Nashville daily patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1855-1857, 1856-08-15
The Record Grows Darker
Buchanan Votes to Consider a
Proposition for Abolishing Sla-
very in the District Of Column


very in the District Of Column
bia.
We have from time to time, since the
nomination of Mr.. Buchanan by the Gin
cinnati Convention, presented mountains
weight of evidence to prove him hostile to
the South, and the interests of slavehold-
ers. No man was ever offered to the coun-
try whose record on this question is so
black, and damnably conclusive as to his
unsoundnesS. This feeling was early mani
tested by him, and has been unremittingly
maintained up to this day, and is now cher
ished by him in all its rankneSs. If the
political history of the country contains
anything that he has said or done, in SEEM
ing conflict with this feeling, some purely
personal motive prompted it. If he voted
to admit Texas, he did it with a heartfelt,
anti-slavery qualification, and with the
avowed hope and belief that it would cir
cumscribe, if it did not operate to the sure
extinction of slavery in half the States
where it now exists. If he endorsed the
platform which was made for him at Gin
cinnati, it was as the cart-horse accepts the
pack-saddle- irksome and oppressive
load, which he only engages to carry I" for
The canrass," and whose chatting he relieves
with the pad of Squatter Sovereignty.
Wherever he has been brought to recog-
nize or maintain the rights of the South in
regard to slave property, it was by the
force of necessity. For twenty years he
has been a candidate for his party's nomi-
nation to the Presidency, and has been
compelled to shift and shuttle, and tack and
turn to accomplish this end. These gyra-
tions have occasionally forced him to Sacri-
fee his adherence to slavery, and smother
his cherished purposes to confne and finally
destroy it. But fair and candid exami-
nation of his whole course on the subject
can leave no doubt with an unprejudiced
man, that he is at heart bitter opponent
of slavery, and that his ambition once graf
flied, he would not hesitate to sanction or
originate measures in accordance with his
feelings. We think the proof justifes the
South in regarding him as an ertremely dan
gerous man. We present this morning an
additional item of testimony, which, if it
were possible, renders still stronger the
overwhelming mass already piled upon him.
We have shown that in 1919 he took
the position that Congress had the power
to exclude slavery from the territories, and
advocated its exercise in the case of Mis-
souri,.
That in 1916, ina speech delivered in
the House of Representatives, he declared
slavery to be great POLITICAL evil" "a
curse" and devoutly offered thanks to his
Maker that his lot had been cast in a
State where it did not exist.
That in 1886, he spoke in favor of re-
ceiving and referring petitions praying the
abolition Of slavery, to a select committee,
or the committee on the District of Colum-
bia; and that on the 18th of January of
that year, he Thought Congress ought
not at this time to abolish slavery" in the
District, thereby implying and contending
for the power-See Cong. Globe, page IS.
That during the second session of the
9th Congress, there were forty abolition
petitions presented, and that he offered
tbirtyfour of them.-See Cong. Globe Of
that session.
That on the 4th April, 1886, he excused
himself and the committee having under
consideration the admission of Arkansas
into the Union, for recommending its ad
mission as q slave State, in the following
pregnant words:
q He considered the compromise which had
been made when Missouri was admitted into
the Union as haring settled the qaestiOn as TO
sIdDery in the ne1 South Western States; and
the Committee, THEREFORE, did not think
slaUery an ArkdnSas.-See Cong. Globe, page
279.
In this he again implies, in unmistaka-
bic language, his belief in the power of
Congress ITO INTERFERE WITH THE INSTTTU-
TON OF SLAVERY" and that he would have
done so in the case of Arkansas, had not
an existing statute precluded him.
That in 1914, while the Texas treaty Of
annexation was under consideration, he
expressed his GREAT REPENTANCE BY ANY
ACT OF HIS TO EXTEND THE LIMITS OF THE
UNION OVER NEW sLAvEHoLDING TERRITORY"
aud only supported the treaty on the
ground that it would 'limit," and not "en-
large the dominions of slavery"-and fur
Their that it would secure the abolition of
slavery in the States of Virginia, Mary
land, Kentucky and Missouri.
That on the 2lst August, lS4S, he
wrote to Thaddeus Sanford, of Mobile,
specially to state that he adhered to his
opinions expressed in 1919, as to the pow
er of Congress over the question of slavery;
and reiterates his opinion, that Congress
possesses the power to legislate upon the
subject of slavery in the territories" and
declared that this "pOroer, from lis nature,
must be erciHSire."
That in October, lS4S, he took posi-
ton on the question of slavery directly OPP
posite to that held by Clay, Calhoun, and