Southern standard., 1852-01-31
ROBERT BOWMAN, Secretary.

Ggz~ The following letter from the Hon. James
Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, will be read with
much interest. Being now upon the eve of Pres
idential election, We are pleased to see candidates
coming out boldly upon all points of Importance
in regard to the Rights of the States. Mr. B., in
adopting Madison's Report and Jelfersons Ken
lucky resolutions, has taken step in advance of
any northern man, who has been named for the
Presidency. Read the letter below
WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, Dec. "a, 1851.
Ny Dear Sir: l am sorry l did not receive
your letter sooner | might then have given it
the cold fashioned Democratic answer which you
desire But | am compelled to leave home imme
dlately and it will be late for the 9Th of jan
uary Convention, | must, therefor be brief
My public life is before the country and it is
my pride never to have eyaded an important polit
ical question. The course of Democracy is al
ways straight ahead, and public men who deter
mine to pursue itnever involve themselves in laby
rinths, except when they turn to the right the
left from the plain forward path. Madison's Re-
port and Jeferson's Kentucky Resolutions are the
safest and surest guides to conduct Democratic
administration of the Federal Government. 1t is
the true mission of Democracy to resist centralism
and the absorption of unconstitutional powers by
the President and Congress-. The sovereignty of
l
can alone preserve and perpetuate our happy sys-
tenn of Government. The exercise of doubtful
and constructive powers on the part of Congress
has produced all the dangerous and exciting ques-
tons which have imperilled the Union. The Fed
eral Government, even confined within Its strict
constitutional limits, must necessarily acquire more
and more influence through the increased and in
creasng expenditure of public money; and hence
the greaternecessity for public economy and watch
ful vigilance. Our constitution when it proceeded
from the hands of its trainers was simple system;
and the more free from complexity it remains, the
more powerfully, satisfactorily and benefcially
will it operate within its legitimate sphere.
1t is Capitalization alone which has prevented
the French people from establishing permanent
Republican Government and entailed upon them
| so many msfortunes. Had the provinces of
France been converted into separate territorial
sovereignties, like State Governments, Paris
would then no longer have been France and rev.
olution at the capital would not have destroyed
4 the tederative Republic
Had the principles [ have enumerated been OBJ
served by the Federal Government and by the
people of the several States, we should have avoid
ed the alarming questions which have arisen out
of the institution of Domestic Slavery. The peo-
pie of each State would then, to employ homely
but expressive phrase, have attended to their own
business and not have interferred in the domestic
concerns of their sister States But on this impor-
tant subject | have SO fully presented my views in
the enclosed letter to the Great Meeting in Phila-
delphia, held in November 1850, that it would be
useless to repeat them, even If time would permit
From your friend,
Very respectfully,
I JAMES BUCHANAN.
To Col. GEORGE r. FALL.