Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-04-12
A GLIMMERING OF RETURNING
REASON

We publish the following article from the
Washington Union, styled the "New York
Times and Mr.. Buchanan" 1t will be found
to be an able defence of Mr.. Buchanan from
the unjust assaults of the New York Times,
upon that distinguished statesman. We would
suggest to our neighbor that he should embalm
il, and present it to Mr.. Buchanan Immediately
on his return to this country. II may help to
Offset, in a small degree at least, the injustice
the Union has studously, for the past few
weeks, been doing him. We recognise in this
article of our neighbor sagacity that we had
never given him credit for before. Peradven-
ture it is the sagacty Of that wise little quad.
ruped who timely deserts sinking ship or q
| falling house.
"THE New York TINES AND Mr.. BucHAN.
Ant was not to be expected that Mr. Buch-
anan, any more than other eminent democratic
statesmen whose names are associated with
presidential nomination, would escape the ma
iignant assaults of aboitionists and Know-no-
things. If they are made upon him with less
violence and directness than upon others, they
are not the less malicious or false because they
are insidious. The New York Times of Fri.
day last devotes more than column to this
covert mode Of warfare on Mr.. Buchanan,
which it has stopped to borrow and adopt
mainly from the Know.nothing organ in this
city. 1t is only necessary TO allude briefly TO
the charges Of the Times to show the maignity
of the assailants, whether as principals or en-
dorsers.
"The first specification is, that Mr.. Buch-
anan was attached to the federal party in the
-. 81
could the Times have for raking up a charge
that was long since worn threadbare, and
thrown aside as unavailable by his Wing oppo.
nents? If the Democrats are satisfied to trust
Mr.. Buchanan's fidelity, after more than thirty
years unwavering fidelity to their principles,
as they have repeatedly shown, why should one
who has descended from whiggery to abolition.
ism manifest any concern2 Mr.. Buchanan is
not a candidate for an abolition nomination.
1.-THE next insinuation Of the Times relates
to the connection of Mr.. Buchanan with the
difficulty between General Jackson and Mr..
Clay in 1924, as to the charge of bargain and
intrigue. The intimation is that Mr.. Buchan.
an failed to sustain General Jackson in that
matter, and yet the Times writes down its own
disqualification when it says afterwards in the
same article that General Jackson in 1882 APP
pointed Mr.. Buchanan as minister to Russia.
Does any one suppose that if General jackson
had not been satisfied with Mr.. Buchanan's
conduct in that affair he would ever have given
him so marked an evidence of his confidence?
"The Times goes still lower down in the
depths Of malignity when it ventures to say
that "H IS said that in some 4th Of July Grafton,
Mr.. Buchanan once said that if he had a drop
OF democratic blood in bis veins he would open
n vein and let il out ut is said"-this is the
battery from behind which honest mon are Sian.
dered. If the Times cannot give a responsible
author for this falsehood, it is in no better pre-
dicament than the author himself But why
should the Times feel concerned to fish up
from the sewers Of calumny this long-snce ex.
ploded charge? twill not do for that journal
TO say that "the repetition Of these charges,
whether true or false, excites only a good.na.
tured interest in the controversies OF a former
day." The malice that inslgated their "repe.
tition" by the Times is but poorly concealed by
its hypocritical apology.
"The main charge, however, made by the
Times is that con the slavery question Mr..
Buchanan has made party expediency his high
er law" This charge is based upon the as
sumption that in 1920 he warmly opposed the
exclusion of slavery from the territory north Of
| the Missouri line; and because in lS47 he wrote
his "Berks letter." in which he advocated the
extensisn Of the Missouri line 10 the Pacific as
the most simple and equitable mode Of settling
the slavery question:; and because the Times
anticipates that he will take an early occasion
to place himself thoroughly upon the Kansas
Nebraska platform. 1t is worthy Of remark
| that in the same number of the Times in which
this effort is made to cast suspicion upon Mr.
Buchanan's position is q telegraphic announce.