assent of States most immediately interested in its maintenance has
marked out for free communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific
oceans, constitutes one of the most important achievements realized by
the spirit of modern times, in the unconquerable energy of our people;
and that result would be secured by a timely and efficient exertion
of the control which we have the right to claim over it; and no power
on earth should be suffered to impede or clog its progress by any
interference with relations that it may suit our policy to establish
between our Government and the governments of the States within whose
dominions it lies. We can, under no circumstances, surrender our
preponderance in the adjustment of all questions arising out of it.
4. _Resolved_, That, in view of so commanding an interest, the people
of the United States cannot but sympathize with the efforts which are
being made by the people of Central America to regenerate that portion
of the continent which covers the passage across the inter-oceanic
isthmus.
5. _Resolved_, That the Democratic party will expect of the next
administration that every proper effort be made to insure our
ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain permanent protection
to the great outlets through which are emptied into its waters the
products raised out of the soil and the commodities created by the
industry of the people of our Western valleys and of the Union at
large.
_Resolved_, That the administration of Franklin Pierce has been true
to Democratic principles, and therefore true to the great interests of
the country. In the face of violent opposition he has maintained the
laws at home, and vindicated the rights of American citizens abroad;
and therefore we proclaim our unqualified admiration of his measures
and policy.
When Buchanan was nominated for President everything indicated his
election by a very large majority and without a serious struggle. It
was evident to all that the antislavery sentiment was making rapid
strides in the North. The Democrats felt certain of a solid vote in the
South, and they did not regard it as possible for the Republican party
to unite the American and conservative Whig elements to sufficient
extent to enable it to make a hopeful contest in Pennsylvania, New
York, and the Western Democratic States; but very soon after the
meeting of the first Republican National Convention the new party grew
with such rapidity that the Democratic leaders finally looked the fact
in the face that they had a very desperate and doubtful contest before
them.
The Republican party first appeared in the political arena in 1854. It
had then a small organization in New York State, and cast a sufficient
number of votes to elect Clark, the Whig candidate, for Governor, over
Seymour, the Democratic candidate, who lost the Governorship by 309
majority. I was at the cradle of the Republican party; was a delegate
to its first State convention, held in Pittsburg, Penn., in 1855. It
was a mass convention, composed of a loose aggregation of political
free-thinkers, but a number of very able men, including Giddings and
Bingham, of Ohio, and Allison, of Pennsylvania, who presided, delivered
addresses. There was but one State office to fill in Pennsylvania,
that of Canal Commissioner. The convention was made up very largely
of the aggressive Abolition element of the State, small in number,
but bold and assertive in action, as was shown by the spontaneous
nomination of Passmore Williamson, who was then in prison for contempt
of court in a fugitive slave case. The nomination was resented by all
the conservative Whigs and by the Americans, and without the votes of
those parties the Republican organization could not carry a township in
the State. Williamson was finally persuaded to retire, and the Whig,
American, and Republican committees united on Thomas Nicholson, of
Beaver, but the elements were too discordant, and the State was lost by
some 12,000.
I was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention, that
met in Philadelphia on the 17th of June, 1856. It was also a mass
convention, as the party had no organization, and States sent large or
small delegations as was most convenient. I went to the convention,
hoping to aid in the nomination of Judge McLean for President, who was
sufficiently conservative to command both the Whig and American votes,
and I had no faith whatever in the success of a distinctive Republican
candidate and party. I was surprised to find the Republicans of New
England and of New York who were attending the convention in favor of
a radical Republican policy, and I was so much dissatisfied with the
evident outcome of the convention that, although I attended its first
session, I did not enroll as a delegate, and did not participate in
any of its important proceedings. I well remember meeting Mr. Greeley
among the first of those who came to the convention, and wondered how
he had lost all his political cunning when he told me, in the most
enthusiastic way, that Fremont would carry New York by 50,000 majority,
and that the Republican party would be sufficiently strong to win
the battle without any concessions whatever to the other elements
opposed to the Democratic party. I had no faith in Fremont, either as
a candidate or as a President. I shared the general conservative Whig
sentiment of Pennsylvania that the Republican convention in nominating
Fremont on a square-toed Republican platform was altogether too “wild
and woolley” in flavor to win at the election. Greeley was mistaken as
to New York only in making the Republican majority one-third less than
it turned up on election night, when Fremont had nearly as many votes
as Buchanan and Fillmore combined.
The nomination of Fremont was engineered by some of the shrewdest of
the old Democratic leaders, most conspicuous of whom was the elder
Francis P. Blair, who had been one of the most sagacious of the
Democratic politicians during the administrations of Jackson, Van
Buren, and Polk. They believed it best to take a candidate for the
Presidency who had no political record whatever to antagonize the
conflicting political views which must be united to give the party
success; and Fremont was young, had served in the army with credit, had
made what then were regarded as wonderful explorations in the Rocky
Mountains, and had the distinction of having been forced to retire
from the army for what was claimed to have been conspicuously heroic
and patriotic action on his part. He had never said anything or done
anything to offend any political prejudice. It turned out that he was
strongest where he was least known. The old California Forty-niners,
who were back in Pennsylvania, and some of them prominent in politics,
did not enthuse over Fremont’s nomination. I distinctly recollect the
trite summing up of Fremont’s qualities by one who had been with him
in California by saying: “Fremont is a millionaire without a dollar,
a soldier who never fought a battle, and a statesman who never made
a speech;” but that his nomination was altogether the strongest that
could have been made in the Philadelphia convention cannot be doubted
by any who study the history of that contest and the marvellous
political revolution it wrought. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, presided
over the convention, and a single ballot was had for President, as
follows:
══════════════╤══════════╤════════
STATES. │ Fremont. │ McLean.
──────────────┼──────────┼────────
Maine │ 13 │ 11
New Hampshire │ 15 │ ――
Vermont │ 15 │ ――
Massachusetts │ 39 │ ――
Rhode Island │ 12 │ ――
Connecticut │ 18 │ ――
New York │ 93 │ 3
New Jersey │ 7 │ 14
Pennsylvania │ 10 │ 71
Delaware │ ―― │ 9
Maryland │ 4 │ 3
Ohio │ 30 │ 39
Indiana │ 18 │ 21
Illinois │ 14 │ 19
Michigan │ 18 │ ――
Wisconsin │ 15 │ ――
Iowa │ 12 │ ――
Minnesota │ ―― │ 3
Kansas │ 9 │ ――
Nebraska │ ―― │ 3
Kentucky │ 5 │ ――
California │ 12 │ ――
├──────────┼────────
Totals │ 359 │ 196
══════════════╧══════════╧════════
The nomination of Fremont was made unanimous with great enthusiasm, and
there was only one ballot for Vice-President, resulting as follows:
William L. Dayton, N. J. 259
Abraham Lincoln, Ill. 110
N. P. Banks, Mass. 46
David Wilmot, Penn. 43
Charles Sumner, Mass. 35
Jacob Collamer, Vt. 15
John A. King, N. Y. 9
S. C. Pomeroy, Kan. 8
Thomas Ford, Ohio 7
Henry Wilson, Mass. 5
Cassius M. Clay, Ky. 4
Henry C. Carey, Penn. 3
Wm. F. Johnston, Penn. 2
Mr. Dayton was then declared the nominee of the convention by a
unanimous vote, and the following platform was adopted:
This convention of delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call
addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past
political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present administration,
to the extension of slavery into Free Territory; in favor of admitting
Kansas as a Free State, of restoring the action of the Federal
Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson; and who
purpose to unite in presenting candidates for the offices of President
and Vice-President, do resolve as follows:
_Resolved_, That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the
Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution
is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and
that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union
of the States, shall be preserved.
_Resolved_, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a
self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the unalienable
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the
primary object and ulterior designs of our Federal Government were to
secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction;
that, as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in
all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived
of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, it becomes
our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all
attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in any
Territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting
its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority
of Congress, of a Territorial Legislature, of any individual or
association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any
Territory of the United States while the present Constitution shall be
maintained.
_Resolved_, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign
power over the Territories of the United States, for their government,
and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the
duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of
barbarism, polygamy and slavery.
_Resolved_, That while the Constitution of the United States was
ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect
Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for
the common defence, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains
ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty, and property
of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of
Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their
territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended
legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them,
by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the
Government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and
enforced; the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been
infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have
been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and
holding office; the right of an accused person to a speedy and public
trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people
to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against
unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated; they have been
deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law;
that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the
right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect;
murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged,
and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these
things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of
the present administration; and that for this high crime against the
Constitution, the Union, and humanity, we arraign the administration,
the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and
accessories, either before or after the fact, before the country and
before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual
perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a
sure and condign punishment hereafter.
_Resolved_, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of
the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most
effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights
and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil
strife now raging in her territory.
_Resolved_, That the highwayman’s plea, that “might makes right,”
embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of
American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any
government or people that gave it their sanction.
_Resolved_, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central
and practical route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of
the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render
immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and, as an auxiliary
thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line
of the railroad.
_Resolved_, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement
of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the
accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized
by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens.
The American or Know-Nothing party had become the leading factor of
the opposition elements to Democracy in the elections of 1854–55. In
some sections the Whig party was entirely obliterated, and in the
South there was no organization opposed to Democracy but the American.
The cardinal principle of its faith was that “Americans must rule
America,” and its opposition to the Catholic Church was positive and
pronounced. It had gravitated from the original Native Americans of
1844 into the Order of United Americans, and it coalesced with the
remnants of the Whig party and with the antiadministration Democrats in
most of the Northern States. It had reached about its highest measure
of strength in 1855, chiefly because of its strong hold in the South.
In New England and the far Western States the Americans had been very
generally absorbed in the Republican organization when the battle
opened for the Presidency in 1856.
The American National Council was called to meet in Philadelphia on the
19th of February, 1856, and nearly all the States were represented. The
Council was a secret body, in accordance with the usages of the party.
After three days of animated discussion it adopted a party platform,
and on the 22d of February the Council adjourned and organized the
American National Nominating Convention. Ephraim Marsh, of New Jersey,
was made president. An earnest effort was made in the convention to
antagonize the right of the National Council to make the platform
for the party. Mr. Killinger, of Pennsylvania, offered a resolution,
declaring that the Council had no authority to prescribe a platform
of principles, and that the convention should nominate no man for
President or Vice-President “who is not in favor of interdicting the
introduction of slavery into territory North 36° 30´ by Congressional
action,” but his proposition failed by a vote of 141 to 59. The failure
of this resolution led to the retirement from the convention of the
more pronounced antislavery delegates or North Americans, as they
were called. The convention then proceeded to ballot for President as
follows:
═══════════════════════════════╤═════════╤════════
│ 1st │ 2d
│ Ballot. │ Ballot.
───────────────────────────────┼─────────┼────────
M. Fillmore, New York │ 71 │ 179
George Law, New York │ 27 │ 24
Garrett Davis, Kentucky │ 13 │ 10
John McLean, Ohio │ 7 │ 13
R. F. Stockton, New Jersey │ 8 │ ――
Sam. Houston, Texas │ 6 │ 3
John Bell, Tennessee │ 5 │ ――
Kenneth Raynor, North Carolina │ 2 │ 14
Erastus Brooks, New York │ 2 │ ――
Lewis D. Campbell, Ohio │ 1 │ ――
John M. Clayton, Delaware │ 1 │ ――
═══════════════════════════════╧═════════╧════════
After the 2d ballot, Mr. Fillmore was unanimously declared the nominee,
and on the 1st ballot Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee, who was
the adopted son of General Jackson, was nominated for Vice-President,
receiving 181 votes to 8 for Governor Gardner, of Massachusetts, 8 for
Percy Walker, of Alabama, and 8 for Kenneth Raynor, of North Carolina.
The following platform was then unanimously adopted:
1. An humble acknowledgment of the Supreme Being, for his protecting
care vouchsafed to our fathers in their successful Revolutionary
struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their descendants, in the
preservation of their liberties, the independence and the union of
these States.
2. The perpetuation of the Federal Union and Constitution, as the
palladium of our civil and religious liberties and the only sure
bulwark of American independence.
3. Americans must rule America; and to this end native-born citizens
should be selected for all State, Federal and municipal offices of
Government employment, in preference to all others. Nevertheless,
4. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily abroad should
be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens.
5. No person should be selected for political station (whether of
native or foreign birth) who recognizes any allegiance or obligation
of any description to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, or who
refuses to recognize the Federal and State Constitutions (each within
its sphere) as paramount to all other laws as rules of political
action.
6. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved rights
of the several States, and the cultivation of harmony and fraternal
good-will between the citizens of the several States, and, to this
end, non-interference by Congress with questions appertaining solely
to the individual States, and non-intervention by each State with the
affairs of any other State.
7. The recognition of the right of native-born and naturalized
citizens of the United States, permanently residing in any Territory
thereof, to frame their constitution and laws, and to regulate their
domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to
the provisions of the Federal Constitution, with the privilege of
admission into the Union whenever they have the requisite population
for one representative in Congress; _provided, always_, that none but
those who are citizens of the United States, under the Constitution
and laws thereof, and who have a fixed residence in any such
Territory, ought to participate in the formation of a constitution or
in the enactment of laws for said Territory or State.
8. An enforcement of the principle that no State or Territory ought
to admit others than citizens to the right of suffrage, or of holding
political offices of the United States.
9. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued
residence of twenty-one years, of all not heretofore provided for, an
indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all
paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing upon our shores;
but no interference with the vested rights of foreigners.
10. Opposition to any union between Church and State; no interference
with religious faith or worship, and no test oaths for office.
11. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged abuses of
public functionaries, and a strict economy in public expenditures.
12. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws constitutionally
enacted, until said laws shall be repealed or shall be declared null
and void by competent judicial authority.
13. Opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present
administration in the general management of our national affairs, and
more especially as shown in removing “Americans” (by designation) and
conservatives in principle from office, and placing foreigners and
ultraists in their places; as shown in a truckling subserviency to
the stronger, and an insolent and cowardly bravado toward the weaker
powers; as shown in reopening sectional agitation, by the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise; as shown in granting to unnaturalized
foreigners the right of suffrage in Kansas and Nebraska; as shown
in its vacillating course on the Kansas and Nebraska question; as
shown in the corruptions which pervade some of the departments of the
Government; as shown in disgracing meritorious naval officers through
prejudice or caprice; and as shown in the blundering mismanagement of
our foreign relations.
14. Therefore, to remedy existing evils, and to prevent the disastrous
consequences otherwise resulting therefrom, we would build up the
“American party” upon the principles hereinbefore stated.
15. That each State Council shall have authority to amend their
several constitutions, so as to abolish the several degrees, and
substitute a pledge of honor, instead of other obligations, for
fellowship and admission into the party.
16. A free and open discussion of all political principles embraced in
our platform.
The seceding delegates, consisting of the antislavery wing of the party
and small in number, organized a convention of their own, and without
the formality of a ballot, nominated John C. Fremont, of California,
for President, and Ex-Governor William F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania,
for Vice-President, but they finally supported Fremont and Dayton.
The fragments of the old Whig party met in national convention at
Baltimore on the 17th of September, in which 26 States were raggedly
represented. Edward Bates, of Missouri, presided over the convention,
and the proceedings were uneventful. Fillmore and Donelson, the
candidates nominated by the American party, were unanimously nominated
for President and Vice-President by resolution, and the following
platform adopted:
_Resolved_, That the Whigs of the United States, now here assembled,
hereby declare their reverence for the Constitution of the United
States, their unalterable attachment to the national Union, and a
fixed determination to do all in their power to preserve them for
themselves and their posterity. They have no new principles to
announce, no new platform to establish, but are content to broadly
rest—where their fathers rested—upon the Constitution of the United
States, wishing no safer guide, no higher law.
_Resolved_, That we regard with the deepest interest and anxiety the
present disordered condition of our national affairs—a portion of
the country ravaged by civil war, large sections of our population
embittered by mutual recriminations; and we distinctly trace these
calamities to the culpable neglect of duty by the present national
administration.
_Resolved_, That the Government of the United States was formed by the
conjunction in political unity of widespread geographical sections,
materially differing not only in climate and products, but in social
and domestic institutions; and that any cause that shall permanently
array the different sections of the Union in political hostility and
organized parties, founded only on geographical distinctions, must
inevitably prove fatal to a continuance of the national Union.