The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1904-12-02
MOONS PHASES,
A DEFENSE OF BUCHANAN.
Bel ..iR. ETD..

much uniaVOrable criticism regard
ing President Buchanan, who occu-
pied this trying position for he four
years preceding the outbreak of the
Civil War. The primary movement
tending to bring into disrepute the
individuality of Mr.. Buchanan was
in answer to the open letter written
bv former President Cleveland i'll the
interest of Judge Parker's candid.:cy.
Mr.. Cleveland took occasion to refer
to the deceased President as strong
character, who to the best Of his
ability interpreted tie constitution
of the United States Is he under
stood it.
The question: Of secession was Il
mooted one, and statesmen at that
time seemed to recognize the right OF
any one state or states TO withdraw
from the Union should they consider
that their several interests would be
thus benefited. In the many early
movements of secession, the North
many times cocrced the South into
its way of thinking by threats of Sc
cession Even in the time of George
Washington, Immediately after the
adoption ofthe constitution, the New
England members ofCongress threat
ened to withdraw from the rest Of the
states; and i'll subsequent years al
most every time that anything was
done, or proposed TO be done, that
did not suit them, they would threat
ell the organization with a separate
government. Because of the War of
1912, secession was Haunted in the
faces of the rest of the states, and the
Governors of Massachusetts, ard
Connecticut positively refused to fur
nish any troops against Great Brit
ain. When the question of admitting
Louisiana as state was before the
House ofRepresentatives, Mar. Quincy
of Massachusetts,, Il most able man,
declared solemnly as he stood on the
floor, that if Louisiana came into the
Union, Massachusetts, would go out.
The Congressional Record of these
early times will show numerous
speeches by able men who justified
the right of any state to secede when
ever it saw proper.
While no longer open to discussion,
it cost the lives of hundreds of thou-
sands of brave men and threw a
whole nation into sorrow in order to
settle the point. Though not now
debatable, yet it was force, not argu-
ment, that named the winning side.
1t is not our purpose to reopen the
question that engrossed the minds of
the nation and brought about this
bloody strife, but rather to do Justice
to an able man whose memory has
been so recently maligned for politi-
cal purposes. The coercionists of the
Civil War were the people who
charged President Buchanan with
being weak and vacillating, when in
point Of fact he was following out
his convictions that told him he had
no power under the constitution to
make war upon states which up to
the time of his going out of office had
committed no overt act. The Repub-
Leans have charged him with weak
ness and cowardice, when in point of
fact his mind followed the trend OF
thought approved by many leading
Statesmen OF that day. History will
vet record his true worth, and future
generations will discover that it was
the power of arms, not logic, that
proved him mistaken: and he was
strong for standing up for what he
believed to be right, although it was
the losing side.
The CHESAPEAKE AND OHIO CANAL