The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1856-07-29

| foreign Minister.
ELECTED TO THE q. S. SENATE.
Immediately upon his return from Rus
sia, Mr.. BUCHANAN was elected by the
Legislature of Pennsylvania to the Senate
of the United States. He remained for
more than ten years member of that body,
entering it in 1884 and resigning his seat
in 1848 to accept the Seeretaryship of State
during Mr.. PoLK's administration. Our
readers will remember that from 1884 to
1S48, the Senate of the United States con-
tanned larger number of great men than
any legislative body since the days of Pitt,
Fox, Sheridan and Burke. Clay, Calhoun,
McDuffie, Buchanan, Hayne, Rives, Wood
bury, Wright, Preston, Grundy, Webster,
and Linn, were among the illustrious states
man who were among the great minds in
! the Senate at the dates referred to, and
JAMES BUCHANAN ranked with the ablest
men of our party, and was regarded as one
of its most accomplished champions. He
signalzed himself by his bitter hostility to
all the measures of the Abolitionists, and
endeavored to crush that fanatical faction
by harsh and severe measures, both in and
out of the Senate chamber. His boldness
and patriotism rendered him, of course, a
prominent object for their abuse and de-
nunciation, and he enjoyed his full share
of that billingsgate which is now so liberal
ly poured on Judge DOUGLAS.
HIS COURSE IN THE SENATE.
In the Senate Mr.. Buchanan opposed the
United States Bank, the profuse expendi-
ture of the public revenue, the abolition of
| the veto power, the Exchequer system, the
distribution of the public revenue to the
States, and a substitution of paper money
! for the constitutional currency of gold and
silver. He was for many years chairman
| of the committee on Foreign Relations, and
bitterly opposed the surrender of Mcleod
upon the insulting demand of the British
! government. He defended our title to the
Northeast boundary line, and opposed the
| treaty, which gave large portion of our
territory to a foreign government. He in
variably acted with his party.
During the extra session of l841, when
the Wings, flushed by success and conf
dent of the acquiescence of JOHN TYLER,
in all of their batch of unconstitutional
measures, sought to press bank, bank
rupt law, and Distribution" through Con-
gress during the memorable hundred days,
again, as in the time of Andrew Jackson,
Mr.. Buchanan distinguished himself by able
and eloquent speeches on the side of Dem
ocratic measures.
HIS DEFENCE OF THE SOUTH
The most conclusive speech delivered in
the Senate in 1912, against the restriction
| or abolition of the veto power, was that of
James Buchanan. With prophetic wisdom,
he declared that the time might come when
the Southern States would have nothing to
protect their domestic institutions bug 1Rhe
veto power and an honest, constitution low
ing President. Upon this subject his views
are in striking contrast with those of Mil
lard Fillmore, who believes that the action
of Congress should hever be interfered with
by the exercise of the veto power by the
Executive. Consistent and prominent as
Mr.. Buchanan has always been, in his ad-
vocacy of the great principles of Democra-
cy, his defence of the South and her insti-
tutions has been equally remarkable. AS
far back as the great debate on the admis
sion of Arkansas and Michigan, he was our
unswerving and devoted friend.
In 1886, on the subject of circulating A
bolition documents through the public mails,
he agreed with Mr.. Calhoun in urging the
passage of law to prohibit their circula-
ton at the South. When Congress was
petitioned to abolish slavery in the District
of Columbia, he opposed the reception of
such petitions in an eloquent speech.
SUPPORTS THE ARKANSAS BILL.
As high mark of the esteem and admi-
ration of the South, he was selected in 1885,
to present the bill admitting Arkansas as a
slave State, and he then delivered q speech
of signal ability, taking sides with the South.
1t was upon the occasion in question, when
the States Rights party was yet in its infan-
CIV. before even John C. Calhoun had given
it shape and consistency, that Mr.. Buchan-
an, in claiming for the State an entire con-
troll of the subject of slavery, declared: -
1.-THE older / grow, the more am inclined
TO be ac]sat is called a State Rights man"
Mr.. Buchanan was one of the first states
men in this country to maintain precisely
the argument which is now used by the ad-
vocates of the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise. As early as 1886, in advocating
the admission of Arkansas she took the
broad ground, that the people Of the terri
tory haring formed a Republican Constitu-
tion after the model Of the United States,
could be. and should be admitted into the
Union irrespective Of sldrery; and that
Congress should not interfere to preucnt the
admission Of a sLaUe State"
IN FAVOR OF ADMITTING TEXAS.
In 1914, the annexation of Texas was
warmly advocated by the Democracy of the
Southern States. The Wings, with Henry