The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1864-09-22
historical Condolences.

Harrison, citizen of a free State, was
/ nominated for the Presidency, with the
f understanding that John Tyler, OF Viz
| ginia, should be the nominee for Vice
, President. Both candidates were elected,
} and General Harrison, dying within one
short month after his Inauguration, left
, the Presidency in hands of most des-
picable traitor, who only had the merit Of
/ devotion to the interests of his own family
first, and slavery second, to recommend
him. There was always mystery about
the sudden taking off of 'old Tippecanoe,'
and there were not wanting those who
thought he had been the victim of foul
play, and who refused to believe that an
old soldier and politician could be bored
to death by politicians Gas was asserted)
in the short space Of one month
General Taylor,,was the next Wing Pres
ident, and although he was Southern
man, he refused to lend himself to the
scheme Of taking the South ont Of the u
nion in the event of the admission of
California with slavery prohibited in its
constitution. 1t is matter of history
that when the old hero was approached
upon the subject, he declared that if the
reasonable experiment was tried he would
himself head an army to enforce obedience
to Federal laws. cold Rough and Ready"
did not long survive this threat, and after
a sickness of few days, he died, leaving
his successor a Northern man who was
pledged to the support of the Fugitive
Slave law.-General Taylor's death was at
ttributed to dysentery induced by eating
raw blackberrics, a fruit that is frequently
eaten as a remedy fer the disease named.
At all events General Taylor died, and
the country got Mr.. Fillmore and the
Fugitive Slave law.
General Pierce, of New Hampshire,
and W. r. King, of Alabama, came next
in order after Taylor and Fillmore. Mr..
King died of consumption one month al
ter the inauguration of his colleague, and
before he had been enabled to assume the
duties Of the Vice Presidency, leaving
"Poor Pierce" in the hands of his Secre-
tary of War, Mr.. Jefferson Davis. How
we'll the renegade New Englander served
his Southern keepers, Kansas and Ne
braska will bear testimony. He was too
valuable a President for the South to lose,
so he escaped being bored to death by
ofic seekers, or being killed by dysen-
terry produced by eating blackberries.
James Buchanan and John G. Breck-
inridge followed in regular succession,
and 'Old Buck" came very near being
one of the victims of the wholesale poison
ing at the National Hotel at Washington.
| Mr.. Buchanan was an inmate Of the ho
tel at the time of the ''rat soup" affair;
but by hook or by crook he escaped the
honors of martyrdom. Had he perished
along with numerous Northern victims,
John C. Breckenridge would have been
President of the United States for four
years, and the sort of a President he
would have made, the history Of the past
few years abundantly demonstrates. We
do not charge the South with intending
to poison Mr.. Buchanan at the National
Hotel; but it is at least extraordinary
that of the many persons who were afec-
ted by the poison there were no South
erners, although there were numerous
natives of Dixie who were guests IN the
house at the time.
Mr.. Lincoln was the successor of Mr..
Buchanan in the Presidential chair, and
the perils he escaped on his road to Wash
ington, before his inauguration, are mat
ters of notoriety.
I 1t may be urged, in answer to these
implied charges of foul play which we
. have heard made against Southern political
wire-workers, and which we have repeat
ed, that they are not assassins, and that
they are not capable of such vile treach-
cry. This fine sentiment might have
had weight four years ago; but now 1t Is
as light as feather in the scale of argu-
mcnt. The Southern rebels have been
guilty of worse crimes than are imputed
to them by those who believe that Harri-
son and Taylor were the victims, and that
good fortune alone saved Buchanan and
Lincoln from martyrdom The original
treason of Davis, Floyd and Breckenridge
was far greater crime; and every de-
vastated town, every Union victim of a
secession gallows, every slaughtered gar
rison Of defenceless prisoners, every mer-
chairman trapped and burned, and every
starved tenant of Libby or Belle Isle, is
so much heaped upon the great original
wrong. 1t may be fairly argued that
men guilty of these great crimes may be
capable of the lesser offences that are
, limited at.
Now for the application. 1t is mat
ter of notoriety that undisguised symPa-
thizers with Southern secession and re-
bellion, if not agents of Southern Seces-
sionists, were prominent actors IN the
f Chicago Convention. They virtually sac
rifced their "peace on any terms" prin-
ciple when they consented to run an
avowed war candidate for the Presiden-
! CIV. But they took care to secure rabid
, peace man, and most inveterate Copper
head as the candidate for the Vice Presi-
! dency, with the hope that with non
committal platform, the war principles,
4 ,,,l 1tyr of