The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-27

shur, of Virginia"
By series of adroit maneuvres, the man in
the world who most desired the election of
Martin Van Buren,, and was most opposed to
the elevation of Calhoun, was made to endorse
movement which had for its sole object
the Illustration of Mr.. Van Buren's hopes
and the qualification of Mr.. Calhoun's ambi-
ton. The managers even endeavored to
enlist the cooperation of Colonel Benton,
who had always been Texas man, who
| had opposed its REIMBURSEMENT had tried to
get 1t back, and was in favor of its acquisition.
But, knowing the real object of the scheme, he
bluntly said, when he was approached, that il
was an intrigue for the Presidency and a plot
to dissolve the Union, and that he was against
1t. The plot went on, nevertheless, and the
avowed purpose, the public object, the annex
alton, was accomplished. But as to Mr.. Cal
houn, his elevation to the Presidency was
never so much as thought of by the Demo-
cratic party, or by any members of it except
his own immediate circle of friends and allies.
In May, 1914, the Convention of the Demo-
cratic party met at the city of Baltimore. Mr.
Van Buren,, beaten III lS40, claimed the nomi-
nation in 1874, because he had been defeated
| through the firmness with which he had
maintained party principles amid circum-
stances of peculiar trial. The party generally
| admitted his claim, and decided majority of
the delegates went to the Convention in
structed to vote for him. But he was
| against the immediate annexation OF
Texas, and the Southern faction were resolved
upon his defeat, which they accomplished by
| two ingenious, audacious, and original tricks
As soon as the Convention had assembled, but
| before it was organized, before the papers of
the delegates had been examined before
| prayers, before permanent chairman had
been appointed, a motion was introduced
requiring concurrence of two-thirds of the
delegates to effect a nomination. The friends
| of Van Buren, saw the game and resisted it,
but they resisted it in vain. The motion was
carried, and 1t was death to Mr.. Van Buren's
hopes.
Next to Mr.. Van Buren,, the most promi-
nent candidate was Lewis Cass, recently re-
turned from his mission to France, who had
publicly committed himself to the policy of
imme date annexation seventeen days before
the Convention met. The Southern chiefs
accepted this bid for their support; Cass
was their man. 1t soon appeared, however,
that MIR. Van Buren, was too strong a candi-
date to be easily set aside, and it proved
still more difficult to elect a candidate to
whom his real friends were unchangeably
opposed. Upon the first ballot, Van Buren,
received one hundred and forty-six votes,
which was twenty-four more than a maio-
rity; Cass received eighty three votes; Richard
M. Johnson, twenty -four; Calhoun, six; and
seven votes were scattered. After many in
efectual ballotings, and after a struggle,
within and without the Convention, of almost
unparalleled intensity, it became evident that
neither Van Buren, nor Cass could ever COM
mand, in that Convention, a vote of two
thirds of the whole number. To insure Mr..
Van Buren's defeat another political trick
! was then devised, of which Cave Johnson, of
Tennessee, was the originator. This trick
was the introduction of candidate entirely
new, too insignificant to have been the object
of controversy, and, at the same time, known
to be devoted to the Texan scheme, or any
other measure designed to favor the planting
interest James X. Polk, of Tennessee, who
had been thought of for the Vice-Presidency
by the friends of MIR. Van Buren,, was the man
selected. The device was highly ingenious,
| the man was well chosen; and it was managed
| in such way that Mr.. Van Buren's own State
was made to seem to take the lead in it. After
one or two experimental ballotings, Mr.. Polk
received the unanimous vote of the Conven-
| ton. The defeated rivals hastened to give
their assent; Mr.. Polk secretly bound himself
to the suppression of the indomitable Blair
and the troublesome Globe, so hostile to Mr..
Calhoun; the Nullifers triumphed, and the
Democratic party was kept united. The people
ratified these proceedings by eleoting Mr.. Polk
to the Presidency, although by an exceedingly
small popular majority.
1t seemed hard to many of us, then, to set
aside the brilliant, the honorable, the pa
triotic Henry Clay, and choose in his place
the weak and plant tool of a traitorous fac
ton, determined to rule or ruin. But, even
at this short distance of time, we can begin
to discern that then, as ever, the American
people made a decision which, upon the
whole, was the best they were permitted to
make. If Mr.. Clay had been elected, we
should have had another series of efforts to
reestablish and destroy a national bank, and
no one can say to what lengths he might
not have gone in fastening upon the country
a protective system still more rigorous,
cramping, and obstructive than that from
which we have since suffered. During one
short term, he might have held in suspended
animation the great controversy between
the North and the South but it
would have revived in all its fury
and swept him away, in 1848. Polk, on
the contrary, by precpitating annexa-
ton, at the price of war with Mexico, may be
said to have created the political party which
finally at such an expense of blood and trea-
sure, broke the power of the Southern oil
garchy, set free their slaves, and made the
United States a nation.
Mr.. Van Buren, had his revenge. His friends
considered that Mr.. Cass, in permitting his
name to be used against Mr. Van Buren,, in
the Convention of 1874, and especially in not
| withdrawing his name when it became certain
he could not be nominated, had violated both
the usages of the Democratic party and the
cOurtesies of public life. He resented it ac-
cordingly; his friends resented it; and,
, especially, his son John. In May, 1848,
| the nominating Convention of the Demo
; cratic party assembled at Baltimore,
/ and again Lewis Cass was the highest
=