The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-07-22

Because the drama Of history, like
that of the theatre, must have it's he
roes and Williams, James Buchanan
mas been painted all black in the
opening scenes 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 or hindsight,
what Buchanan should have done, but
not what he could have done.
Many have said that If jackson had
been president, he would have stamp
ed out secession as he stamped it out
in South Carolina in 1882. But a blaze
which bucket of water may suffice to
stop at the start may be beyond the
control of an entire fire department
when it becomes a conflagaration.
The north itself in the bewildering
winter of 1861 was 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. "Wayward sisters, depart in
peace" General Scott would have said
to the seeding states.
The poor, old helpless president him
self expressed no such liberation to-
ward secession; no such liberation or
resignation. Although 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 just cause to secede, and he order.
ed the commanders of the southern
forts to defend them from seizure.
That policy was continued absolutely
without change by Lincoln when he
came in.
Like every other form of injustice
and special privilege, slavery was en-
trenched behind a wire ENHANCEMENT
Of constitutional dogmas, court de-
cisions and legalistic technicalities;
Men of all parties and of both sections,
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
chung to the idea that freedom rather
than slavery was to blame for all the
trouble. He had not gone with Doug
las and the northern wing of the d.
vided Democrats in the campaign Of
1860, but had sided with the southern
ers and voted for breckenridge.
When the first state seeded he was
already within ten weeks of the end
of his term, with a hostile congress in
front of him and behind him a coun
try as resoute as himself. AS he saw
the union falling to pieces. he hoped
on that 1t could be patched together
again by another old-fashioned COM
promise. All the while, there were
Of hn
were staying in Washington only to
ship federal war supplies south and to
aid in the preparations for destroying
the government.
Edwin NJ. Stanton Of Ohio, although
himself a breckenridge Democrat,
bluntly warned Buchanan: You arc
sleeping on a volcano. The ground is
mined all around and under you and
ready to explode, and without prompt
and energetic action, you will be the
last president of the United States.
"Mr. Stanton" pleaded the feeble
old man, for Gods sake come in and
help me-"
The first day that Stanton took his
seat at Buchanan's cabinet table, he
told the secretary of war, Floyd, of
Virginia, that he Ought to be hanged
on a gallows higher than Humans"
for having ordered Major Anderson,
without the knowledge of the presi
dent. to stay in defenseless old fort
in Charleston Harbor instead Of trans,
ferring himself to Fort Sumpter, as
the Major had done in defiance of or
ders The secretary of the interior,
Thompson, of Mississippi, protested