The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-07-14

| your righteous indignation.
In the first place, then. Mr.. Buchanan was
porn OF Christian parents and educated in
Christian community. All his lifetime, and
at the moment OF his death, he felt that fear
OF God which a respectable authority has
declared to be not weakness, but the "begin-
ming of wisdom" and the only source of true
greatness. The corruptions introduced into
the church by the political preachers of New
England never reached him. He was sim
ply Christian man and firm believer in
the morality taught by the New Testament
Now, you know. Cat all events YOU must
have heard that persons who adhere to that
kind OF religion always contract habit of
regarding the violation of an oath with mex
pressible horror; whether it be committed
by an officer or witness whether the OBJ
ject of 1t be to destroy the character of po-
| litical opponent, to promote the interests of
party, or to enslave asState. ALI kinds of
laise swearing are alike to them. They
stubbornly reject the reasoning which seeks
to convince them that the observance of oaths
by magistrates and Legislators is mere ques-
| tiou Of expediency and sef-interest, varying
with circumstances. Mr.. Buchanan being a
man of this class. / submit the question,
whether his pTejudces against perjury Gun
reasonable as You may think them) are not
CLbltIeO u SOInc IILGl0 respect.
Apart from the religious obligation of his
| oath, he loved the constitution of his country
on its own account. as the best government
the world ever saw. do not expect you to
sympathize with this feeling your affections
| are otherwise engaged. But can you not
make some allowance for his attachment to
| that great compact which was framed by
our forefathers to secure union, Justice, peace,
state independence, and individual liberty
for ourselves and our posterity2
Another thing: All his predecessors gov
erned their conduct by similar notions of
fidelity to the constitution. In peace anC
war, in prosperity and disaster, through all
changes, in spite of all threats aDd provoca-
| tions, they had kept their oaths and assumed
! no ungranted power. 1t was the most nat
! ural thing in the world for MIR. Buchanan
to follow the example of such men as Wash
ington, Madison and jackson. rather than
the precepts of those small but ferocious pol
itsclans who thought their own passions and
! interests higher law" than the law of the
co1ntry.
| Again; All his advisers-not I alone, but
at of them@-cxpressed the clear and unhesi-
tating opinion that his view of the law on
the subject of ccercing States was right
! His legal duty being settled. not cne among
them ever breathed a suggestion that he
ought to violate it.
Besides, there was a question of natural
justice as well as legal propriety involved in
! making war upon the States at that time.
! Nine-tenths Of the Southern people were
thoroughly devoted to the Union and had
committed no sin against it, even in thought
Would it have been well to bring the visit
alton of fire, sword and famine upon whole
communities of innocent persons2 You will
| probably answer this in the affirmative
| GU think that no opportunity to shed the
blood and plunder the property of men,
| women and children who live beyond the
| Potomac ought ever to be lost. Mr.. Buchan-
an might have seized that occasion to imi-
tate John Brown on large scale, and thus
made an "heroic character" in your eyes
/ Bat you must be aware that he would have
| been regarded by the mass of meE a moral
monster, and the admiration of yourself and
| your party in Massachusetts, would have been
( but a poor compensation for the eternal
weight of infamy with which the rest of the
world would have loaded his memory.
Further still: You know that the general
in chief of the army had reported five COM
| paaies as the whole available force In the
South, and you never proposed to increase it.
! Yet you wanted war. Why2 Yuu must
have desired the Union cause to be disgraced
and defeated. for nothing else could have re
suited from such war as you now abuse
Mr.. Buchanan for not making. You and
your party in Congress were strictly nom
committal. You did not recommend peace,
nor offer your support to war. You would
/ take neither the olive branch nor the sword.
You refused to settle. and you made no pre-
| paration for contest. But you reveal now
| what was then the secret desire. of your heart
that the administration, in defiance of law
and without means, would declare war on
its own responsibility. This would have
been an expulsion of the Southern States
from the Union, for iL would have placed
their people beyond the protection of Fed
eral law they would necessarily rise in self
defence; our little army of five hundred
men would perish in fortnight; before the
fourth of March the independence of the
South would be settled fact.
Moreover, as you and your party friends
in Congress did not call for a war, the Pres
| ident had right Chad he not p to suppose
that YOU approved OF his determination to
keep the peace2 Perhaps your approval oi
his conduct is not very powerful evidence Of
) its Justice or legality. But here is the point
, How can you have the face to denounce 8
man as a criminal, after he is dead. for pub
lie acts which you consented to by youI
silence at IHo Iiuo In0J W0iO uOuo
But this is not all. You give your un
g qualified appreciation of Mr.. Lincoln's ad
! ministration. / do not say you were true t.
it flor | believe the evidence is extant which
{ proves that you were not but you have
landed it as strong and faithful. Mr.. Lin
coin adopted precisely the same legal prin
, ciples with regard to the coercion of th'
/ States that Mr.. Buchanan had acted upon
and carried the policy of reconciliation ia
{ beyond him. he avowed his intention no
e to make war or provoke it, as plainly as hi
!. predecessor had ever done. Neither he no
j his Attorney General asserted their consttu
r tional authority TO commence aggressive ant
!, general hostilities for any cause then exist
!. ing. He received Commissioners from tn
/ Southern States. He pledged himself not t
f retake the forts, arsenals. dock-yards. Gus
y tom houses, etc.. then in the hands of th