Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-05-10

we are glad to be enabled to state, on tn,
threshold of the National Convention, that the
efforts to depreciate Mr.. BUCHANAN in the gooc
opinion of national men everywhere, and espe
cially in the good opinion of the South, have
proved utterly futile. There are few who have
taken part in this disreputable tattle, and those
who were prominent at first in the attempts to
excite distrust against the venerated statesman
of Pennsylvania, have gradually abandoned
their vocation, and now deal in vague gener-
propriately left to Abolition newspapers, like
| the New York Times and New York Tribune,
which, dreading the contingency Of his nomi-
nation, are seeking to array against him North
ern fanaticism, and to call together their scat
tered legions, because his name will be a tower
of strength when he takes the field. Even the
poor plea that Mr.. BUCHANAN is too available,
that his availability does not result from the
generation, and never found wanting-even
this has been ignored. Availability is con-
vertibe term, and those who have sought to
compare his strength with the availability of
General Harrison in 1910, and General Taylor
in lS4S, have too soon discovered that there
is such thing as availability on principle, and
that public man who combines in his person
and in his history the ability of a statesman,
the sincerity of patriot, and the orthodoxy of
Democrat, may sometimes be peculiarly ac-
ceptibe to the public mind. When such an
instance is found, when principle becomes
popular, when fidelity to the Constitution is
made watchword by all classes of men, and
when courage in great political crisis is ap-
plauded to the echo in every part of the Union,
and the man who can best represent the public
opinion in these respects is pointed out by un-
mistakable demonstrations, is it not sight
highly creditable to the American people, is it
not an assurance that there is higher and a
nobler availability which cannot be too permi-
nently distinguished
In looking over the Congressional Globe
during the discussion upon the fngitive-slave
law, and the compromise measures in the
United States Senate, our attention was arrested
by one Of the eloquent speeches of the Hon.
Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War under the
present Administration, and then Senator in
Congress from Mississippi. General Davis &C.
cupied then, as he occupies now, the position
of an extreme State Rights man. He had
been seeking to find Democrat most worthy
of the confidence Of the South, and as all who
know the distinguished Secretary of War, will
agree, he is not one to be put off with mere
phrases and empty promises on the subject of
the domestic institutions of the slave States.
He demands acts not words During all the
long debate on the compromise measures in
which he was distinguished, he spoke the SEN
timents of majority of the South, and there
fore the judgment of such man in favor of
a Northern statesman must be taken in the
sense that "praise from Sir Hubert Stanly is
praise indeedi"
On the 18th of February, 1850, jefferson
Davis used the following language:
"The abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia, so long agitated in both halls of
Congress and which has formed the theme of
SO many Northern lectures, | had hoped,
whilst they had so many more important themes
and, especially, whilst assuring US that there
was no intention to interfere with slavery in
the States but only to prevent its extension,
would for a season have been permitted to re-
pose, if it be now impossible to return to the
sounder opinions of other times.
at was formerly the case, will not say in
the better days of the Republic, though many
gone before may prove to be better than these,
that Northern men on account of the implied
faith of the cession, and for the peace that
should exist in the places held for common
purposes, by common government, resisted
every attempt to touch the institution of Slavery
in the District of Columbia. Such recollect ,oas
the course of a distinguished Senator once from,
Pennsylrdnid-di distinguished then, and more
distinguished since-Oistingnished by his cdpd-
distinguished by his high dttdinments-
distinguished for his high eloquencc-ye more
distinguished still, for the pure morally Of has
life and the stern patriotism Of his character"
That Senator, Mr.. BUCHANAN, Of Rennsyl-
pania, presented from the people of his own
State petition for the Abolition Of Slavery in
the District Of Columbia. After long and
able discussion the prayer Of the petitioners
was rejected by vote Of "a to 6. He presen.
ted it as a matter Of respect to those who had
enclosed it to him, but he moved that it be re.
jected, and made speech in favor Of its rejec-
ton. From that speech we extract some short
passages:
"The Constitution has in the clearest terms
recognized the right Of property in slaves. 1t
prohibits any State, into which slave may
have fed, from passing any law to discharge
him from slavery, and declares that he shall be
delivered up by the authorities of such State
to his master. Nay, more; it makes the ex-
istence Of slavery the foundation of political
power, by giving to those States within which
it exists representatives in Congress not only
in proportion TO the whole number of free per-
sons, but also in proportion to threeffths of
the number of slaves.
"Sr," said Mr.. BUCHANAN, "this question Of
domestic slavery is a weak point in our institu-
TONS Tariffs may be raised almost to prohi-
bition. and then they may be reduced so as to
yield no adequate protection to the manufac-
turer; our Union is sufficiently strong to en-