed to present to you some views upon the subject of the much misrepresented Fugitive Slave Law. It is now evident, from all the signs of the times, that this is destined to become the principal subject of agitation at the present session of Congress, and to take the place of the Wilmot Proviso. Its total repeal or its material modification will henceforward be the battle cry of the agitators of the North. And what is the character of this law? It was passed to carry into execution a plain, clear, and mandatory provision of the Constitution, requiring that fugitive slaves, who fly from service in one State to another, shall be delivered up to their masters. The provision is so explicit that he who runs may read. No commentary can present it in a stronger light than the plain words of the Constitution. It is a well-known historical fact, that without this provision, the Constitution could never have existed. How could this have been otherwise? Is it possible for a moment to believe that the slave States would have formed a union with the free States, if under it their slaves, by simply escaping across the boundary which separates them, would acquire all the rights of freemen? This would have been to offer an irresistible temptation to all the slaves of the South to precipitate themselves upon the North. The Federal Constitution, therefore, recognizes in the clearest and most emphatic terms, the property in slaves, and protects this property by prohibiting any State into which a slave might escape, from discharging him from slavery, and by requiring that he shall be delivered up to his master. . . . . . . . . The two principal objections urged against the Fugitive Slave law are, that it will promote kidnapping, and that it does not provide a trial by jury for the fugitive in the State to which he has escaped. The very same reasons may be urged, with equal force, against the act of 1793; and yet it existed for more than half a 13 14 15 century without encountering any such objections. In regard to kidnapping, the fears of the agitators are altogether groundless. The law requires that the fugitive shall be taken before the judge or commissioner. They must there prove, to the satisfaction of the magistrate, the identity of the fugitive, that he is the master’s property, and has escaped from his service. Now, I ask, would a kidnapper ever undertake such a task? Would he suborn witnesses to commit perjury, and expose himself to detection before a judge or commissioner, and in the presence of the argus eyes of a non-slaveholding community, whose feelings will always be in favor of the slave? No, never. The kidnapper seizes his victim in the silence of the night, or in a remote and obscure place, and hurries him away. He does not expose himself to the public gaze. He will never bring the unfortunate object of his rapacity before a commissioner or a judge. Indeed, I have no recollection of having heard or read of a case in which a free man was kidnapped under the forms of law, during the whole period of more than half a century, since the act of 1793 was passed. . . . . . . . . The Union cannot long endure, if it be bound together only by paper bonds. It can be firmly cemented alone by the affections of the people of the different States for each other. Would to Heaven that the spirit of mutual forbearance and brotherly love which presided at its birth, could once more be restored to bless the land! Upon opening a volume, a few days since, my eye caught a resolution of a Convention of the counties of Maryland, assembled at Annapolis, in June, 1744, in consequence of the passage by the British Parliament of the Boston Port Bill, which provided for opening a subscription ‘in the several counties of the Province, for an immediate collection for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston, now cruelly deprived of the means of procuring subsistence for themselves and families by the operation of the said act of blocking up their harbor.‘ Would that the spirit of fraternal affection which dictated this noble resolution, and which actuated all the conduct of our revolutionary fathers, might return to bless and reanimate the bosoms of their descendants! This would render our Union indissoluble. It would be the living soul infusing itself into the Constitution and inspiring it with irresistible energy.” I select from the letters of Mr. Buchanan to his niece, written in the years 1850, 1851, and 1852, some of those which indicate his constant interest in her, and in their home circle of friends, amid the very busy life which he led even when he was not in any official position: [TO MISS LANE.] Bedford Springs, August 4, 1850. My Dear Harriet:— I received your letter yesterday and was rejoiced to hear from home, especially of Mr. ——’s visit to Miss Hetty, which, I know must have rendered her very happy. I hope he will do better than Mr. —— or Mr. ——. I have found Bedford very pleasant, as I always do; but we have very few of the old set, and the new are not equal to them. I will not tell you how many inquiries have been made for you, lest this might make you vainer than you are, which to say the least is unnecessary. I intend, God willing, to leave here to-morrow morning. Six of us have taken an extra to Chambersburg: Mr. Wilmer and his daughter, Mrs. and Miss Bridges, Mr. Reigart and myself. I shall leave them at Loudon, as I proposed, and hope to be at home on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday next, I know not which. It was kind in you, and this I appreciate, to say a word to me about Mrs. ——. Should Miss Hetty marry Mr. ——, I shall bring this matter to a speedy conclusion one way or the other. I shall then want a housekeeper, as you would not be fit to superintend: and whose society would be so charming as that of Mrs. ——-? Remember me affectionately to Mrs. Dunham and Miss Hetty, and believe me to be yours “with the highest consideration.” James Buchanan. [TO MISS LANE.] Wheatland, October 12, 1850. My Dear Harriet:— Mr. McIlvain of Philadelphia, with whom I had contracted to put up a furnace and kitchen range this week, has disappointed me, and I cannot leave home until this work shall be finished. He writes me that he will certainly commence on Monday morning; and if so, I hope to be in New York the beginning of the week after, say about the 22d instant. You ask what about your staying at Mrs. Bancroft’s. With this I should be very much pleased; but it seems from your letter that she did not ask you to do so. She wished “to see a great deal” of you when you came to New York, implying that you were not to stay with her all the time. If she has since given you an invitation, accept it. Could I have anticipated that you would not pass some time at Governor Marcy’s, I should have arranged this matter by writing to Mrs. Bancroft. It is now too late. I may probably pass a few days at the Astor House in New York; but I may have to see so many politicians, that I should have but little time to devote to you. I desire very much to reach New York before the departure of Mr. Slidell which will be on the 26th instant. I shall be very glad, if Clementina Pleasanton should accompany you home, though the leaves are beginning to change color and to fall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Professor Muhlenbergh, having been appointed a professor in Pennsylvania College (Gettysburg), has ceased to teach school, and James Henry left for Princeton on Thursday last. We have no local news, at least I know of none, that would interest you. I think we shall have very agreeable neighbors in the Gonders at Abbeville. Please to remember me very kindly to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson and give my love to Rose. Yours affectionately, James Buchanan. 16 17 [TO MISS LANE.] Wheatland, January 17, 1851. My Dear Harriet:— I have received yours of the 15th, and we are all happy to learn that you have reached Washington so pleasantly. I hope that your visit may prove agreeable; and that you may return home self-satisfied with all that may transpire during your absence. Keep your eyes about you in the gay scenes through which you are destined to pass, and take care to do nothing and say nothing of which you may have cause to repent. Above all be on your guard against flattery; and should you receive it, “let it pass into one ear gracefully and out at the other.” Many a clever girl has been spoiled for the useful purposes of life, and rendered unhappy by a winter’s gaiety in Washington. I know, however, that Mrs. Pleasanton will take good care of you and prevent you from running into any extravagance. Still it is necessary that, with the blessing of Providence, you should take care of yourself. I attended the festival in Philadelphia, on the occasion of the arrival of the steamer “City of Glasgow,” but did not see Lilly Macalester. Her father thinks of taking her to the World’s Fair in London. I saw Mrs. Plitt for a moment, who inquired kindly after you. We are moving on here in the old way, and I have no news of any interest to communicate to you. Eskridge was out here last night, and said they were all well in town. I met Mrs. Baker yesterday on the street with her inseparable companion. She was looking very well. I have not yet determined whether I shall visit Washington during the present session; but it is probable that I may, on or about the first of February. Give my love to Laura and Clementina, and remember me in the kindest terms to Mr. and Mrs. Pleasanton. Miss Hetty and James desire their love to you. Yours affectionately, James Buchanan. [TO MISS LANE.] Wheatland near Lancaster, April 7, 1851. My Dear Harriet:— Supposing that you are now in Baltimore, I send you the enclosed letter received yesterday. It was inadvertently opened by me; but the moment I saw it was addressed to “My dear Harriet” it was closed. It may contain love or treason for aught I know. Eskridge was here yesterday; but he gave me no news, except that Mary and he were at a party at Mr. McElrath’s on Wednesday evening last. The place now begins to look beautiful, and we have concerts of the birds every morning. Still I fear it will appear dull to you after your winter’s gaiety. Lewis has gone, and we have a new coachman in the person of Mr. Francis Quinn, who with his lady occupy the gardener’s house. They have no children. Mr. C. Reigart will leave here on Saturday next for the World’s Fair and a trip to the continent. Your ci-devant lover, Mr. ——, purposes to go likewise; but many persons think he will not get off on account of the expense. Mr. and Mrs. Gonder prove to be very agreeable neighbors. They are furnishing their house and fitting up their grounds with much taste and at considerable expense. With my kindest regards for Mr. and Mrs. White and the young ladies, I remain, Yours affectionately, James Buchan...

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.