Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-04-24
Froa The Pennsylvania
The AxaillbtIlfx OF lame Huoh anau

1 The Avatiibility Of James BuohsnAn.
The term availability is applied to Mr.. Buc
HAYAs in some quarters in spirit in whicl
| we regret to see manifested. The writer's 70
the Abolition or Republican, press greedil,
clutch at this straw to save themselves from The
only nomination they really fear, and we have
it elaborated and descanted upon by them with
as much gusto as if they felt il to be the only
way left to defeat his selection as the Demo
cratic candidate for the Presidency. But that
any Democrat should allow himself to deliber-
ate even for moment upon such q thought as
this-that Mr.. BUcHAHAN's unparalleled pop
ularity has resulted from desire to make b IN
available at the sacrifice of any one principle
of the Democracy-th this thought should
be harbored anywhere by any member of the
Democratic party, fairly passes our compre-
hension. E.
Why is Mr.. BUCHANAN available? Why is
it that he should now be hailed as the man most
certain 70 be elected, should the National Con-
vention place him before the people as the
Democratic Candidate for the Presidency? The
reasons are prominent, positive and patriotic.
Mr.. BUCHANANs high character is an argu-
ment which addresses itself to all men. 1t is
tion, but it is the living pledge that in the first
sentative of a people who now attract the at
tention of the whole civilized world
Mr.. BUCHANAN has been forty years in public
life, and his friends proudly point to his record,
one not alone without stain, but marred
by no bunder either of principle or of policy
Mr.. BUcHANAH's national experience has
been the most brilliant of any living Demo.
cratic Statesman; the longest and the most
consistent; the bodest in times OF peril, and
the most impregnable to the assaults of Adolf
tionism. From the hour when he grapped
with the enemies of the Southern States twenty
years ago, in the United States Senate, down
to his last letter demanding that the Nebraska
bill should be adhered to, without shadow of
turning, against every storm that can be raised
against it, he has never finched before great
issue, or taken q secondary position when
blows were to be given and received in con-
test for the Constitution of the country.
Mr.. BUCHANAN comes back after having
played great and distinguished part as the
representative of his country at the Court Of
st. James. He comes to us with capacities
enlarged after his struggle with European d.
plomacy, and he is therefore pre-eminently the
man to deal with all those delicate questions
with foreign powers which 80 often disturb our
commercial and political relations
Mr.. BucHASAN's close, almost constant and
familiar knowledge of the domestic interests,
feelings, and dangers of our beloved country,
have been applauded during all his active life
by friend and foe and are now referred to with
grateful and exulting feelings by his country
men. rtat
Mr.. BUCHANAN stands ready to cooperate
with the Democracy of the Union upon the
platform Of the Nebraska bill, and upon any
ground which the Cincinnati Convention may
deem it patriotic and right to assume.
He has never assailed or deprecated any
other candidate for the Presidency.
He has never yielded an inch to British ar
rogance
stitutions in the midst of the aristocratc circles
of the old world.
He has not intrigued for the Cincinnati NOM
ination.
He has no official power to sustain his cause
for that nomination.
He comes home from America with honor,
from the sphere in which he has been the
bright particular star, and with an account of
his stewardship which will raise no blush of
shame upon the brow of the highest or the
humblest of his fellow citizens. aaJ s. a~a
If these services and these virtues make Mr..
BUCHANAN available" is it not a glorious
availability? 1t is not the result of hniidity or
of silence in the midst Of crisis; it springs
not from the glare of military success it is
the offspring OF no attempt to concliate fac
ton by browning it with his confidence it is
not the harvest of lifetime of inconsistency
of past without an opinion; nor is it created
by mercenary hope to make the future the
goal of an unworthy ambition. That is true
availability-which, after such career as his,
6nds the recompense of good deeds and patri.
otic efforts, in the unbought, unsolicited, and
widely spontaneous approval Of the American
masses.
And what an unnatural thing It would be,
If for so pinning the hearty and enthusiastic
preference Of his countrynie,a, JAMES BUCHANAN
should be set aside as unworthy of he conf
deace Of The Democracy Of the Union. We
pause before following out such supposition
to its extraordinary conclusion. We close with
asking whether, when such man is to be post
poned and sacrificed, only and avowedly be-
cause he has lived a reproachless life, because
he has been bold in his support of principle,
and because he may point to a record of forty
years, without blunder--whether such an act
would not be offering premium for treachery,
and q reward for shame? s