Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-07-04
AMERICAN ELECTORAL TICKET,
FRIDAY, JULY 4, 1856.
81 had rather be right than be
President.1

81 had rather be right than be
President"
Appropriate to the Birth Day of Anne
rican Independence is the eloquent and
patriotic speech made by Mr.. FILLMORE at
Albany on his way home from the city OF
New York. Such a speech at such time
should exalt still higher his already highly
exalted reputation for true conservatism
and unselfsh devotion to his country. In
the midst Of fanataciSm, regardless of con-
sequences he rebukeS it, and warns the peo-
pie of the North against the dangers into
which they are driving the government
Scoring to occupy an equivocal position,
with one face to the North and another to
the South, he proclaims his views boldly
and pointedly, and with something of the
spirit of the immortal CLAY, repeats the
memorable sentiment of that departed wor-
thy had rather be right than be Presi-
dent" Read the speech, ponder it well,
and lay it by as legacy to your children.
Mr.. BucbaUan's AntecedeMts az an In
IernaI Improvement and Free Trade
Man.
The democratic platform pledges the par
ty against internal improvements by the
general government, and in favor of pro-
gressive free trade. What are Mr.. Buchan-
ans antecedents upon these important points
in the democratic creed
LIST. As to internal improvements. Whilst
in Congress in 1887, he voted for an appro-
priation to extend the Cumberland Road.
His party have regarded the Cumberland
Road as a species Of internal improvement
unconstitutional, and justly obnoxious to
censure. At later period, on the 18th
of July, 1858, on the occasion of the visit
of President Pierce and his Secretary of
War, Mr.. Davis, to Philadelphia, he made
a speech at the Merchants Hotel in that
City, in which in alluSion to Mr. Davis re-
marks touching the construction of a rail
road to the Pacific, he said /:
81 BE admitted that Col Davis was & strict
constructionist. lie had never known but one
man who could excel his friend from MISSISSIPPI
nj in that, and that was q friend Of bis from
old Virginia 10 Olden times. This gentleman
was taken slarmingly i'll, and was at the point
of death, and all that troubled his conscience
was, lest he might be buried in the Congress
sional burying ground at the public expense.
He sent for friend, and in prospect of eterni~
" said, | would nearly as lief take my chance
Of being id as to entertain the idea that
Congress, without authority from the Consti-
tuition, should appropriate money to bury me. ,
[Great laughter.l That gentleman was more
OF a strict constructionist than his (Mr b. -
friend Davis; for tie latter had got so far as
to be milling 10 appropriate the public money to
make railroad to the Pacific, WITH wHIoH HE
HIMSELF ENTIRELY AGREED"
So, it appears that as late us 1853, Mr..
Buchanan was willing to appropriate the
public money for internal improvement pur-
poses, to construGk-a great railroad TO the
Pacific. We presume it was this fact that
made the democracy Of Michigan, when
President Pierce a short time ago vetoed
the bill for the improvement Of the st. Clair
Flats, "thank God that his administration
was nearly at an end" and appoint dele
gates to the Cincinnati Convention in favor
of nominating Mr. Buchanan. ID As to
free trade Mr. Buchanan has always been
a supporter of protective tariffs. He voted
for the high protective tariff of 1924, the
bill of denominations in 1928, and the high
tariff of 1912! How man with such an
tecedents as these can be supported by the
democratic party as a friend Of "prOgres-
sive," or any other sort of free trade, "
we are at loss to determine. 1t is true
that he accepts the platform as he does the
nomination, but since the party have al
ways violated some Of the pledges Of their
platforms, is it to be expected that Mr..
Buchanan, after the canvass is over, should
he be elected President, will forget the
well-settled principles of his life, maintained
from 1924 down to the date of his accep-
lance oil Tue uoulludJlOui anu Iuu Oh dlJtT
the fine spun theories of the advocates Of
free trade?
We rather think those who support Mr.
Buchanan as an anti-internal improvement
man, and free trade man, will wake up
some fine morning should they succeed in
putting him through, and find themselves
badly euchred"