Daily American organ., 1856-04-26
The Hon. James Buchanan.-Th Pacific
Railroad.

Our Black-msil contemporary has professed-
ly taken charge Of the political interests Of the
Hon. James Buchanan, and, like his confrcres
of the Washington Union al the Pennsylva-
nian, he is daily giving the South the best of
all reasons why that section should not sup
port his pretensions, but should rather bear
the ills they have, than fly TO others that they
know "---are soorse! This trio of conspira-
tors against the political advancement of our
South, day after day, that Mr.. Buchanan re-
garded the Missouri Compromise as of equal
sanctity with constitutional provision but
they must needs, in fulfilling their secret stip-
ulations with his Excellency who fell on the
field Of glory and tainting in Mexico, inform
the South, now, at this particular juncture Of
affairs, that Mr.. Buchanan is in .tapor of ap-
propriaiing money from the National Treasury
to make Railroad to the Pacifci! The lesser
luminary of this administration, protesting to
be the friend of "Old Buck" thus spake in
his issue Of Thursday: @ a
a Democratic subscriber at distance has
asked us to enlghten him upon the position of
Mr.. Buchanan on the Pacific Railroad question,
and we have accordingly hunted up that distin-
guished gentleman's speech, delivered at the din
ner at the Merchants Hotel in Philadelphia, on
the 18th Of July, 1853, the occasion being in
honor of the visit of President Pierce to that city,
on his Northern tour. 1t embraces all that has
ever appeared in print concerning Mr. Buchan-
ans views on the subject, and therefore it may
fairly be taken az his platform on the Pacific
Railroad question
Under the pretext then, Of obliging Dem
ocratic subscriber at distance, or, in other
words to crafty the wishes Of the rival Of old
Buck, the distinguished General Pierce, our
Black-mail contemporary ransacks his files
aud produces a report Of the speech of Mr.. Blu
chanan delivered in 1863, and which is thus
presented;
"The Mayor, who presided at the banquet pro-
posed the health of the Hon. James Buchanan,
which was received With six cheers.
"Mr. Buchanan responded He did not intend
to make speech, but after he had been called out
in such way by his honorable friend from Missis-
sppi, IL would be discosrteous to him and TO the
Mayor, not to say something. He admitted that
Colonel Davis was strict constructionist He had
never known but one man who could excel his
friend from Mississippi in that, and that
friend Of his from Old Virginia, In olden times.
This gentleman was taken alarmingly i'll, and was
at the point of death, and all that troubled his
conscience was, lest he might be buried in the
Congressional burying ground at the public ex-
pense. He sent for a friend, and, in prospect of
etaruity said would nearly Sc as sys eye take A % my
that Congress- without authority from the consti-
tuition, should appropriate money to bury me.
[Great laughter. That gentleman was more of a
strict constructionist than his (Mr. B's) friend
Davis; for the latter had got so far as to be ,cil-
ling to appropriate the public money to make
railroad to the Pacific, NTH ohich he himself en-
tireiy agreed
The italics in which we publish the last
lines are ours; the language and sentiments
belong to Mr.. Buchanan. And so Mr.. Buchan-
an ridiculed the idea Of strict construction
of the constitution, and "he himself entirely
agreed" in the proposition to appropriate the
public money to make railroad to the Pa
cifc; and this says our contemporary, is Mr..
Buchanan's platform
The country will remember with what sur
prise they read, at that date, the speeches Of
two or three of Mr.. Pierce's Cabinet Ministers,
made on their Northern tour, in which the
Pacific Railroad was the hobby upon which
they rode SO gloriously throughout Pennsyl-
vania and the country cannot have forgotten
how severely Secretary Davis was handled by
the Southern press for giving utterance to the
doctrine that the General Government had the
power and it was its duty to build the Pacific
Railroad-nor can it be forgotten how sud-
denly the Cabinet backed down from that po-
sition, when assailed by the whole South, for
advancing those federal and consolidating doc
trinesl Why, our Black mail contemporary
remembers all this, and as a. fapor to has friend
Mr.. Buchanan, he takes occasion to append to
the speech of Mr.. Buchanan the following note,
TO wit:
cit is due to Secretary Davis that we should
add that, In writing out his speech to which Mr..
Buchanan refers above, he made it plain that that
distinguished gentleman misunderstood his views
concerning the propriety of sppropriating the pub
hc money to make railroad to the Pacific"
OF course, in priting QUO his speech, after
finding sit wouldn't take" Secretary Davis
made it plain that he did not mean what he
had said
But Is this fair towards " old Buckin Sec
retary Davis was understood by everybody to
say, what old Buck" did then and there rat
ify and approve, to wit that he, Secretary
Davis, was willing to appropriate the public
money to make q railroad to the Pacific"
with which old Buck "himself entirely
agreed, - and afterwards, forsootb, Secretary
Davis made it plain" that he meant no such
thing, thus leaving "old Buck" to stand by
himself alone on this proposition Now our
unbiased opinion is, that it was rather scaly |
trick, in our shrewd Secretary, to make "old |
Buck" endorse such an opinion, and then not |
stand up to il himself, but that is not our |