BENTON
ON THE STATE OF POLITICS.
A SPEECH
Delivered at St. Louis on Saturday, June 21,1856.
After the enthusiastic cheering which his appearance Upon the stand excited, had subsided, Col. BENT0N said:
Citizens: I appear before you in unexpected character—that of candidate for the Governorship of the State of Missouri. It was a place which I had not sought, but which I feel bound to accept in the present condition of the country—its peace greatly endangered both at home and abroad, and the services of all good citizens required to aid in preventing the double calamity of civil and foreign war. The nomination for President made at Cincinnati encouraged me in the hope of seeing these calamities averted, and has chiefly contributed to my present course. I will assist the new President (for I look upon Mr. Buchanan's election as certain) in doing, what I am very sure he will do, that is to say, all in his power to preserve the peace of the country, at home and abroad, and to re-store the fraternal feelings between the different sections of the Union, now to lamentably impaired. I shall have to make some speeches, but not such as are usually made in a political canvass. Attacks upon the opposite party or parties usually constitute the burden of such speeches: they are proper in other canvasses, but not commendable in a canvass for the Governor-ship. If elected, the candidate becomes the Governor of the State, not of a party, and should so demean him-self as to give evidence of an impartial administration, and assurance of a respectful intercourse with all who may have occasion or who may feel an inclination to call upon him. Acting upon these principles, I shall make no disparaging reference to the parties opposed to me. I shad applaud my own party—the same which twenty years ago gave an exalted Democratic charac-ter to the State—but say nothing derogatory of others. In standing where I have stood for forty years in this State, and for all my years of manhood before I came to the State, I sufficiently show the preference which I give to my own without impugning or dispar-aging others. I merely say that sectional, or one-idea parties, have always received my opposition—far more than the Whig party, which, being national, and rest-ing on a broad foundation, was the same with the Democratic in the ultimate object—the general good—though differing about the means of obtaining it. With these few remarks I say nothing more about parties, nor shall I say anything about myself. I rely upon a long public life, full of incident, to answer every ques-tion that concerns me—merely reminding my fellow-citizens that I am not a man of changes—that what they have known me in the past, I am still in the present, and expect to be in the future. I pro-ceed to speak of the public affairs, now more troubled and disordered than I have ever known them. Citizens, I take for my text the farewell words of the Father of his Country, addressing his last advice to the children over whom he had watched and guarded, and from whom he was about to be parted forever. A father about to die collects his children around him, bestows his paternal benediction upon them; exhorts them to fraternal affection; utters a prayer for their happiness, and resigns his soul to his Maker. Upper-most in his thoughts, and deepest in his heart, is the wish for family harmony, and for brotherly and sisterly affection. Peace in the family circle is the last aspi-ration of his lips—the last pulsation of his bosom. He dies praying for peace among his descendants. Such is the last farewell of the natural father, parting from the offspring of his loins. Washington had no children of his loins, but he took to himself a whole nation of beloved and cherished children. He was the Father of his Country! and dying, he imitated the natural father, and left his benediction, his paternal blessing—his last advice—and his eternal words to the na-tional family which he had adopted; whose in-fancy he had protected, and whose future wel-fare and greatness was the supreme object of his heart. Peace and harmony was his prayer. No jeal-ousies or heart-burnings—no sectional divisons or an-tipathies—no geographical distinctions—no North—no South—was the prayer of his soul and the burden of his invocation; and that last and paternal prayer has been granted until lately. A transient cloud, dark and portentous, had sometimes threatened to mar the gen-eral harmony; but wise and patriotic men, by safe and gentle measures, had always carried off the threatening storm, and left peace and sunshine to overspread the land. Four years ago we seemed to have attained the highest point of our harmony and felicity. We were in the fullest enjoyment of Washington's wish. The har-mony and fraternal affection of the Union was complete. The felicity of the people, both politically and socially, was at its highest. A President was elected with unpar-alleled unanimity—twenty-seven States out of thirty-one voting for the same man, and he a Northern man. Two-thirds of each House of Congress corresponded in sentiment with the President—showing a unanimity in the national councils never before witnessed at the accession of a new administration. The commencement of the session of Congress, 1853-' 54, was a political millenium. Universal harmony prevailed. A brotherly feeling pervaded the two Houses. National good will, and a desire to do well the public business, was the temper of all. It seemed that nothing could ruffle, of mar, the universal good feeling which prevailed. Two members from the free States tried it, and failed. They delivered their customary harangues upon the evils of Slavery; their harangues fell dead upon the floor—and were not repeated. They died out under the cold and silent indifference of the House. Abolition agitation was dead—extinct under public opinion, and the laws of the land, which had settled it everywhere, and left not an inch of territory on which had settled it everywhere, and left not an inch of territory on which the question of Slavery could be raised. It has been circulated that the com-promise measures of 1850 settled it; it is a mistake; it was settled before; and the merit of that session was, not that of settling any question, but that of not disturbing what the laws had already settled. Its non-interference, was non-interfer-ence with law ; and the lesson which it taught was, the wise lesson to let the laws alone. There was not an inch square of territory at that time in the Union on which the Slavery question was not already settled by law. Look over the map of the Union and you will see it. In the remnant of the North-west Territory, above Wisconsin, it was settled by the ordi-nance of 1787; in the former Province of Louisiana it was settled up to the Rocky Mountains, and out to the British line, by the Missouri Compromise line of 1850; in Oregon it was settled by the organic Territorial law of 1848; in New-Mexico, Utah and California it was settled by the laws of Mexico; in the District of Co-lumbia it was settled by the laws of the States from which the District had been acquired. This consti-tutes the entire extent of the United States territories at that time—all quiet under the operation of existing laws, and no way to open the Slavery question any-where, except by repealing some of these laws; and that was a thing which the Congress of 1850 would not do, and did not do. Attempts were made to repeal the Mexican Anti-Slavery laws in New-Mexico, Utah and California; Congress refused to do it. Attempts were made to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean; Congress refused to extend it. Attempts were made to confirm the Mexican laws by the Wilmot proviso; Congress refused to adopt the proviso. It would pass no new law upon the subject of Slavery, because, to do that would require the re-peal of some existing laws, and thereby reopen the Slavery question. Congress refused to pass the Wil-mot proviso, because the Mexican laws in the territo-ries to which it was applied, had already abolished Slavery there, and the proviso, while unnecessary in itself to the object of its friends, was pestiferous by reopening the Slavery agitation. At the session of 1850, and before it commenced the question of Slavery legislation had been foreclosed throughout the whole extent of our territories; foreclosed by previous legis-lation ; and Congress refused to reopen the question by repealing, abrogating, or altering, in any way, that previous legislation. This was the state of the Slavery question, and the Slavery agitation, when the first Congress met under Mr. Pierce’s Administration in the session of 1853-'54. The agitation was dead; legislation was closed up upon it; there was no way to reopen the question but to abrogate, or repeal, some existing law; no way to get up agitation but by breaking down law; and that was done. A bill was brought in to abolish the Missouri compromise line, pretexted upon the principles estab-lished by the legislation of 1850. The pretext was a libel upon the legislation of that year, and especially upon the memory of Mr. Clay, who had taken a pro-minent part in that legislation. It was assumed by the authors of the repeal that the legislation established the principle of non-interference with Slavery in Terri-tories. It was an assumption without foundation—contrary to the fact—and contradicted by recorded his-tory. The principle established, so far as any princi-ple could be established by negative action, was exactly the contrary! exactly the principle of not interfering with existing laws! exactly the principle of not re-opening the Slavery agitation by altering or repealing any law that had foreclosed the subject; and that was the principle declared in the platform of 1852. And thus the pretext for the re-peal of the Compromise was just as unfounded, and gratuitous, as the act itself was deplorable and mis-chievous. No, citizens! the authors of that repeal find, not justification, but condemnation, in the legisla-tion of 1850. And the further pretext (for a bad cause requires many pretexts, and even contradictory and inconsistent ones), the further pretext that the Com-promise was unconstitutional and void, is just as gra-tuitous and unfounded; and flagrantly contradicted by the previous conduct of its authors—all of whom are upon the record, in votes or in speeches, for the validity in that Compromise up to the time of the plot to destroy it. They had voted for it on the Oregon Territorial bill of 1848—in the California bill of 1850—in the Minnesota Territorial act—and about all Texas annexation resolutions of 1845. This latter instance is an overwhelming argument in this case, and too little known to the public, and needs the elucidation of a preliminary statement to develop its nature, and to give force to its application. That statement is this: contemporaneously with the enactment of the Missouri Compromise was the retrocession of Texas to Spain; and not the Texas as Spain had held it, bound-ed on the Red River, but as we retroceded it, extend-ing north to the Arkansas River, and to that part of it which was north of 36 degrees 30 minutes north lati-tude. Here, then, was room for a Slavery question, when Texas came to be annexed in 1845. She was a slaveholding country. Her constitution and laws ad-mitted Slavery. The institution- covered her territory—extended to all her borders—consequently extended to the Arkansas River: for her boundary came to that river in north latitude 37 and 38, and followed the river up to its source in the Rocky Mountains. Here, then, was a case for a future question, which prudence re-quired to be immediately provided for; and it was done. It was clear that one half of the compromise line was abrogated by the laws and constitution of Texas, and that the slave institution, to the extent of that abrogation, was extended north beyond the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min.; and that it would remain so until the Texian laws should be altered—which alteration could only be made by herself if she should be admitted without previously providing for the case. To do nothing, was to yield to the abrogation; to reestablish the line was to affirm both the constitu-tional power, and the political expediency of doing so; and this was done! not only in the abrogated part, but in all its length and breadth! in its whole length from the south-west corner of Missouri to the summit of the Rocky Mountains; and in its whole breadth, north and south, as far as the United States territory extended. Here is the act:
“ARTICLE III.—Now States, of convenient size, not exceed-ing four in number, and having sufficient population may here-after, by the consent of said State, be formed out of the terri-tory thereof which shall be entitled to admission under the pro-visions of the Federal Constitution. And such States as may be formed out of the portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking ad-mission may desire; and in such State or States as shall be formed out of said territory north of the said Missouri Compromise Line, Slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited.”
These are the words of the Annexation Resolution and they are a clear reenactment of the original Mis-souri Compromise! and a reenactment made at the instance of the Free States, which would not otherwise vote for the admission. And now who made that en actment ? I answer—the same party which made the Congress who voted for the annexation of Texas, and also Mr. Calhoun, who drew the resolutions and prompted their passage, and hurried them off in the expiring moments of Mr. Tyler's Administration, for the acceptance of Texas. I do not read their names. The list is too long, but they may be seen in the Thirty Years' View, in the chapter which treats of the ad-mission of Texas. I will only say that the names of many who deny the Constitutional power of Congress to legislate upon Slavery in a Territory—the names of many who figured at the destruction of the Mis-souri Compromise—are in that list! and must be for-ever estopped, by their own act, from denying the power which they then exercised. I know their subterfuge. They say it was a compact with Texas. Granted, and so much the worse for them. Out of the frying pan into the fire. It could be only a compact under the Constitution; and, as a compact with a foreign power, could never be altered without its consent. It was a compact with Texas, and also something more. It was a compromise between the Free and the Slave States—a new compromise—a new Constitution, and for a consideration like that of the Missouri line, enuring to the benefit of the Slave States. The Missouri Compromise gained the admis-sion of Missouri as a Slave State into the Union. The Texas Compromise admitted one Slave State, and provided for the admission of three more. Both were valuable to the South; and the Texas Compromise most so. Neither could be violated without a breach of faith; and, in the case of the Texas Com-promise, the breach would be double—both against the compact with Texas and the compromise with the Free States. But I have another an-swer for those who plead this compact. They consider it as only applying to the part of the line abrogated by the Texian laws. No such thing. It applies to the whole line, and is a new and independent enactment of the whole line. and that by its astronom ical character, only referring to the Missouri line as descriptive; and able to stand without reference to that line as well as with it. It is a complete prohib-ition of Slavery north of 36 deg. 30 min. It required the same power in Congress to make it which was re-quired to make the original Missouri Cempromise. It is a full and perfect reenactment of that Comprom-ise, and was so treated by all the speakers at that time, and especially by Mr. Buchanan, then member of the Senate, and a leading advocate for the annex-ation—who said:
“The resolution went to reestablish the Missouri Compro-mise by fixing a line within which Slavery was to be forever confined. That controversy (the Missouri question) had nearly shaken this Union to its center in an earlier and better period of our history: but this Compromise, should it now be re-established, would prevent the recurrence of similar dangers hereafter. Should this question be now left open for one or two years, the country would be involved in one continued struggle. We should witness a feverish excitement in the pub-lic mind. Parties would divide on the dangerous and excited question of abolition; and the irritation would reach such an extreme as to endanger the existence of the Union itself; but close it now and it would be closed forever. Was it desirable again to have the Missouri question brought home to the people to goad them to fury? That great question between the two great interests in our country had been well discussed and de-cided (in the Missouri Compromise), and from that moment he had sat down his foot on the solid ground then established, and there he would let the question stand forever. Who could com-plain of the terms of that Compromise?”
So spoke Mr. Buchanan in the year 1854—the last year of his service in Congress; and it is well known that his sentiments continued the same until that solid foundation on which he meant to stand forever, and on which he held the harmony and the existence of the Union to rest, was taken from under his feet; snatched from under him by the hands of others during his ab- sence from the country, and when he had no power to raise his voice against the parricidal destruction. Be-ing destroyed; he takes the part of wisdom and mode-ration. He lets bad enough alone. He will not make bad worse by attempting to restore what has been destroyed. To heal existing wounds, and not to open new ones, is his policy; to reconcile exasperated breth-ren, and not to increase their exasperation, is his aim; and in this benignant aim every good citizen s ould join. The reenactment of the Missouri Compromise at the admission of Texas was an era and a resting-point in our Slavery legislation, and as such was often referred to and relied upon by our public men, and commended to perpetual observance. It was called the "Texas Compromise," and was considered a confirmation of the first one, and a new one within itself. In that light it was treated, on a solemn occasion, by President Polk. In his message approving the Oregon Territorial Act in 1848—the last year of his administration, and which act prohibited Slavery in Oregon—he took oc-casion to refer to the “Texas Compromise," and to present it as an independent measure, growing out of the same circumstances and the same spirit which had produced the Missouri Compromise, and like it, not to be violated without endangering the Union. In that message he said:
“When Texas was admitted into our Union, the same spirit of compromise which guided our predecessors in the admission of Missouri a quarter of a century before, prevailed without any serious opposition. The Joint Resolution for annexing Texas to the United States, approved March I, 1845, provides: ‘That ‘such States as may be formed out of that portion of said Terri-‘tory lying south of 36 30’ north latitude, commonly known as ‘the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into the Union ‘with or without Slavery, as the people of each State asking ‘admission may cesine. And in such State or States as shall be ‘formed out of the Territory north of the said Compromise line, ‘Slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be ‘prohibited.’”
And having thus quoted the act, and shown that the Texas Compromise, like its great predecessor, also set-tled a great Slavery agitation, Mr. Polk goes on to class the two compromises together, to invoke equal perpetuity to each, and to foretell equal dangers to the Union from the violation of either—saying:
“Ought we now to disturb the Missouri and Texas Compro-mises? Ought we, at this late day, in attempting to annul what has been so long established and acquiesced in, to excite sec-tional divisions and jealousies—to alienate the people of the different portions of the Union from each other—and to endan-ger the existence of the Union itself?”
To this impressive appeal, I, as your representative, when the portentous question was legislatively put in the session of Congress 1853-4, answered No! but a majority in Congress answered Yes! And with that answer of the majority has come every evil deprecated by Mr. Polk—jealousies, divisions, animosities, sec-tional hate, danger to the Union; and the country rapidly separating into two geographical parties en-raged against each other. For that answer I lost the favor of my State, and regretted it—regretted the loss of a favor I had so long enjoyed, but not the vote. Of that I am proud ! and would not revoke it this day for the honors of the earth [Great applause—loud cries of "No! no! you do not lose their favor"]. But I lost the office, which was the sign of the favor. I know the scheme of those who contrived the deed, and the hard work they had in bringing some of its subsequent champions up to the sticking point. It was a plot for political power, hatched by politicians unknown to the people, and intended to make Presi-dents, by welding the Slave States into a unit upon the Slavery question, governing the nomination by the two thirds rule, and procuring from the Free States by dint of Federal patronage the twenty nine votes which were necessary to carry the election. This was the plot, and hard was the work to get it along. The bill was reported without the repealing section; the fault of the omission was laid upon a copying clerk, although the report which accompanied the bill de-clared the omission, and stated the reason for it—and although one of the party declares he forced the author to put it in. Then hard work to pass it—menacing the aspiring, coaxing the weak, sedu-cing the venal. Indemnity in public offices was openly promised to those who would betray their constituents—a promise which has been faithfully kept! and the only one of all that it made, which has been kept by this Administration—witness the vio-lated, pledges about the Pacific Railroad, the reduction of duties, and a long list of others. Finally, the deed was done—the deed from which Mr. Calhoun receded; but the harvest has not been reaped. The President and his file-leader took the field for the reward; they both entered the lists at the Cincinnati Convention, and were both miserably defeated—repudiated by their own party—the first instance of a President so re-pudiated in the history of our country. I went to Cin-cinnati to be near that Convention—the first one I ever approached. I went to see how things were done, and to assist a little at a safe nomination. I found a gar-rison of office-holders inside of the Convention, and a besieging army of the same gentry on the outside of it. Packed delegates were there, sent to betray the people. Straw delegates were there, coming from the States which could give no Democratic vote. Mem-bers of Congress were there, although forbid by their duties from being at such a place. A cohort of office-holders from Washington City were there, political eunuchs in the federal system, incapable of voting for the smallest federal office, yet sent there by the Administration to impose a President upon the people. It was a scandalous collection, ex-cluded by the Constitution from being even electors of the President, and yet sent here to vote for the Admin-istration—and to vote upon the principle of the ox that knoweth his master's crib—upon the principle of the ass that knoweth the hand that feedeth him. Bullies were therefrom the Custom-House and the Five Points in New-York—all with the approbation of the Admin-istration; for the office-holders would not be there (absent from their duties, and drawing their pay) with-out the consent of their employers. It was a scanda-lous collection. The members of Congress were in the double breach of their duties. They were neglecting their legislative duties, and doing what they had been in-terdicted from doing. Thirty years ago, tue nomination of Presidential candidates was taken from Congress on account of the corruption which it engendered, and given to delegates, intended to be fresh from the peo-ple and to obey their will; and the nomination re-moved from Washington to Baltimore, to get out of the reach of President-making members. But these members followed to Baltimore, getting proxies from some delegate when they could get no appointment from the people; and to get rid of them—to get entirely beyond their reach—the Convention itself was removed from Baltimore to Cincinnati. Vain effort to escape them. They followed on to Cincinnati. They broke up Congress to get to this forbidden place. Surely the new President will be very hard-hearted if he does not remember them when he comes to the dis-distribution of office. From Washington City came a new corps, never before put upon such service—the office-holders in the city—clerks in the depart-ments—heads of bureaus—men who have no vote in any federal election—political hybrids, unable to act a man's part in any election, but sent to Cin-cinnati, as a life-guard to support the Administration. Such was the composition of nearly one half of the whole Convention—Custom-House officers, postmas-ters, salaried clerks, packed delegates, straw delegates, political eunuchs, members of Congress, districts attor-neys, Federal marshals. The place in which they met, and which had been provided by a packed Admin-istration Committee, was worthy of the meeting. It was a sort of den, approached by a long, narrow pas-sage, barricaded by three doors, each door guarded by armed bullies, with orders to knock down any person that approached without a ticket from the Committee, and a special order to be prepared with arms to repulse the Missouri delegation which came to vote for Bu-chanan—a repulse which they attempted, and got themselves knocked down and trampled under foot. This den had no windows by which people could look in or see, or the light of the sun enter—only a row of glass like a steamboat skylight, thirty-five feet above the floor. It was the nearest representation of the "black hole" in Calcutta, and like that hole had well nigh become notorious for a similar catastrophe. The little panes of glass above were hung on pivots, and turned flat to let in air. A rain came on—drove into the den—and to exclude it, the panes were turned up. Smothering ! Smothering ! was the cry in the den; and the glass had to be turned up again. Over this place was a small box for the admission of spectators, its ap-proach barricaded and guarded, and entrance only ob-tained upon tickets from the same packed Committee; and to whom they gave tickets was seen when the first votes were given for Buchanan—and when each State that voted for him was hissed—even Virginia! and the hissing only stopped by a threat to clear the galle-ries. Su h is the pass to which the nomination of Presi-dent is now brought. But this is a view of only one side of the Convention—the Administration side of it. There was another side—a majority—on the contem-plation of which it was pleasant to dwell: substantial men, real delegates, fresh from the people, and anx-ious to do their will, and the best for the country. They were the majority, but paralyzed by the two-thirds rule, and cheated and out-maneuver-ed in the preliminary steps on which the re-sult may often be made to depend, by the old in-triguers who had everything "cut and dry" for the occasion—Committees packed, officers fixed, rules prepared, platforms drawn up. It was not until it came to the dead vote that they stood for anything. Then they gave their votes for Buchanan; but the minority held a veto upon that nomination in the nulli-fication two-thirds rule, which was invented to enable the minority to govern the majority; and that game, so successfully played before, was intended to be played again. That was the inside of the Convention; the outside presented a different spectacle, and one to gladden the patriotic heart. Tens upon tens of thousands of the yeomanry of the country (Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and other States) were there—farmers, mechanics, merchants, professional men, patriotic in their spirit, intent upon the public good—and come to prevent packed delegates from betraying the people. Fifteen hundred, as they told me, came from one district in Ohio to attend one of these scamps, smug-gled in by the administration officials; and they did govern h m—made him toe the mark, and vote the will of the district; and so of many others. Seventy thou-sand was the estimate of the number of these patriotic citizens; their weight of character was still greater then their numbers. They were for peace—peace at home and abroad—and for Buchanan, as the best chance for saving this peace. They expected the nom-ination to have been made on the second day; it was delayed until the fifth, by the management of the mi-nority, who had the working of the machinery, and staved off the business; but the farmers would not be tired out. They would not quit the ground, expensive as it was to remain at their own cost, and to the neglect of their private business, while officeholders were all on public pay, and neglecting, not their own, but the public business. From the first, Buchanan had the majority on each ballot, fourteen times successively. An adjournment was had, and the utmost anxiety pre-vailed on the subject of what the night might bring forth. The most sinister rumors prevailed; it was clear that the old game was to be played—the majority baf-fled, worried, tired out; and then some pet, held in reserve by the old intriguers, suddenly produced as the compromise candidate. The majority in the Conven-tion, and still more, the many ten thousands of good citizens on the outside of it, were determined that that game should not be played; and the resolution was taken to defeat it by a decided step. It was resolved that if the minority persevered in this game the next day, a resolution should be offered declaring that, Mr. Buchanan having received the majority of the votes, was ouly nominated according to the democratic prin-ciple that the majority was to govern; and to proclaim him accordingly. This was the determination, and the balloting opened on Friday morning in a way to bring that determination to the test. Mr. Pierce was withdrawn, and his vote of sixty, which would have nominated Mr. Buchanan, was given, not to the ma-jority, but to the minority. It was evident then that the old game was to be played out—that Pierce and Douglas were in concert, and that the majority were to be defeated. The excitement became immense. Several ballotings were had, when the inside commo-tion and the outside pressure became irresistible. Douglas was withdrawn, as Pierce had been, and Bu-chanan was nominated in a hurrah. It was a complete take-in to the office-holders (especially those from Missouri), who intended, if they could not kill off Buchanan, to elect him—to vote for him at last when, voting against him world no longer keep him down-crossing over like the Saxon army at the battle of Leipsic; deciding the fate of the day, and claiming for reward their own continuance in office. The sudden explosive nomination frustrated their plan—put an end to the attempts to kill off Buchanan—and left the trimmers without the merit of saving him. But they could not give up the chance for the spoils, and shouted loudest, and were the first to run into the streets and proclaim his nomination; and will be among the first to demand reward. The defeat of the Administration has been complete and overwhelming, and of the most mortifying kind. It is a defeat by his own party, a repudiation by his own friends. No President, seeking a second election, has ever been so repudiated before. Several, so seeking, have been defeated by their adversaries, but no one has been defeated by his own party. The elder Mr. Adams was defeated by the Democratic party, then called Republican; the younger Mr. Adams was de-feated by the same party; Mr. Van Buren was de-feated by the Whigs. But each of these gentleman had the consolation of having preserved the respect and confidence of his own party. Not so with Mr. Pierce. He is repudiated by those who had exalted him. After four years' trial, he is condemned and thrown away—the victim of his advisers. It is the most humiliating termination of a public career that ever was witnessed. His whole vote was some sixty—only five dozen out of near three hundred; and if from these are deducted the intrusive votes which ought not to be counted—those of the office-holders, the packed delegates, the straw dele-gates, the member of Congress, and the compli- mentary votes which were begged for him to lessen the shame of the miserable defeat—if all these were de-ducted, as they ought to be, he would be left without a single vote—left to go out as he came in: with the unanimous consent of his party. What a fate for a man who came into office upon twenty-seven States, with two thirds of each House of Congress, and the united Democracy of the whole Union. After all, the result was due to the place where the Convention was held. If it had been in Baltimore, where the outside pressure would have been on the other side, the office-holders would have carried the day. Let it not be forgotten that the place governed the nom-ination—the place convenient to the solid men of the country ; but that cannot be relied upon to save future nominations. The old in-triguers—the permanent professional President-makers —will not be caught in such a place again. They will go where the farmers cannot come; and there is no safety except in the amendment of the Constitution, and giving to the people a direct vote for President. Already it is reported that they go next time to Charleston, S. C., where no western farmers can get at them. If yon ask how can this be known now ? I answer, very well. Each Convention now appoints a committee of its own body, thirty-one in number, to sit from four years to four years, and manage every-thing. These committees do the cheating in the re-cess of the conventions. Such a fall announces the most deplorable administration which our country has ever seen; and such is the fact. At home and abroad—in all its acts and policy, both foreign and domestic— flagrant misconduct has been the order of the day. The field of its bad acts is too large to admit of a full sur-vey on an occasion like the present: I can only seize and present the most prominent, taking those which con-cern our home affairs first—the foreign afterward; but, first, I must show who I mean by the Administration, for it by no means consists of all whose names compose it. In the first place, then I do not mean Mr. Pierce. I leave him out entirely, He is a kind man, tender-hearted, and will cry for anybody's sorrows; but he has neither head nor nerve, and is as helpless in the hands of his managers as a babe in the arms of its nurse. I have to give a signal instance of this help-lessness, which concerns yourselves as well as myself, and which admits of no question, because I was party to it and know what I say. Mr. Pierce sent for me soon after his inauguration, desiring me to call upon him the next evening at 8 o'clock. I went according to the request. He told me he wished to speak to me about the Missouri appointments, and know if they could not be put off for a while. I answered yes—that they were all four years appointments, and to be out of themselves of the course of the Spring and Summer—that I despised the business of removing men who were doing their business well, and whose terms would soon expire, and had rather wait for the vacancy to come of itself. He replied that these were exactly his own sentiments; and it was readily agreed that the appointments should stand over until my return from Missouri, which would be in six weeks. On this agreement, thus volunteered by himself, I left the city, and in two weeks was followed by a list of the appointments—and you know what kind of appointments they were—all made from my enemies, and to work in the election against me—a thing which they have faithfully done and are still doing. Even the Post-Office in my own town was so filled as to render it impossible for me to use it, and drove me to the resource of sending my correspond-ence through Adams & Co. This is what happened between the President and myself, and is one of in-numerable instances to prove his nullity in his own ad-ministration. I did not get angry with him for it. I knew he was sincere at the time he spoke with me, and pitied his inability to keep his own word, volun-tarily given. I expressed no resentment because I knew they would not let him do as he wished; but self-respect required me to avoid his house, and I have not been there since. Still we meet handsomely when ac-cident brings us together—sometimes meeting in evening rides, when the respective hats immediately rise high in the air—sometimes on foot, in an evening walk, when we rush to the salutation, and so pressingly that an observer might suppose it was a pair of old bosom friends—Damon and Pythias—just getting to-gether again after a long and cruel separation. In the next place, I do not mean Mr. Marcy. He leaves him-self out by permitting others to dominate in his depart-ment, and by publicly agreeing to what he privately condemns. I leave out also the Secretaries of the Treasury, of the Interior, of the Navy, and the Post-Master General, and only condemn them for remaining in a cabinet in which they are without influence, and sharing the odium of measures of which they have no part in the paternity. This brings me to the Secretary at War, and the Attorney General, who, with an out-side force of determined nullifiers, are the whole ad-ministration. Of these, but little need be said of the Secretary at War. He is a martinet, puffed up with West Point science, dogmatical, and pragmatical, within his circle; but that circle is a narrow one, and he moves uncontrolled with it. He is an avowed secessionist. Of the outside force of nullifiers still less remains to be said. They govern when they please, and always in the same style—by presenting a menacing front. Of all these the Attor-ney-General is the master-spirit. He is a man of talent, of learning, of industry—unscrupulous, double sexed, double-gendered, and hermaphroditic in politics —with a hinge in his knee, which he often crooks, "that thrift may follow fawning." He governs by subserviency; and to him is deferred the master's place in Mr. Pierce's Cabinet. When I heard that he was to come into the Cabinet I set down Mr. Pierce for a doomed man, and foresaw the swift and full de-struction which was to fall upon him. I had known Mr. Cushing as an Abolitionist, voting against Arkan-sas because she was a Slave State, and backing Slade of Vermont in the attempt to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia. I had known him as a Whig, attacking the Democracy and all their measures; aud as a Tylerite, auctioneering offices for Tyler as long as he had an office to go to the hammer. I could have no faith in an Administration so led, and foretold its calamitous fate from the moment it was seen who was to be in it. Now for their acts:
1. The violation of the Missouri and Texas Compro-mises. With the facts of this violation, its wicked and corrupt intent, and foul means of getting it done, and its disastrous and bloody consequences, you are all sufficiently acquainted; and I only name it to give it its place at the head and front of all the evil measures of this Administration.
2. Prostitution of the whole appointing power to electioneering purposes. This was openly done from the first moment of its existence. Appointments were wholly made with a view to affect the elections, State and Federal, and to operate for or against particular men; and for this purpose the most unfit characters would be taken in preference to the best. You know how it was in this State—and as it was here so it was everywhere. Nullifiers and Free Soilers, apostates and renegades—all were fish in their net. One single qualification was requisite—that of working in the elec-tions—and the only preference that seemed to be shown was in favor of those who had been most violent against this Union. On that principle it was that an editor was taken and sent into Egypt, not into bondage, as better men have been sent there, but as Consul-Gen-eral of the United States; which editor had published a daily paper in Washington City for three years, wholly devoted to the separation of the Slave from the Free States.
3. Unfit appointments on foreign missions. This is a mortifying head of accusation against the present Administration. Never were such men sent abroad to represent our country!—men without a particle of the knowledge which diplomacy requires, and even with-out manners—without knowing how to behave in com-pany—mere political demagogues, to reward them for services past and services to come at the Federal and state elections. They send such abroad in order to give them indemnity for past services at the polls, and to enable them to come back and re-commence their partisan labors. Formerly, the United States Minis-ters were the pride of our country, and the admiration of the courts to which they were sent. Talented, edu-cated, replete with knowledge, polished in manners, modest, virtuous; such were formerly our Ministers abroad. What a contrast to those we now send abroad! What a contrast to the Rufus Kings, the John Marshalls, the Albert Gallatins, the John Quincy Adamses, the Pinckneys of South Carolina, and the Pinkney of Ma-ryland, the Henry Clays, and the long list of splendid names which grace our diplomatic annals. Such ap-pointments as this Administration makes—I speak of the mass, for there are a few exceptions—are not only a disgrace, but an injury to our country. They injure our national reputa-tion. They degrade us in the eyes of foreign nations. They injure the whole character of Republi-can Government. Many of them not only of bad manners, but bad morals. Only think of that Dale Owen, who published a newspaper, and wrote a book, to abolish the institution of marriage, and to persuade men and women to live together like the beasts of the field. He is sent to a foreign court for his election services, and must convey the idea wherever he goes that the United States is a whole nation of Mormons returning to the state of forest animals. But if he must go, he hat certainly gone to the right place. They sent him to Naples, where his doctrine may meet with less abhorrence than in any other part of the civ-ilized world. And all these missions are multiplied to the greatest possible extent—sending these unfit men to places where they have nothing to do, even if they could do anything, merely to give them pay—and where many of them by their vulgarity and miscon-duct are excluded from social intercourse, and confined to the privileges which the treaties secure them, and left to the low company which their manners and tastes require.
4. Extravagant expenditure is the characteristic of this Administration. Never was such a profligate waste of public money seen! Seventy to eighty mill-ions squandered per annum, and not a symptom of any abatement. When Mr. Polk went out of office, which was after the acquisition of all our new territories, he computed the annual expenses of the Government at twenty-five to twenty-six millions; now it is three times that amount and getting worse. Increase of of-fices and salaries—increase of army and navy—multi-plication of useless agents to attend to the elections under the pretext of filling some office—waste of money in building ships to rot, while refusing a dollar for the improvement of our great rivers; such are their devices to get rid of the public money. Nearly a thousand dollars a man is now the average cost of every man in the army and navy, and the civil pen-sion list of England proposed for their further support. And both army and navy reduced, as fast as possible, to the condition of government establishments— presi-dential and not national institutions. All appointments are conducted on that principle; all dismissions and reductions are conducted on the same. Two hundred officers have lately been turned out of the navy by an open, scandalous and criminal perversion of law; and the same operation is desired to be performed on the army—the rule of dismission being to save partisans and favorites, and to turn out good officers without re-gard to service or character, whose political affinities or connections are not approved.
5. Violated pledges rise up in judgment against this Administration. I do not allude to the inaugural ad-dress: these addresses are now made like pie crusts—to be broken. I speak of public specific pledges, openly and solemnly made, and openly and scandal-ously violated. There was the pledge to reduce un-necessary duties, and get rid of a corrupting surplus revenue. That pledge is violated—has been for four years—and still is. The enormous revenue is kept up to increase patronage, to purchase worthless land from Mexico, to corrupt presses, to reward partisans, to strengthen the Government, to build up armies and navies, and to fight foreign nations if they can succeed in picking quarrels with them. Equally public was the pledge, and equally scandalous its violation, to make a national highway to the Pacific Ocean. Four years ago the pledge was made; the time is out, and the pledge not redeemed. The time has been lost in making useless and costly surveys for two outside roads—one for the North and one for the South—and in endeavoring to purchase from Mexico slice after slice to carry the Southern route to Guaymas on the Gulf of California. Ten millions were given for one slice; it was found to be worthless, and beside, would not include the place. At the last accounts further efforts were making to get another slice, at another ten or twenty millions, still further south. In the mean time, the plain, direct national central route is repudiated, although it is now one-third made; for the railroads west from Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other Atlantic points, now penetrate the West, converge to the center before they reach the Mississippi, and connect with the Missouri road, now complete to the center of the State, and advancing to the western border. Yet this direct national route, though now one-third made, is rejected and repudiated for an outside route through Mexico, and a ship canal through foreign territory in the Spanish part of America.
6. Neglect of the Territorial governments is another of the offenses of this Administration. Political parti-sans and pot-house demagogues, are sent out to fill all their offices—men unfit, if they were disposed, but merely electioneerers, engaged in the State and fede-ral elections, while the protection of the Gederal Gov-ernment is utterly unknown; and violence, bloodshed and disorder overspread the land. Beale, whose ascendant over the savage mind charmed the In-dians into infantile submission, was dismissed, be-cause he would not electiooneer, to make room for a pot-house demagogue, who could do nothing else. California, Oregon, New-Mexico, are all the scene of bloody outrage. Indian wars rage—private mur-der prevails—law is impotent—the federal officers are of no account, and the citizens are driven to the necessity of providing for themselves. I need not mention Kansas; the condition of that blood-stained ground is sufficiently known to you. I will speak of Utah, where the Federal Government is ignored and repudiated—its laws and authority set at defiance. The term of the Mormon Governor, Brigham Young, expired three years ago. As he had thrown off the authority of the United States, it was determined to send him a successor—a military graduate of West Point—and Captain Steptoe was called from his pleasant quarters to go upon the enter-prise. When Brigham heard of it, he made a speech to his people, in which he told them what President Pierce intended, and what he himself intended—one sending a new Governor, and the other intending to repulse the compliment. It was in that speech that he said to his people that he intended to remain in his place until the Lord should say to him—"Brigham, I don't "want you to be Governor of Utah any longer." The Administration was afraid of him, and undertook to out-maneuver him, and that in the highest style of West Point tactics; they determined to smuggle Steptoe in. For that purpose the military Goveror was furn- ished with a battalion of soldiers, and directed to pro-ceed to the Mormon Kingdom, as if he was going to California—stop there to hybernate—and, watching the chance, slip into the Governorship some day when Brigham was out—something like a weasel that gets in-to another's hole when he finds the occupant gone. When I heard of this fine scheme I said to myacquaintances, and can prove that I said it, (for I do not indulge in expost facto predictions,) that the first time we should henr of this Gov. Steptoe again he would be on his tip-toes, marching to the tune of "Heigh Betty Martin, tiptoe fine;" and so it was. For, before the hybernation was over, he was on his march in good truth to Cali-fornia, to return thence to the United States. But there was something else which I did not foresee, which was that this military Governor carried off four dozen of the Mormon Betty Martins with him, to the infinite distress of the saints, profoundly chagrined to find themselves so encroached upon by the gentiles. But it was the last encroachment of the kind. No more of the United States military have been there since; and Brigham says he has promised the Lord that if they come again, he will fix them so that they will let his Betty Martins alone. And that was the end of the attempt, by this Administration, to give a Gov-ernor to Utah. Brigham holds on to the place and Mr. Pierce stands with hands off; and the scandalous specta-cle is seen of a man assuming to be Governor by the will of the Lord, repulsing the United States authorities, trampling the laws under foot, insulting and defying the Federal Government; and no attempt made to re-duce him to law and older. Such is the insurgent con-dition of the polygamous Kingdom of the Latter-day Saints. All have heard of this polygamy—a state of things at which morality, decency, shame revolts; and I have been told how an institution, so abhorrent to human nature, is kept up, and that it is by virtue of the civil power vested in Brigham and his Saints, still more than by his religious power—that there are enough to overturn the institution if it was not that all civil power, as well as the religious jurisdiction, is in the hands of Mormon authorities: so that this Adminis-tration is actually responsible to the moral sense of the civilized world for the present continuance of polygamy in the Territory of Utah.
Enough for a view of home affairs, and enough to account for the unparalleled dismission of this Adminis-tration, without the superaddition of misconduct abroad; but there is enough of that to have sunk it without the misconduct at home. Never was such a bellicose Administration—picking quarrels all the time and everywhere—and building ships and raising troops for the inevitable war. First, Spain was the power, Cuba the object, and the Black Warrior the pretext. You have all heard about that Black Warrior, and how Commodore Macauley was sent to Cuba with ships-of-war to enforce redness; and how a Minister was sent to Spain to demand it. For a long time it was inevitable war on account of the Black Warrior; upon a sudden it was hushed up, and but few knew how. I can tell you. It was hushed up thus: The Min ster that was sent to Madrid went to Ostend, after being four months at his station; the Secretary of Le-gation, having charge of the businsss in his absence, showed the Spanish Minister a Government dispatch which had been four months on hand, stating the terms on which the United States would settle it. Upon the instant the terms were agreed to, and that cherished chance for a war with Spain, to take Cuba in self-defense, was lost. But, what followed ? Was the Secretary who showed the dispatch, and settled the difficulty, thanked by the Ad-ministration? Not at all! He was dismissed the ser-vice. Was the Minister, who never showed the dis-patch, consured for the omission? Not at all. He was caressed, and continued in office until he chose to ask his own recall. That chance lost, another was inconti-nently discovered. Great Britain and France were going to Africanize Cuba. Upon the spot the African-ization of Cuba became the alarm of the Administra-tion, and the war cry of its adherents, and a war inev-itable with Great Britain, France and Spain, and an alliance with Russia in the war upon them, became the burden of their song. At last Lord Clarendon heard of it, and learned that this alarm was founded upon some words of his in Parliament in relation to some unity of action between England and France in the Crimea, and in some mutual complaint against Buenos Ayres. He made the statement over again, and de-clared he was not thinking about the United States, or Spain, or Cuba at the time; and so this terrible Afri-canization of Cuba, and the Russian alliance, followed the melancholy fate of the Black Warrior ca-tastrophe; and died the death of the ridiculous. Then came the Ostend Conference, in which the three United States Ministers were sent to make a plat-form in relation to Cuba, which was, that the United States must take her if Spain would not sell her—which it was known she would not. But that was go-ing it too strong; and the Administration who sent them to make it, disapproved the work, while approv-ing their conduct in doing it. By that time the chances for a war with Spain had ran out, and seemed to be lost forever, when the chaparral Government of Walker offered a new prospect more encouraging than the other. It was simply to acknowledge the Govern-ment in the chaparral, let aid flow to Walker, a foot-hold to be established in Nicaragua, and the in-vasion and conquest of Cuba be made by the United States citizens under the chaparral flag. That play was just commencing when the nomi-nation at Cincinnati extinguished the political life of its authors. In the meanwhile a quarrel was being picked with Denmark about those Sound Dues which Europe paid before America was discovered, and which America has paid ever since her independence, and by virtue of treaties made by our most approved administrations. Setting itself up for the liberator of the Baltic Sea, this Administration gave orders to our merchants to cease paying the dues after the 15th of April last, assuming the right to abrogate the existing treaty; the Danish Government gave notice that it would collect them as usual, under the treaty; and the Administration finding out that it had no right to abrogate the treaty, and besides that Copenhagen was not Greytown, gave orders to the merchants to pay, but to make protestation to the contrary, and to warn the Danes that the Government would try to get back the money; and so stands this affair, which would be ridiculous if it did not threaten the peace of two most friendly nations. And now, why this Quixotic attempt to liberate the Baltic Sea? It is not our sea; it is not appurtenant to our conti-nent; it is wholly European; and Europe, which pays the dues, has precisely two hundred times as much in-terest in it as the United States has—sending exactly two hundred ships to our one to it! Why this Quixotism? Simply for a fuss—for notori-ety—for the glory of a war with a small power. How different the conduct of real statesmen in times past. Mr. Adam's administration made the Danish treaty now in force. Mr. Webster improved it when Secretary of State under Tyler, getting the dues reduced on our staple articles, and obtaining a stipulation to place us on the footing of the most favored nation, and to give us the benefit of every reduction which should be made in favor of any other nation. This was statemanship—contrasting as sense with folly—as justice with rapine—with the con-duct of this administration, picking a quarrel with Denmark to liberate a European sea, and ready for a war to abolish moderate duties in the Black Sea, while keeping up enormous duties at home, contrary to a public pledge to reduce them. But enough of this folly and madness; and those who may wish to under-stand the whole subject will find it fully, but briefly, set forth in the second volume of "The Thirty Years' View." But Great Britain is the power which our bellicose Administration deem most worthy of their prowess, and with which the attempts to pick a quarrel are most lively and incessant. She barely escaped a brush with us on account of the Africanization of Cuba; and now we have the Mon-roe Doctrine, the Bulwer Treaty, the Mosquito Coast, the Bay of Islands, the Ruatan Island, the Nicaragua Canal, the Recruitment Question, and the Dismissal of Mr. Crampton. Heavens, what a list! and all the product of a few months in a season of profound peace. The detail of these quarrels is too tedious to be gone over, but a notice of the most prominent will show the folly and insignificance of the whole. And first, of the Monroe Doctrine, so incessantly quoted, and so igno-rantly and mischievously applied. It is assumed to be a doctrine by virtue of which the United States are bound to stand guard over the two Americas, from Canada to Patagonia, and repulse all intruding col-onies from the boundaries of each power. It is as-sumed to be a doctrine of forcible protection, and the United States the protector. The individual must know but little of Mr. Monroe or his Cabinet, to sup-pose such a doctrine could come from them. No! they were not the men to meddle with other nations affairs—not the Quixotes to regulate their neighbors concerns—by force of arms. They were men of reason, peace and justice. They laid down the Monroe Doctrine for themselves, and invited other American States of Spanish origin to adopt it each for itself, and to main-tain it, each by itself, and by its own means, within its own limits. This was the doctrine as laid down by Mr. Adams in his instructions to our Panama Ministers, as maybe seen in the first volume of the "Thirty Years’ View." Far from standing guard over these American States, and protecting them with our arms, they were not even allowed to expect assistance from us; and every assertion of the doctrine to the contrary in a libel upon Mr. Monroe and his Cabinet; and, besides, is an ignorance of our Constitution, which would not have allowed them to bind us to the waging of such wars, even if they had been witless enough to attempt it—which they were not. Well, it is by virtue of this doc-trine, thus converted into an armed protectorate over the two Americas, that we must fight Great Britain in Central America. And for What? Why, for the meaning of a word in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, which its authors cannot agree about. The English proposed to leave it to arbitration; our Administration refused, on the ground that no impartial arbiter could be found. Then the English offer to leave the choice to ourselves, binding them-selves to abide absolutely the decision of our own arbi-trator, be it what it might. To this offer they had re-turned no answer at the last accounts. This is one of the causes of war—not only a fit subject for arbitra-tion in itself, but even for chance or lot decision—a proper subject to be decided by lot, by tossing a quar-ter of a dollar into the air with the cry, "Heads "you win—tails I lose;' for it is a case, I think, in which the loser will be the winner, especially if we should be the loser. This is one of the causes of the cherished war. Then come the Bay of Islands, the Ruatan Island and the Mosquito Coast. They are a bone of contention. The British have them, and we propose to drive the British out. What for? to take them ourselves? I hope not. With respect to the Mosquito Coast, God knows we have musketoes enough in our country without annexing a whole kingdom of them. And as for the Ruatan and the Bay Islands, who but a good geographer can tell where they are? All I know about them is, that they are out toward the equator, the other side of Cuba, and might furnish a pointe d’appui to a filibuster invasion of that island. Now, I am against filibustering and annex-ing, and am willing that the British should remain for-ever in these places. They were once the haunt of pirates, and might become so again if the British were to leave them. But the Canal of Nicaragua— the ship canal across the continent at that point—and the con-struction and protection of which forms the staple of the Bulwer-Clayton Treaty, and subsidiary to which is the whole quarrel about Central America. Now the canal in itself is a good thing, and very desirable to be made, but by any power in preference to ourselves. When made it is for public use, and the makers will have its care and expense, and no more use of it than others. I would not own it, no more than I would own the Straits of Gibraltar or the Isthmus of Suez. I have two special objections to our ownership or guardianship over that canal. It would be a foreign work, requiring a fleet at each end to guard it, and forts at each end to shelter the ships; and troops at each end to protect the forts. Two powerful fleets, each strong enough to fight Great Britain (for that is the object); two sets of forts to shelter great fleets, and two powerful armies to man the forts; such is the expense point of view of this pro-tectorate and guardianship over the ship canal at Nica-ragua. I am against meddling with it. Let others make it. We shad have the use of it in time of peace, without the cost of its care in time of war. But I am against our meddling with it for another reason. That ship canal is the antagonist of our own road to the Pa-cific! It is the antagonist of a national road through our own land to our own California. It is the antago-nist of that road, and intended to make the high seas the only, and the perpetual line of communication with California—to make the Atlantic ports continue to be forever what they now are—the entrepots of California trade and travel—the sole points of departure and return for all trade and travel between the two sides of our continent—between the thirty States on the Atlantic and in the valley of the Mississippi and the golden State of California. Now, I am against all that monopoly. Fair play is pretty play. Let the Atlantic States have all the advantages which the sea gives them; let them continue to go to California by sea, on any route they please—by Panama, by Cape Horn, by the Nicaragua lake, and the ship canal when it is made. Let them use all these routes, and have prosperous voyages on all the routes. But let us who live inland, and own land all the way to California, and are almost half way there—let us have a road on the land; and not for ourselves only, but for all—for the Atlantic cities as well as for the interior—for the north and south as well as for the center; for a central road suits. The present Administration is the deadly enemy of this central route. It is for anything in preference to this route—for an outside road north, along the frozen latitude of forty nine; for an outside road south, along the burning sand of Sonora and Sinaloa; for a for-eign water route through Central America, seven thousand miles round; and it is for this foreign route that we have all the quarrel with England about the Bulwer-Clayton treaty, the Mosquito coast, the Rua-tan Island, the Bay of Islands, and the Nicaragua canal; and it is for this also that we have the libelous perversion of the Monroe doctrine. Enmity to this road, and prostituting the powers of the Government to defeat it, is one of the great offenses of this Admin-istration–an offense against the whole Union, but especially against the State of Missouri, the natural route for the road, and along which it is already one—third built—from the Atlantic coast to the center of this State, and where it would be in communication with all the railroad lines, and all the steamboat navi-gation, of the thirty States on this side of the Rocky Mountains. But this is a large subject, and will re-quire a full speech to itself: which it shall receive. The crowning of all these attempts to pick a quarrel with Great Britain, is in the recruitment question, and in the dismissal of Mr. Crampton. This crown to the work is the labor of Mr. Cnsihng, whoso fitness to make foreign war, or to guard domes-tic rights, may be seen in his own account of his mission to China, and in his speeches in Congress justifying the British attack upon the steamboat Caroline, under the flag of the Union, and moored to our shore—boarded by stealth, her crew slaughtered in their sleep, and the vessel, set on fire and wrapt in flames sent plunging over the Falls of Niagara, with the dead and dying on board. All that Cush-ing justified; for which he was scourged upon the spot by William O. Butler of Kentucky, and who took a scourging as a man would who knew he deserved all he got, and was thankful he got no more; all which may be seen in the Second volume of the "Thirty Years' View." This is the man to stand guard over American rights—to pick a quarrel with Great Britain when she has done us no harm, and has made apologies for the mere technical offense which she may have committed. The case was this: Our At-lantic cities were full of unnaturalized foreign-foreigners, most of them her former subjects. She wished to recruit them for the Crimean war—but to do it without violating our laws—getting them to go to her own territories, and there enlist. Afterward objection was made; and instantly the practice was stopped, and apology made for any unintentional wrong. There was no harm done us. The only dan-ger of harm was that Russia might resent it as aiding her enemy, in violation of our neutrality. That would have been a serious complaint; but Russia never made it; the war was over before the recruits (if any) could get to the Crimea; and now peace has been long made. Russia and England are friends, and we must pick a quarrel with England on account of Russia—herself having no quarrel with Great Britain, and no complaint against us. That was the only harm ap-prehended, and it never occurred. As for taking such people away as she was endeavoring to get, I should hold their loss no damage to us; and that irrespective of their foreign birth. I hold that any man, native born or foreign, who would quit the United States—where good wages, comfortable living and independence are in the reach of all—and go six thousand miles to the Crimea to lead the life of a British soldier for sixpence a day; I hold that the loss of any such men would be no dam-age to our country, go as many of them as might. For this Mr. Crampton is dismissed. No, not Mr. Crampton, but the British Government; for he only did what his Government directed, and what it has justified and assumed. This is very different from dis-missing a Minister for an act of his own; it is an insult to the British Government; it is a challenge and defi-ance to it. It is just cause of resentment; but the danger is passed. The Administration which dismissed Mr. Crampton have themselves been dismissed— igno-miniously eo—by their own party—that is to say, the sound men of their own party, and the whole power of the country. The whole country has dismissed that Administration. They have no party, no adherents, no support. Their own janissary guard—the venal office-holders—have deserted them—“from their own ruined fortunes slunk all away”—and crouched at the feet of the conqueror. and to finish this universal desertion, they have de-serted themselves—fled from their own solitude—and given in their adhesion to the people that whipped them. This must satisfy Great Britain and restrain her feelings until the new Administration can restore peace and friendship with her. She has been greatly outraged not only in the act of dismissing Mr. Cramp- ton, just done in the nick of time for the Cincinnati Convention, where (mauger the presence of the two Administration champions, Capt. Rynders and Tom Hyer), it had a contrary effect: beside this act, the official papers, even including the President' mes-sages to Congress, all contained insulting expres-sions toward Mr. Crampton and his Government— all dictated by Cushing. Shame that such a man should have been placed in a situation to insult a gentleman, much less to pick a national quarrel with a great nation, and undertake to play off here his tactics of the Chinese mission. Citizens! I have told you of the attempts to kill off Mr. Buchanan in the Convention under the two-thirds rule; there was another attempt, of a different kind, to do the same thing. It was with a platform—a patibulary structure —with a rope over the head, and a trap-door under the feet—and so contrived that if he got on it, he was strung up in the North—if not, he was laid out in the South. His friends found out the game, and deter-mined to mount it, be it what it might. They said the President does not swear to platforms, but to the Con-stitution; and, besides, it is lawful to fight fire with fire. It was concocted by the old Janissaries, and pro-duced at the moment the balloting was to com-mence—so as to make disorder in the ranks; but the trick failed. It was received in a tempest of emulous applause, and extolled to the skies. I asked one of the most vociferous of these applauders, how he could swallow such stuff? He answered promptly, “As I do ipecac, to puke it up again!” It was a New-Yorker, of course, who gave that naive answer, and I am sure his stomach would feel the cleaner after the relief. Citizens! this business of making platforms is a new invention, unknown to the old Democracy, who had no platform but the Constitution, no aim but the public good; and they are generally the work of demagogues who have no thought of the Constitution, no thought of the country, no thought af anything but to get office and keep it—changing for that purpose with every change of administration, and swearing to every creed that runs an hour. It has been my pre-rogative to kick over these platforms. I was bred in a political school in which they were unknown. The Constitution was the only platform known in my school, and the only one to which I swear. If one is made beyond the Constitution, it is surplusage; if short of the Constitution, it is defective; if different from the Constitution it is void; if the same, it is su-perfluous. In any event, then, these platforms are, to me, useless—to many pestiferous—to their authors, stocked cards, which they throw away when the game is won. I have one more accusation to make against this Administration; it has broken up all political par-ties founded on principle; it is the author of the frac-tional parties which now spangle our political firma-ment, like those fragments of a bursted planet to which the astronomers give the name of asteroid. It is the author of them all, and finds retributive justice in the scorn with which they all treat it. It is unnecessary for me to speak of these parties; I adhere to my own, and support it; and that is the exclusion of all the rest. One only I allude to—one with which the name of a member of my family is connected, and in reference to which some persons who judge me by themselves (a favor which I most earnestly decline), attribute to me a sinister connection. I will not answer such insinua-tions by words, but by conduct [Great applause]. Now, when has it ever happened that I have been in-fluenced by family connection, or even by my own interest? What office have I ever got for one of my family ? What appointment have I ever got for my-self? No, citizens, I am above such considerations. I am above family, and above self when the good of the Union is concerned. From first to last I have been for my country, and mean to continue for it. I have made many sacrifices for it, and am making a great one now in standing this canvass. The good of the Union alone brings me out. Clouds overhang our foreign relations; sectional hate prevails at home; our own State is the theater of a commo tion which disturbs us at home, and injures our character abroad. Peace is my object—the sun-shine of peace for the State and for the Union—and the aid of all good men is solicited in obtaining it. We have a fair nomination for the Presidency— a man who can be nationally elected, and whose aims must be national. He will need support. He is not going to repose on a bed of roses, bnt rather on the thorny pillow. Our country is in a deplorable condi-tion. Fraternal affection gone—sectional hate engend-ered—extreme parties in the ascendant. Violence overspreads the land; we open no paper without see-ing blood. The whole country seems to be without government, and the Territories are so; Kansas in civil war; Utah in revolt; New-Mexico worse off than under the Spanish vice-royalty; Oregon carrying on Indian wars for itself; and voluntary a State—Califor-nia—driven to the resource of voluntary associations of citizens for the protection of life, liberty and property. The present Administration, in violating sacred com-promises, is the author of all the violence and disorder which overspreads the land. I foresaw and foretold it at the time, and strived against it. Pre vention was my remedy; that having failed, a cure of the disease must be attempted. The people have rightly judged that the authors of the disease are not the physicians to cure it. They have called in a new doctor, and we must help him in the application of all the remedies he shall prescribe. Citizens: The eyes of Europe and America are upon this election; not as it concerns men, but as it concerns the great questions which alarm and agitate the country. I represent the principle of peace—of order, law and justice, at home and abroad. Europe and America knows that fact; and as the election goes, so must be their opinion of the continuance or cessation of the present deplorable state of things.
