Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-19
James Buchanan-His Book.

chanan, under this title, had been so eX
tensiyely heralded prior to its appearance
that many were led to believe that the oil
rPublie Functionarym would therein re
veal some hitherto undisclosed facts, anC
deal in some subtle logic, possessing tn,
power at least to ~galvanize into a spas
modie life the. dead fame Of that most de
spised of Northern traitors. The work it
self dissipates all such beliefs, and utterly
fails to relieve the name of. james
Buchanan Of any portion of the odium at
taching to it by reason of the ~traitoroul
inefieieney of the man who sat in ths
highest place Of the nation and looked
quietly upon the contamination of the
most glaring schemes for the disnember-
ment of the republic which he had sworn
to uphold and defend.
Beginning with the agitation of the
slavery question by those whom he de-
dominates Habolitionists9 he deals in the
old eommon-places of denGnciation, such
as "a pretext for their assaults on Southern
slavery" "a law higher than the Consti-
t%ution,'' and such other verbiage as one
would have heard from a plantation
overseet in the palmy days of
the slave power. Speaking Of those
horrid "a~bolitionists" he says Sla-
very, according to them, was a g~rievous
sin against God" as much as to say it was
no sin at all. The movements and prog
ress of the abolition party are followed
step by step, until, it having gained con-
siderable strength, he suddenly drops the
appeilation abolition and adopts that of
qansislavery party" by which term he
means all the various organizations which
in turn eombatted slavery, whether by
recommending interference with it in the
States or the prevention of its extension
into territory hitherto free. In this man
ner he seeks to makethe Republican party
responsible for the doctrines and acts of
the abolitionists proper, and by implica-
ton justifes the rebellion upon the ground
that the dominant party at the North had
interfered with slavery in the States.
Admitting this view to be the correct one,
which It is not we cannot see how the
organization Of an anti-slavery society by
citizens of New England, or the election
of an anti-slavery President by the voters
of the North could justify the rebellion of
Shareholders in the South prior to the in
auguration of that President, and, conse-
quently, before he had found opportunity
to commit any act hostile to the slave sys-
tenn in the States. But Mr.. Buchanan
full well that the voters who ele-
waited Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency
had mo designs against slavery in the
States and only sought to prevent its ex-
pansion into the free territory of the
West. .y~-sifIl
After stating the exceedingly original
that slavery was a domestic
I stitution," he says with equal justice
eOnseishce have fnpeIled citizens
# Massachusetts to agitate for the suppress
ion of slavery in Brazil as in South Car
OF course it might. Who has
lot a right to "agitats for the suppression"
f wrong anywhere IN the globe2 Who
nut a slavery propagandist would deny
he right Ofsucha an exercise of conscience +?
But the utility of such agitation is another
natter. There is q broad difference, prac-
icaIy, between agitation for the confne-
nent to its original limits Of a local crime
n ones W country, and agitation for
he,suppressiono of vice inaland where such
has no political voice or control. !
Is a matter of justice, there would be no I
Inference; as q question Of precticability, t
here is the widest distinction. '
The aboltionists are indebted to Nj. !
Buchanan for the invention of a descrip- :
I've term of entire originality, and, how i
yer it may have been intended by its
uthor, one which conveys a great com. !
liment- They are denominated 'the. :
lOyement party" and the writer very v
-uthfully adds that they uswent ahead T
his truth has been demonstrated to the b
finite sorrows and disgust Of Mr.. Blu ,
lanan and his partisans both North and 3
outh- Anti=slayery men did go ahead c
-ot even rebel annon and bayonets t
,1ld stay their onward march, and to- y
~ the movement party" have the Il
roud satisfaction that they have stricken a
shackles from four millions of human 81
Nor viii they cease to be a =
movement party until the manhood of q
newborn sons of freedom shall have b
ZEN acknowledged and secured by legal b
lactment.7 q reIre ED
Mr. Buchanan complains of what he
lis an important feature in the or O
4nization Of anti-slavery societies the Ct
mission of women. OF this class of n
he says they were fsensitiYe and 4
lthusiastic in their nature against ,.
rong.n What q horrible thing was this .
e complains Of their becoming 'public u
,eakers," ard, although he accuses these IL
ensitive7 creatures of being violent" in
$ greatest ground of complaint is that: OF
heir Influence as mothers was thus Sc, as
red and directed to the education of the y
sing generation in anti-slavery prinei- =,
es,n aAyes there's the rub" The bar f
risms of slavery could not stand before ye
at army Of earnest and devoted women, NJ
a~nsitiye and enthusiastic in their nature ~p
ainst wrongyi and Who exercised their
iHuence as mothers in favor of univer-
! fberty. Had it not been for 1.-THE ris- tn
g generation reared under such lin m
enoes" fhe crime against humanity u
lich God brought to- q violent end in 4,
Gent Egypt might have been perpet- of
ted in modern America under the pro- te,
sDemoeratie7 administration
the government. l1 Z,
10. n57----1-- - vii
The change by which Mr.. Sherman re- K
ed from the Craftsmanship of the Senate ma
nance Committee, in order to let Mr.. lee
ssenden resumed, was made by request
Mr. Sherman Mr. Stavens also pra- L..