Washington telegraph., 1856-09-03

slave State-having, in his speech from
which We have quoted above, in the House
of Representatives in 1926, expressed his
solemn belief that slavery was "a great po-
litical, and a great moral evil" and a
Course" and thanked his God that his lot
had been cast In State where it did not
exist-and aware of the deep rooted anti
slavery sentiments of the of the people of
his State. a portion of his constituents in
Philadelphia having in fact demonstrated
against the admission into the Union of Ar
kansas, as slave State, Mr.. Buchanan
deemed it prudent, it would seem, to pro-
pitiate those anti-slavery sentiments as
far as he could bypleading that, s'on the
subject of slavery" the Constitution of
Askansas, whose admission he advocated,
'',oos more tiJerul than the Constitution
of any Of the sldveholding States that had
been admitted into the Union." Further
more Although, as we have seen, he
had in 1920, when the question was pend
ing, been vehemently opposed to the ad-
mission of Missouri as slave State, he
was now, in 1886, in favor of the admis-
sion of arkansas as a slave State, and he
vindicated before his immediate constitu-
ents, the people of Pennsylvania, and be-
fore the people of the q. States generally,
the propriety of his vote in favor of the
admission of Arkansas, on the ground, that
the H;ssonri Compromise of 1920 had
'tsettled the question of slavery in the ne,r
southwestern iSfates," that is, in the terri
tory acquired by the United States from
France under the Treaty of Louisiana, in
cluding the territory of Kansas
We are not finding fault with this rea-
son assigned by Mr.. Buchanan for voting
for the admission of Arkansas. What we
desire to do is, to call the particular attef
ton of the reader to the fact that, Just
twenty years ago, Mr. Buchanan vindic :
ted the propriety of admitting Arkar SIS
into the Union as a Stare State, on TIL: *
press ground that, the Missouri Con'prC-
mise Act had ''Settled hc gurSfan of lare-
ry'' in the whole of that vast territ. " ac-
quired from France under tl'c Trc;;y of
Louisiana-h1 of which tcF:i:or. the
present Territory of Kansas Was and is a
component part -
And this is but the beginning of the
end, as we shall show, from time to time.
The votes which are paraded by Mr. BU-
cHANAN's Southern supporters as evil
dences of his soundness upon the great
issue between the North and South. will
be found, upon examination of the reasons
which he himself presents for having Civ
en- them, to have been the result of be-
lief that he was legislating more with a
view to the ultimate supremacy of his
Free Soil doctrines and the amelioration
Of the condition of that class of people
whose bondage he declared to be "a great
moral and d great political evil, than out
Of regard to the constitutional obligations
by which lie should have been guided, OF
the principles Of equitable right which
Should have avtuated him That such is
the case, Is the inference TO which we are
i:rcsistibiy led by the examination OF Mr..
BUCHAEAN' 5 record, we do not think can
be successfully contrJyerted. When pub
he men must qualify their support of great
public measures, by reference to reasons
which guided them in their course of ac-
ton, altogether extraneous from the weight
Ter reasons OF State or national interest,
we may well pause to consider the amount
of credit which should attach to them for
any seeming friendship to a section or a
principle
We will pursue this subject to the end,
and in our next will be led to consider the
nature of the support given by Mr.. BU-
CHANAN to certain resolutions introduc-
ed into the Senate by Mr.. CALHOUN, in
1887.