Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-30
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
Nv ,JAyfFS MoRGaN-
Adrfft in the Storm.
By JAMES MORGAN

Because the drama of history, like
that of the theatre. must have its
heroes and williams, James Buchanan
has been painted all black in the
Opening scene of the Civil War, load
ed down with all the weaknesses and
sins of his generation and banished
forever into the wilderness. Any one
can see now. with the aid of hind
sight, what Buchanan should have
done. but not what he could have
done.
Many have said that IL jackson
had been President he would have
stamped out secession as lie stamped
It out In South Carolina in 1882. But
a blaze which a bucket of water may
suffice to stop at the start may be
beyond the control of an entire Fire
Department when II becomes 6 con-
The North itself in the bewilder-
ing Winter of 1901 vas far from
agreed that secession could or should
be stopped by force. Let the Union
Slide" the abolitionists said. Let
the erring brethren CO." said Horace
Greeley. Maynard sisters, depart
in peace" Generel Scott would have
aid to the seeding States.
The poor, old helpless President
himself expressed toward secession
no such liberation or resignation. AL
though he held that the Government
had no authority to keep a State
In the Union by coercion, he denied
that the States had any right or any
Just cause to secede, and he ordered
the commanders Of Southern forts
to defend them from seizure. That
policy was continued absolutely with
out change by Lincoln when he came
In.
Like every other form of injustice
and special privilege. slavery was en-
trenched behind a wire ENGAGEMENT
of Constitutional dogmas, court de-
cisions and legalistic technicalities.
Men of all parties and of both Sec
TONS. like flies In a spiders web, were
caught fast In the political and legal
metaphysics which sophists had been
spinning ever since the Republic was
born.
In common with the politicians of
his fast vanishing time, Buchanan
olung to the idea that freedom rather
than slavery vas to blame for all the
trouble. He had not gone with Doug
las and the Northern wing of the
divided democrats in the campaign of
1860, but had sided with the South
erners and voted for breckenridge.
when the first State seeded he was
already within ten weeks of the end of
his term. with q hostile Congress in
OF him and behind him a coun-
try as frresolute as himself. AS he
saw the Union falling to pieces. he
hoped on hat 1t could be patched to-
gether again by another old-fashion-
compromise. All the while, there
were Southern members of his Cabinet
were staying In Washington only
20 snip Federal war supplies South
and to aid In the preparations for
destroying the Government.
Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio. al
himself a Breckenridge Demo-
crat, bluntly warned Buchanan: you
are sleeping on O volcano. The ground
IS mined all around and under you
md ready to explode and without
prompt and energetic action, you will
Mr.. Stanton" pleaded the feeble
oid man, FOR Gods sake, come in and
help me-"
The first day that Stanton took his
seat at Buchanan's Cabinet table he
old the Secretary of War. FLOYD of
virginia, that he Ought to be hanged
On a sallows higher than Haman's"
having ordered Major Anderson,
Without h knowledge of the Presi-
dent, to stay in a defenseless old fort
IN Charleston Harbor instead of trans
ferring himself to Fort Sumter, as the
Major had done in defiance of orders.
The Secretary of the Interior, Thomp-
of Mississippi. protesting against
such language. the new member of the
cabinet whirled upon him with the
,harge that he had been stealing pub
lie bonds.
Before the middle of January the
Cabinet was recognized and Buchan-
IN was surrounded by staunch Union
men, who swept him along at a pace
which sometimes left him breathless.
The new Secretary OF the Treasury,
John A. Dix. quietly reported one day
he had e to New Orleans hts
low famous message: IF any man at
fempts to haul down the American
lag, shoot him In the spot"
Did you write such a letter as
that?" Buchanan exclaimed.
NO" Dix replied. Il telegraphed
Had Buchanan been a mar of iron
instead of putty, probably he could
ave done no good in that chaotic in
terregnum between the election and
of his successor. If he
taken any step which should have
Virginia and Maryland into
revolt. there would have been no Ma
tional capital on March 4, 1S61.-The
retiring President would only have
made heavier. perhaps impossible, the
which he YEARLY laid upon a
soul when he transferred the
to Lincoln and sadly tot
tered into the q