and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to corporations, but
should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the people, and
should be granted in limited quantities, free of cost, to landless
settlers.
13. That a due regard for the Federal Constitution and a sound
administrative policy demands that the funds of the General Government
be kept separate from banking institutions; that inland and ocean
postage should be reduced to the lowest possible point; that no more
revenue should be raised than is required to defray the strictly
necessary expenses of the public service, and to pay off the public
debt; and that the power and patronage of the Government should be
diminished, by the abolition of all unnecessary offices, salaries, and
privileges, and by the election, by the people, of all civil officers
in the service of the United States, so far as may be consistent with
the prompt and efficient transaction of the public business.
14. That river and harbor improvements, when necessary to the safety
and convenience of commerce with foreign nations or among the several
States, are objects of national concern; and it is the duty of
Congress, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to provide for
the same.
15. That emigrants and exiles from the Old World should find a cordial
welcome to homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in the New;
and every attempt to abridge their privilege of becoming citizens
and owners of soil among us ought to be resisted with inflexible
determination.
16. That every nation has a clear right to alter or change its own
government, and to administer its own concerns, in such a manner as
may best secure the rights and promote the happiness of the people;
and foreign interference with that right is a dangerous violation of
the laws of nations, against which all independent governments should
protest, and endeavor by all proper means to prevent; and especially
is it the duty of the American Government, representing the chief
republic of the world, to protest against, and by all proper means
to prevent, the intervention of kings and emperors against nations
seeking to establish for themselves republican or constitutional
governments.
17. That the independence of Hayti ought to be recognized by our
Government, and our commercial relations with it placed on a footing
of the most favored nation.
18. That as, by the Constitution, the “citizens of each State shall
be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in
the several States,” the practice of imprisoning colored seamen of
other States, while the vessels to which they belong lie in port,
and refusing the exercise of the right to bring such cases before
the Supreme Court of the United States, to test the legality of
such proceedings, is a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and
an invasion of the rights of the citizens of other States, utterly
inconsistent with the professions made by the slaveholders, that they
wish the provisions of the Constitution faithfully observed by every
State in the Union.
19. That we recommend the introduction into all treaties hereafter to
be negotiated between the United States and foreign nations, of some
provision for the amicable settlement of difficulties by a resort to
decisive arbitration.
20. That the Free Democratic party is not organized to aid either the
Whig or the Democratic wing of the great slave-compromise party of the
nation, but to defeat them both; and that, repudiating and renouncing
both as hopelessly corrupt and utterly unworthy of confidence, the
purpose of the Free Democracy is to take possession of the Federal
Government, and administer it for the better protection of the rights
and interests of the whole people.
21. That we inscribe on our banner, “Free soil, free speech, free
labor, and free men!” and under it will fight on and fight ever until
a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.
22. That upon this platform the convention presents to the American
people as a candidate for the office of President of the United
States, John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and as a candidate for the
office of Vice-President of the United States, George W. Julian, of
Indiana, and earnestly commends them to the support of all free men
and all parties.
The contest of 1852 was a hopeless one for the Whigs from the start.
General Scott had great faith in his own election, but he stood almost
entirely alone in that confidence. After the disastrous October
elections he took the stump against the advice of his more discreet
friends, and delivered a number of campaign speeches, which are now
remembered chiefly because of his flattery to the foreign vote,
complimenting the “rich Irish brogue” and “the sweet German accent”
of many of his supporters. The result was that Pierce, a man who had
never been discussed for the Presidency, but had been brought out as
the “dark horse” at the national convention, carried every State in the
Union but four—Massachusetts and Vermont, in the North, and Kentucky
and Tennessee, in the South. The following is the popular and electoral
vote:
═══════════════════╤═════════════════════════════════╦══════════════════
│ POPULAR VOTE. ║ ELECTORS.
├───────────┬───────────┬─────────╫─────────┬────────
STATES. │ Franklin │ Winfield │ John P. ║ │
│ Pierce, │ Scott, │ Hale, ║ Pierce. │ Scott.
│ N. H. │ N. Y. │ N. H. ║ │
───────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────╫─────────┼────────
Maine │ 41,609 │ 32,543 │ 8,030 ║ 8 │ ――
New Hampshire │ 29,997 │ 16,147 │ 6,695 ║ 5 │ ――
Vermont │ 13,044 │ 22,173 │ 8,621 ║ ―― │ 5
Massachusetts │ 44,569 │ 52,683 │ 28,023 ║ ―― │ 13
Rhode Island │ 8,735 │ 7,626 │ 644 ║ 4 │ ――
Connecticut │ 33,249 │ 30,357 │ 3,160 ║ 6 │ ――
New York │ 262,083 │ 234,882 │ 25,329 ║ 35 │ ――
New Jersey │ 44,305 │ 38,556 │ 350 ║ 7 │ ――
Pennsylvania │ 198,568 │ 179,174 │ 8,525 ║ 27 │ ――
Delaware │ 6,318 │ 6,293 │ 62 ║ 3 │ ――
Maryland │ 40,020 │ 35,066 │ 54 ║ 8 │ ――
Virginia │ 73,858 │ 58,572 │ ―――― ║ 15 │ ――
North Carolina │ 39,744 │ 39,058 │ ―――― ║ 10 │ ――
South Carolina[14] │ ―――― │ ―――― │ ―――― ║ 8 │ ――
Georgia │ 34,705 │ 16,660 │ ―――― ║ 10 │ ――
Alabama │ 26,881 │ 15,038 │ ―――― ║ 9 │ ――
Florida │ 4,318 │ 2,875 │ ―――― ║ 3 │ ――
Mississippi │ 26,876 │ 17,548 │ ―――― ║ 7 │ ――
Louisiana │ 18,647 │ 17,255 │ ―――― ║ 6 │ ――
Texas │ 13,552 │ 4,995 │ ―――― ║ 4 │ ――
Arkansas │ 12,179 │ 7,404 │ ―――― ║ 4 │ ――
Missouri │ 38,353 │ 29,984 │ ―――― ║ 9 │ ――
Tennessee │ 57,018 │ 58,898 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 12
Kentucky │ 53,806 │ 57,068 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 12
Ohio │ 169,220 │ 152,526 │ 31,682 ║ 23 │ ――
Michigan │ 41,842 │ 33,859 │ 7,237 ║ 6 │ ――
Indiana │ 95,340 │ 80,901 │ 6,929 ║ 13 │ ――
Illinois │ 80,597 │ 64,934 │ 9,966 ║ 11 │ ――
Wisconsin │ 33,658 │ 22,240 │ 8,814 ║ 5 │ ――
Iowa │ 17,763 │ 15,856 │ 1,604 ║ 4 │ ――
California │ 40,626 │ 35,407 │ 100 ║ 4 │ ――
├───────────┼───────────┼─────────╫─────────┼────────
Totals │ 1,601,274 │ 1,386,580 │ 155,825 ║ 254 │ 42
═══════════════════╧═══════════╧═══════════╧═════════╩═════════╧════════
[14] Chosen by Legislature.
President Pierce could have had a tranquil administration and generally
maintained sectional peace if he had not wantonly reopened the slavery
issue by assenting to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and making
it a Democratic measure. Kansas and Nebraska, which were north of the
Missouri line, whose territory had been solemnly dedicated to freedom
by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, that admitted Missouri as a Slave
State, were coveted by the slavery extensionists, and they decided
not only against the solemnly plighted faith of the nation, but, in
disregard of climatic objections, to force slavery in both of those
Territories and make them Slave States. The slavery propagandists had
failed to gather any substantial fruits for slavery from our Mexican
acquisitions, and in the desperation of the suicide they resolved to
force slavery into Kansas and Nebraska by a system of violence that was
generally described at that time as “border ruffianism,” and that made
the name of John Brown immortal.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the beginning of the end of
slavery. It was noticed that there could be no peace with Northern
industry and progress advancing rapidly and hastening the formation
of new States, while the South was standing still. A number of new
and very able men had been called into the political arena by the
slavery agitation. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, and Charles Sumner, of
Massachusetts, were both elected to the Senate by a solid Democratic
vote, united with the Free Soilers of their respective Legislatures.
Henry Wilson, the “Natick Cobbler,” had become more potent in
Massachusetts than was Webster at the time of his death; and the
antislavery sentiment was visibly and speedily growing toward immense
proportions.
The Whig party made its final battle in 1852, although it was nominally
in the field in 1856, and a new party was created out of the odds and
ends of the old Native American party. Opposition to Catholics had
been intensified by Pierce appointing Judge Campbell, of Philadelphia,
Postmaster-General. He was a very able and faithful Cabinet officer,
and there was no pretence that his religious views in any way
influenced his official appointments, but it revived the embers of
Native Americanism, and the great mass of the Whigs, who knew that the
Whig party had practically perished, and the antislavery Democrats
were without political vocations. They were like the Federalists who
first found refuge in anti-Masonry, and with anti-Masonry afterward
found refuge in the Whig party. The result was the very rapid spread
of the new American, or what was commonly called the Know-Nothing
party, with secret lodges and its members all sworn not to divulge the
movements of the organization and to vote for its nominated candidates.
It exhibited wonderful strength in many localities early in 1854, and
it was not uncommon in local elections, when the vote was counted,
to find that all the officers elected were unknown to the public as
candidates. Its first important triumph was in the municipal election
of Philadelphia in May, 1854, when Judge Conrad, candidate of the Whigs
and secret candidate of the Know-Nothings, was elected Mayor by an
overwhelming majority.
The Democrats lost a large number of their ablest men on the slavery
issue, provoked to defection by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
and it was evident that the party would be divided in the next
national campaign; but the various elements of opposition were even
more incongruous and had little prospect of anything approaching the
unity necessary to succeed. Pierce, like Fillmore, Polk, and Tyler,
was a candidate for re-election, but failed disastrously in his own
convention after wielding the power of his position to the uttermost,
and his administration ended with the country rent by sectional feuds
and gravely threatened with fraternal war.
THE BUCHANAN-FREMONT-FILLMORE CONTEST
1856
The Presidential battle of 1856, that gave Pennsylvania her only
President in James Buchanan, is memorable chiefly because it dated
the birth of the Republican party as a national organization, that
was destined to conduct the greatest civil war of modern history, to
abolish slavery, maintain its power uninterruptedly for a quarter of a
century, and to write the most lustrous chapters in the annals of the
Republic.
The Democrats were greatly demoralized by the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, and they suffered the aggressive defection of a number of
Democratic leaders with large popular following, but the various shades
of opposition to the Democracy were even more hopelessly divided. The
Democrats had the advantage of being able to command a solid vote
from the South on a square slavery issue, and they reasonably hoped
that they could hold enough States in the North to give them success.
Buchanan had been abroad as Minister during the troublesome times
of the Pierce administration, and he returned just in good time to
make the most out of the disturbed situation that confronted him.
The renomination and re-election of Pierce were hopeless. Cass had
been defeated by the people and suffered repeated defeats in national
conventions. Buchanan thus had a strong lead for the Presidential
nomination, and he was most fortunate in having the accomplished,
devoted, and tireless Colonel Forney to manage his campaign, not only
for the nomination, but to direct the national contest in the few
Northern States which could be held to the Democratic flag.
The Southern leaders had absolute confidence in Buchanan, and they
were entirely justified in their faith. He had been a Federal member
of Congress in early days, and later entered the Democratic party
with all the strict construction ideas of Federalism, which were then
in harmony with the Democratic policy as applied to the slavery issue.
He was the logical Democratic candidate for President in 1856; and
President Pierce, an utterly impossible candidate, as it was known that
he never could command the necessary two-thirds vote in the convention,
was his only serious competitor when the balloting began.
[Illustration: JAMES BUCHANAN]
The Democratic National Convention met in Cincinnati on the 2d of
June, with full delegations from every State, and two contesting
delegations from New York and Missouri. The quarrel between the
factions in both States was intensely bitter. The opposing factions
of New York were known as the “Hards,” who were a spawn of the old
Hunkers, and the “Softs,” who took the place of the Barnburners. The
Missouri delegations were known as the Bentonites and the Regulars, the
Bentonites having lost the control of the party organization in the
State. The convention solved the problem by admitting both delegations
from each State, and giving each delegate only half a vote. John E.
Ward, of Georgia, was made the permanent president, and the two-thirds
rule was reaffirmed without a contest.
It was at this convention that Stephen A. Douglas first developed as
an aggressive candidate for President, and as he had led the battle
for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, he was in harmony with the
Pierce administration. As will be seen by the ballots, his strength was
almost wholly given to Pierce until Pierce’s unavailability was clearly
established, when the Pierce vote was mostly transferred to Douglas.
The following table presents the 17 ballots in detail, resulting in the
nomination of Buchanan:
═════════╤═══════════╤═════════╤══════════╤══════
BALLOTS. │ Buchanan. │ Pierce. │ Douglas. │ Cass.
─────────┼───────────┼─────────┼──────────┼──────
1 │ 135 │ 122 │ 33 │ 5
2 │ 139 │ 119-1/2 │ 3-1/2 │ 6
3 │ 139-1/2 │ 119 │ 32 │ 5-1/2
4 │ 141-1/2 │ 119 │ 30 │ 5-1/2
5 │ 140 │ 119-1/2 │ 31 │ 5-1/2
6 │ 155 │ 117-1/2 │ 28 │ 5-1/2
7 │ 143-1/2 │ 89 │ 58 │ 5-1/2
8 │ 147-1/2 │ 87 │ 56 │ 5-1/2
9 │ 146 │ 87 │ 56 │ 7
10 │ 150-1/2 │ 80-1/2 │ 59-1/2 │ 5-1/2
11 │ 147-1/2 │ 80 │ 63 │ 5-1/2
12 │ 148 │ 79 │ 63-1/2 │ 5-1/2
13 │ 150 │ 77-1/2 │ 63 │ 5-1/2
14 │ 152-1/2 │ 75 │ 63 │ 5-1/2
15 │ 168-1/2 │ 3-1/2 │ 118-1/2 │ 4-1/2
16 │ 168 │ ―― │ 121 │ 6
17 │ 296 │ ―― │ ―― │ ――
═════════╧═══════════╧═════════╧══════════╧══════
As Buchanan was from the North, the Vice-Presidency was conceded to
the South, and 10 candidates were placed in nomination. The 1st ballot
resulted as follows:
J. A. Quitman, Miss. 59
Linn Boyd, Ky. 33
A. V. Brown, Tenn. 29
J. A. Bayard, Del. 31
T. J. Rusk, Texas 2
J. C. Breckenridge, Ky. 55
B. Fitzpatrick, Ala. 11
H. V. Johnson, Ga. 31
Trusten Polk, Mo. 5
J. C. Dobbin, N. C. 13
When the 2d ballot was called, a number of the candidates had their
names withdrawn, and Mr. Breckenridge was given a unanimous nomination.
He was the idol of the young Democracy of the South, having won his
spurs by two of the most remarkable Congressional campaigns in the
history of Kentucky, in which he had defeated Governor Letcher and
Leslie Combs, two of the ablest of the old Clay leaders in the Ashland
district. His success was due entirely to his own personal popularity.
He was not only one of the ablest of all the Breckenridges, but he
was a most accomplished, genial, and delightful companion, and his
nomination greatly strengthened the Democratic ticket in all sections
of the country.
The platform was finally adopted without a contest. It recited first
the preamble adopted in 1844, followed by ten resolutions from other
previous platforms, embracing the first five of 1840, and others
embracing the Democratic views on the proceeds of the public land; in
opposition to a national bank; in favor of the subtreasury system;
in support of the veto power, and opposing any new limitations upon
naturalization. To these the following new resolutions were added:
_And whereas_, Since the foregoing declaration was uniformly adopted
by our predecessors in national convention, an adverse political
and religious test has been secretly organized by a party claiming
to be exclusively American, and it is proper that the American
Democracy should clearly define its relations thereto, and declare its
determined opposition to all secret political societies, by whatever
name they may be called—
_Resolved_, That the foundation of this Union of States having been
laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and pre-eminent example of
free government built upon entire freedom in matters of religious
concernment, and no respect of persons in regard to rank or place
or birth, no party can be justly deemed national, constitutional,
or in accordance with American principles which bases its exclusive
organization upon religious opinions and accidental birthplace. And
hence a political crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the United
States of America, against Catholics and foreign-born, is neither
justified by the past history nor future prospects of the country, nor
in unison with the spirit of toleration and enlightened freedom which
peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular government.
_Resolved_, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the
well-considered declarations of former conventions upon the sectional
issue of domestic slavery and concerning the reserved rights of the
States—
1. That Congress has no power under the Constitution to interfere
with or control the domestic institutions of the several States, and
that all such States are the sole and proper judges of everything
appertaining to their own affairs not prohibited by the Constitution;
that all efforts of the Abolitionists or others made to induce
Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient
steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most
alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have
an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people and
endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to
be countenanced by any friend of our political institutions.
2. That the foregoing covers, and was intended to embrace, the
whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, and therefore the
Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national platform,
will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts known as
the “Compromise” Measures, settled by the Congress of 1850, the act
for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor included; which act,
being designed to carry out an express provision of the Constitution,
cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, or so changed as to
destroy or impair its efficiency.
3. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in
Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under
whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.
4. The Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the
principle laid down in the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1797
and 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature
in 1799; that it adopts these principles as constituting one of the
main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them
out in their obvious meaning and import.
And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a sectional
party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation, now relies to test
the fidelity of the people, North and South, to the Constitution and
the Union—
1. _Resolved_, That, claiming fellowship with and desiring the
co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under the
Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sectional
issues and platforms concerning domestic slavery which seek to embroil
the States and incite to treason and armed resistance to law in the
Territories, and whose avowed purpose, if consummated, must end in
civil war and disunion, the American Democracy recognize and adopt the
principles contained in the organic laws establishing the Territories
of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying the only sound and safe solution
of the slavery question, upon which the great national idea of the
people of this whole country can repose in its determined conservation
of the Union, and non-interference of Congress with slavery in the
Territories or in the District of Columbia.
2. That this was the basis of the compromise of 1850, confirmed by
both the Democratic and Whig parties in national conventions, ratified
by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied to the
organization of the Territories in 1854.
3. That by the uniform application of the Democratic principle to the
organization of Territories, and the admission of new States with or
without domestic slavery, as they may elect, the equal rights of all
the States will be preserved intact, the original compacts of the
Constitution maintained inviolate, and the perpetuity and expansion
of the Union insured to its utmost capacity of embracing, in peace
and harmony, every future American State that may be constituted or
annexed with a republican form of government.
_Resolved_, That we recognize the right of the people of all the
Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally
and fairly expressed will of the majority of the actual residents,
and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a
constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into
the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other States.
_Resolved_, Finally, that in view of the condition of popular
institutions in the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies of
sectional agitation, combined with the attempt to enforce civil and
religious disabilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying
citizenship in our own land), a high and sacred duty is devolved, with
increased responsibility, upon the Democratic party of this country,
as the party of the Union, to uphold and maintain the rights of
every State, and thereby the Union of the States; and to sustain and
advance among us constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all
monopolies and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the
expense of the many; and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those
principles and compromises of the Constitution which are broad enough
and strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it was, the
Union as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in the full expansion of
the energies and capacity of this great and progressive people.
1. _Resolved_, That there are questions connected with the foreign
policy of this country which are inferior to no domestic question
whatever. The time has come for the people of the United States to
declare themselves in favor of free seas, and progressive free trade
throughout the world, and by solemn manifestations to place their
moral influence at the side of their successful example.
2. _Resolved_, That our geographical and political position with
reference to the other States of this continent, no less than the
interest of our commerce and the development of our growing power,
requires that we should hold sacred the principles involved in the
Monroe Doctrine. Their bearing and import admit of no misconstruction,
and should be applied with unbending rigidity.