The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-20

his rising into the first rank) belonged, we fnd
a set who rather followed than led public
opinion, and Except Mr.. Van Buren) favored
party tendencies as q means of personal inHu.
ence. General Cass, ike the rest had not sufi
cient ability to have been either the founder OF
party or to Ii nave gwen q new ne R and original
raries. He foated on the disputes which others
had raised. While Minister at Paris he pub.
lushed clever pamphlet on the right OF search,
which had European circulation, and pre.
vented, or assisted to prevent the junction of
France In q quintuple treaty sanctoning the
right of search as n part OF European public
law. This was an OLD question, but he did good
service oy the vigor with which he reargued it,
On the Oregon boundary question he took
extreme and untenable ground, prompted by the
antI-Brtlsh feeling which was the most per-
slstent OF his political passions. On the Texas
question he was an annexationist, moving with
the general DRIFT of Democratic public sentiment
and on that ground he prevented, In 1874 the
nomination of Mr. Van Buren,, though unable 10
secure his own; and Mr. Polk was made the
Democratic candidate. Near the close of lS47
when Presidential candidates began again to be
canvassed, and the Wllmot prOyiso was the
exciting topic, General Cass sought to turn the
flank of a question he did not CAFE to meet in
front, by his famous Nicholson letter. in which
he propounded the doctrine of territorial or as
MIR. Calhoun called 1t in derision, "squatter'
sovereignty 1t was, in fact, the only solution of
the slaveryquesllon which could have avoided the
territorial conflict which was even then ripenng
On the strength OF that letter he was nominated
for the Presidency, but lost the election mainly
in consequence of Mr.. Van Burens running as
third candidate. ..
Territorial sovereignty was the only origin al
idea ever introduced by General Cass into our
politics; and for while 1t had consd derable
vogue among the Northern Democ1acy But
when, seven wears later. Senator Douglas carried
Il to its logical consequence, by repeating the
Missouri Compromise, IL did more TO precipiate
hostile collision than any political theory
ever preached among us. 1t lntamed the anti
Gl NfntgW
and deluged the land in blood. Its practical
result has been, not to award sovereignty to
the Territories, but to eclipse ii in the States.
General Cass was Jealous and leading promoter
of the Compromise of 1850; but that TEN porary
arrangement was q mere breathingspell in the
political part of the struggle.
General Cass' political career though dis
tingulshed and honorable, was, on the whole, a
failure. He aimed at the highest post IN our
Government, ana never attained it; but IN this
respect he did not differ from the most distin-
gulshed statesmen who were his contemporaries.
But, unlike them, he was not compensated IN
influence for what be failed to gain in official
position. He carried no great measure in his
own time; he impressed no permanent ideas on
the succeeding; his influence expired before him.
Ii was his misfortune to hasten the terrible con-
tiCt which has filed the country with graves
and put the Constitution itself in peril; first by
preventing Mr. Van Buren, being made President
in 1874, and secondly, by broaChing the doctrine
OF territorial sovereignty. Mr.. Van Buren's
election in 1874 would have changed the whole
course OF our subsequent history. 1t might not
have shut the door against Texas but it would
have prevented the Mexican war, and the conse-
quent acquisition OF territory which proved q
Pandoras box to the country. But after the
new territory was in, the doctrine OF squatter
sovereignty, when carried to lbs logical conse-
quence in tie repeal OF the Missouri Compro-
mise, broke up the fountains OF the great deep
and brought on the deluge.
AS General Cass and his contemporaries be-
lorg now TO history, we have ventured to speak
Of them with historical freedom. One by one
the links are breaking which connected this
political generation with the last. When Mr.. Bu-
chanan and John Bell have followed General
Cass there will be lett among us no considerable
representative of the American Senate as it ex-
listed, in its "high ar palmy days," at the
dawn Of the antislavery era in our politics.