The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-10-09


Applause. l believed that that. senti-
ment and: affection was reciprocated
We had tried in our good old State OF
Pennsylvania, for many years, to elect
this gentleman to the Presidency. 1t
fell to my lot-born in the county in
which he grew to manhood, in the county
where he read law, in the county where
he still has his residence, in that county
where he says he expects to die-and
knowing him thus well, it fell to my lot
to do good deal Of the hard work Incl.
dent to the fullfilment Of the aspirations
Of himself and the wishes of his friends.
In 1874 we went to the City of Baltimore
instructed to vote for distinguished cit
izen of your State, Mr.. Van Buren,; but
owing to the publication of his celebra-
ted Texas letter, the delegation from
Pennsylvania, as it is well known, con-
cluded that Mr.. Van Buren, had forfeited
the confidence of the Democratic party,
and that it became us to present our own
favored citizen for that high place. We
did so, and we failed. But still in 1848
we reappeared upon the scene with our
fellow-citizens, and there the friends of
Mr.. Van Buren in this State, repaid us in
kind for the good turn we had served
four years before. [Applause.l Un-
daunted we continued to organize, and
in 1852 we reappeared in the same scene
with our former friend, and we were again
defeated. That seemed to be the last
chance-the last shot in the locker-if
may use the expression. But he was ap-
pointed by President Pierce in 1853, to
fill the high and important mission Of
Minister to England. While there, he was
removed from the scene of domestic poll
tics, and quietly and observantly watched
the movements at home, pending and sue
ceeding the repeal of the NissouI line.
Mr. Buchanan had been known forAis at
tachment to that line-though ID 1919,
while student of law with Mr.. Hopkins,
at Lancaster, Pa, he attended a meeting
in which he denounced it; subsequently,
in 1847, he came out in his celebrated
Barks County letter, and stated there that
the only way to settle the Slavery ques-
ton was to run the line to the Pacific, so
as to secure to the North and to the
South their respective benefits on each
side of it, as proposed by its original
friends. Therefore it was, that while at a
foreign court, absent from his own coun-
try, his name became peculiarly the name
of the American people, as the one that
would lead the Democratic party to vic =
tory again. His old friends in Pennsyl-
vania moved forward. and again we or
W h.
when our champion could be presented to
our people. We repaired to Cincinnati.
Rivalries-home rivalries-had been ex-
tinguished /; bitterness, growing out of
the Missouri line and the passage of the
Kansas Nebraska bill had temporarily re-
moved other candidates from the field,
$50 we thoughD; and Cass men, Dallas
men, and Buchanan men in Pennsylva-
MIA, made common cause, and repaired to
Cincinnati for the purpose of putting this
gentleman into nomination. When we
reached there, the first indication that
appeared was, that the extreme South
had resolved upon his annihilation.
They saw il him the light of a moderate
Conservative sentiment. They saw in
him, for the first time, public man who,
having been absent from the country,
therefore disconnected from the exciting
rivalries of the day, would be compelled
from his position, to do justice to the
Nothern feelings, and extinguish section
alism. They did not trust to him on the
issue of the day. was not good enough
Kansas and Nebraska man for them and
they fought us, as the history of that
Convention will show, for five long days,
with bitterness and snimosity such as
political Conventions can scarcely rival.
But he was the only man to rescue the
Democratic party from defeat. He was
the only man to prevent the election OF
9 Republican, and the only man who
could carry Pennsylvania for upon the
contest of that State did the entire tide
of battle turn. From your own State q
similar disposition was manifested in GER
tain quarters. In this quarter now,
where this disease of Lecomptonism
RACES the most violently, and where the
affection for the Administration is indulg-
ed the most ardently, Mr.. Buchanan re-
ceived nothing but coldness and contempt
But we nominated him and returned to
Pennsylvania, for the first time joyous in
having achieved our long cherished wish.
And when we returned there, we came
with the full and confident hope that
there would be an end of the difficulty in
electing a man whose nature was believed
to be so conservative, whose character
was deemed to be so prudent and whose
entire record had been national and con-
stitutional. Atthat time ! believe the
Republicans themselves abandoned the
campaign. They looked upon his nomi-
nation as their death blow. They looked
around in vain for candidate. Blu,
events, (and there is no necessity for spin
ming out this detail to greater length, J
brought on series Of excitements such IS
we have never witnessed in our coun-
try, and by the middle of August, 1856
the campaign was more than doubtful
Why did it become doubtful? Because
the public opinion of the North had been
stirred to its deepest depth by the excess
es of the Pro- Slavery minority, backed
by Federal power, in the Territory oi
Kansas. That was the only question. II
was net the 0stend Conferences, it was moi
the Pacific Railroad; it was nothing but
the single issue-shall the people of Kan.
sas be permitted to dispose of their own
affairs in their own way2 Shall they
vote upon their domestic institutions, NOT
Slavery alone, but upon all their institu-
tious, unmolested by the bayonsts of the
Administration on the one hand, and the
onslaughts of bands of foreign marauder.
on the other.
No man felt more deeply in references
TO Kansas than did Mr.. Buchanan. M
man talked more freely about it In hi.
letter of acceptance of the nomination
and in the speech he delivered to the
Committee upon it in his parlor at Ian.
caster, lat which I happened to be pres.
ent, J he laid stress upon the great princi-
ple that the will Of the majority will pre-.
vail. Why, he said to me . thousand
times, the South must vote for ma, and
the North must be secured and the
oply way TO secure the North is to con.