The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-19
Charles A. Buckalew.

The Democrats were at least true
to their old-time principles in nOmina-
ting Charles A. Buckalew for Cover
nor, at their State convention. Mr..
Buckalew possesses two leading
characteristics of n first-class Demo
crat-he is a lifetime office holder.
and has been devoted follower of the
principles of John c. Calhoun. He
has been in Office, with but slight in
termissi0ns, for a quarter of cen
tury, and may be properly be said,
we think, to be professional Office
holder He started out as hair
splitting, State rights Democrat, with
John G. Calhoun as Guide, philoso-
pher and friend" and logically follow
ed those convictions, notwithstanding
their inevitable tendency was to make
this Union rope of sand, and to
lead to rebellion and war. He was
with the Shareholders from the begin
ming of his political life, and for any,
thing that has been made public, all
his sympathies are with them yet
When the Kansas outrages were be-
ing perpetrated, and slavery was be-
ing unlawfully and brutally forced on
that free territory, Mr. Buckalew was
in the State Senate, and we happen
ed TO listen to debate that took place
in that body on the subject. Mr..
Buckalew took the lead in the dis
cussion on the Democratic side, and
he sustained and justified those out
RACES with all the ability and sophis-
try that he could command. He was
replied to by John. c. Kunkle, and
with magnificent eloquence Kunkle
exposed the anti-Republican and in
human positions of Buckalew. These
outrages were really the beginning of
the war of the rebellion, and as Buck
alew sustained them, he never went
back on their logical results through
our national troubles. He was in
public life through the war, but we
can call TO mind no word he uttered
no act he did, on the side of the i'm
periled Union. Indeed, we remember
that in his district, where his inhu-
eRce has long been recognized as
very great, what is called the Fishing
Creek Rebellion took place, and men
among his constituents were those of
the few in the North who made armed
resistance to the Union authorities.
Whether the spirit that melted these
men to cooperation with Southern
rebels was the fruit ofMr. Buckalew's
political teaching, or whether it grew
out of their innate depravity, we do
not know but we certainly never
heard that Mr.. Buckalew uttered
word in their condemnation.
Mr.. Buckalew's friends have been
trying to give him a reputation for ex-
ceptional honesty and fairness but
his conduct in the Lyndall-Decert and
the M'Clure-Gray contested election
cases proves him to be man capable
of resorting to the most mon-
strous unfairness to serve his party
and to accomplish apolitical end In
those two cases, which were similar
in every respect, except that the Re
publicans were to gain by contesting
the former case and the Democrats
were to gain by eontesting the later.
the positions he took and the policy
he sustained were directly opposite
in the former case refusing an in
vestigation T; in the later case forcing
an investigation, and conducting it in
a manner that appeared to show that
he was determined to make it termin-
ate in way that should give his
party the control of the Senate. And
so has Mr.. Buckalew been a partisan
all his long office-holding career.
And as to his ability, he is much |
overrated by his supporters. In the
United States Senate he scarcely held
a third rate position and among the
able men Of that body he was COM
pletely dwarfed. Among township
and county politicians he had won
some reputation for ability, but when
brought in contact with the able |
minds of the nation, he was almost
entirely lost sight of.
Mr.. Buckalew is simply a Demo-
cratic politician, with all the old Dem
ocratie prejudice, and with a still alb
sorbing love for the fallacies of the
Calhoun school of States rights ad-
vocates--a school that prepared the
way by the advocacy oftheir unnation-
al principles, for the rebellion and
all its accompany evils. There is a
shadow of nothing in him that can
invite Republican to give him sup
port.-LebdRon Courier.