PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
Party conventions for the nomination of presidential candidates,
had now become an institution, and a power in the government; and,
so far as the party was concerned, the nomination was the election.
No experience of the evils of this new power had yet checked its
sway, and all parties (for three of them now appeared in the
political field) went into that mode of determining the election
for themselves. The democratic convention met, as heretofore, at
Baltimore, in the month of May, and was numerously attended by
members of Congress, and persons holding office under the federal
government, who would be excluded by the constitution from the place
of electors, but who became more than electors, having virtually
supreme power over the selection of the President, as well as his
election, so far as the party was concerned. The two-thirds rule was
adopted, and that put the nomination in the hands of the minority,
and of the trained intriguers. Every State was to be allowed to give
the whole number of its electoral votes, although it was well known,
now as heretofore, that there were many of them which could not give
a democratic electoral vote at the election. The State of New York
was excluded from voting. Two sets of delegates appeared from that
State, each claiming to represent the true democracy: the convention
settled the question by excluding both sets: and in that exclusion
all the States which were confessedly unable to give a democratic
vote, were allowed to vote; and most of them voted for the
exclusion. Massachusetts, which had never given a democratic vote,
now gave twelve votes; and they were for the exclusion of New York,
which had voted democratically since the time of Mr. Jefferson; and
whose vote often decided the fate of the election. The vote for the
exclusion was 157 to 95: and in this collateral vote, as well as
in the main one, the delegates generally voted according to their
own will, without any regard to the people; and that _will_, with
the most active and managing, was simply to produce a nomination
which would be most favorable to themselves in the presidential
distribution of offices. After four days work a nomination was
produced. Mr. Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President: General Wm.
O. Butler, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. The construction of
the platform, or party political creed for the campaign, was next
entered upon, and one was produced, interminably long, and long
since forgotten. The value of all such constructions may be seen
in comparing what was then adopted, or rejected as political test,
with what has since been equally rejected or adopted for the same
purpose. For example: the principle of squatter sovereignty, that is
to say, the right of the inhabitants of the _territories_ to decide
the question of slavery for themselves, was then repudiated, and by
a vote virtually unanimous: it is since adopted by a vote equally
unanimous. Mr. Yancy, of Alabama, submitted this resolution, as an
article of democratic faith to be inserted in the creed; to wit:
"_That the doctrine of non-interference with the rights of property
of any portion of this confederation, be it in the States or in the
Territories, by any other than the parties interested in them, is
the true republican doctrine recognized by this body._" This article
of faith was rejected; 246 against 36: so that, up to the month of
May, in the year 1848, squatter sovereignty, or the right of the
inhabitants of a _territory_ to determine the question of slavery
for themselves, was rejected and ignored by the democratic party.
The whig nominating convention met in Philadelphia, in the month of
June, and selected General Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore,
Esq., for their candidates. On their first balloting, the finally
successful candidates lacked much of having the requisite number
of votes, there being 22 for Mr. Webster, 43 for General Scott,
97 for Mr. Clay, and 111 for General Taylor. Eventually General
Taylor received the requisite majority, 171--making his gains
from the friends of Mr. Clay, whose vote was reduced to 32. The
nomination of General Taylor was avowedly made on the calculation of
availability--setting aside both Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, in favor
of the military popularity of Buena Vista, Monterey, Palo Alto, and
Resaca de la Palma. In one respect the whig convention was more
democratic than that of the democracy: it acted on the principle of
the majority to govern.
But there was a third convention, growing out of the rejection of
the Van Buren democratic delegates at the Baltimore democratic
convention--for the exclusion, though ostensibly against both,
was in reality to get rid of them--which met first at Utica, and
afterwards at Buffalo, in the State of New York, and nominated Mr.
Van Buren for President, and Mr. Charles Francis Adams (son of the
late John Quincy Adams), for Vice-President. This convention also
erected its platform, its distinctive feature being an opposition
to slave institutions, and a desire to abolish, or restrain slavery
wherever it constitutionally could be done. Three principles were
laid down: First, That it was the duty of the federal government
to abolish slavery wherever it could constitutionally be done.
Second, That the States within which slavery existed had the sole
right to interfere with it. Thirdly, That Congress alone can prevent
the existence of slavery in the territories. By the first of these
principles it would be the duty of Congress to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia; by the second, to let it alone in the
States; by the third, to restrain and prevent it in the territories
then free; the dogma of squatter sovereignty being abjured by this
latter principle. The watchwords of the party, to be inscribed
on their banner, were: "_Free soil_"--"_Free speech_"--"_Free
labor_"--"_Free men_"--from which they incurred the appellation
of Free-soilers. It was an organization entirely to be regretted.
Its aspect was sectional--its foundation a single idea--and its
tendency, to merge political principles in a slavery contention. The
Baltimore democratic convention had been dominated by the slavery
question, but on the other side of that question, and not openly and
professedly: but here was an organization resting prominently on
the slavery basis. And deeming all such organization, no matter on
which side of the question, as fraught with evil to the Union, this
writer, on the urgent request of some of his political associates,
went to New York, to interpose his friendly offices to get the
Free-soil organization abandoned. The visit was between the two
conventions, and before the nominations and proceedings had become
final: but in vain. Mr. Van Buren accepted the nomination, and in
so doing, placed himself in opposition to the general tenor of his
political conduct in relation to slavery, and especially in what
relates to its existence in the District of Columbia. I deemed this
acceptance unfortunate to a degree far beyond its influence upon
persons or parties. It went to impair confidence between the North
and the South, and to narrow down the basis of party organization
to a single idea; and that idea not known to our ancestors as an
element in political organizations. The Free-soil plea was, that
the Baltimore democratic convention had done the same; but the
answer to that was, that it was a general convention from all the
States, and did not make its slavery principles the open test of the
election, while this was a segment of the party, and openly rested
on that ground. Mr. Van Buren himself was much opposed to his own
nomination. In his letter to the Buffalo convention he said: "_You
all know, from my letter to the Utica convention, and the confidence
you repose in my sincerity, how greatly the proceedings of that
body, in relation to myself, were opposed to my earnest wishes._"
Yet he accepted a nomination made against his earnest wishes; and
although another would have been nominated if he had refused, yet
no other nomination could have given such emphasis to the character
of the convention, and done as much harm. Senator Henry Dodge,
of Wisconsin, had first been proposed for Vice-President; but,
although opposed to the extension of slavery, he could not concur
in the Buffalo platform; and declined the nomination. Of the three
parties, the whig party, so far as slavery was concerned, acted most
nationally; they ignored the subject, and made their nomination on
the platform of the constitution, the country, and the character of
their candidate.
The issue of the election did not disappoint public expectation. The
State of New York could not be spared by the democratic candidate,
and it was quite sure that the division of the party there would
deprive Mr. Cass of the vote of that State. It did so: and these 36
votes, making a difference of 72, decided the election. The vote was
163 against 127, being the same for the vice-presidential candidates
as for their principals. The States voting for General Taylor, were:
Massachusetts, 12; Rhode Island 4; Connecticut, 6; Vermont, 7; New
York, 36; New Jersey, 7; Pennsylvania, 26; Delaware, 3; Maryland,
8; North Carolina, 11; Georgia, 10; Kentucky, 12; Tennessee, 13;
Louisiana, 6; Florida, 3. Those voting for Mr. Cass, were: Maine,
9; New Hampshire, 6; Virginia, 17; South Carolina, 9; Ohio, 23;
Mississippi, 6; Indiana, 12; Illinois, 9; Alabama, 9; Missouri,
7; Arkansas, 3; Michigan, 5; Texas, 4; Iowa, 4; Wisconsin, 4. The
Free-soil candidates received not a single electoral vote.
The result of the election was not without its moral, and its
instruction. All the long intrigues to govern it, had miscarried.
None of the architects of annexation, or of war, were elected.
A victorious general overshadowed them all; and those who had
considered Texas their own game, and made it the staple of incessant
plots for five years, saw themselves shut out from that presidency
which it had been the object of so many intrigues to gain. Even the
slavery agitation failed to govern the election; and a soldier was
elected, unknown to political machinations, and who had never even
voted at an election.