§jM ff f* n M BP^ ^^^^7- W (•«d SWT M .''"^f t&S9&F. •■ ^ h*^ mIrv' ti» ■Jf£. : ' ,3P*ft^~^ ■*::J. W- # LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 5 J UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, J JAMES BUCHANAN, HIS DOCTRINES AND POLICY ^S EXHIBITED BY HIMSELF AND FIUENDS. MR. BUCHANAN AS A FEDERALIST. AN ORATION, DBLIVERED ON TOE 4TH OF JULY 1815, BEFORE THE WASHINGTON ASSOCIATION OF LANCASTER. BY JAMES BUCHANAN. History of the Revolution. Thirty-Nine years ago, upon this day, we were declared an independent people. At that time the Continental Congress burst asunder the chains which bound them to Great Britain, and resolved to be free, or to perish in the attempt. Upon that day, they presented to the world a spectacle of wisdom and firmness which has never been excelled. To make a proper estimate of their conduct, we must take into view, the then situation of this coun- try, compared with that of our enemy. On the one side, the armies of Great Britain were numerous and veteran : they were led by commanders who had acquired military reputation in every clime ; they were supported and furnished with every implement of war by a nation whose wealth has, upon differ- ent occasions, purchased the services of all the crowned heads in Europe. On the other side, our armies were small and unacquainted with military discipline : our officers were destitute of experience ; and we were so miserably poor, that our brave soldiers were not more than half clothed, and their winter marches, over the frosty ground which they were defending, could be tracked by the blood that flowed from their naked feet. But even these were not the only disadvantages under which we labored. Whilst our enemy invaded us from without, the torch of discord and of treason was lighted up within, when independence was de- clared, the mother country had a powerful party throughout all the middle States, and many adherents In every other part of the Union. Dreadful, therefore, was the responsibility of that Congress. Had not victory carried their banners, their names would have been cursed by the people of this country, as the promoters of a destructive civil war, whilst their blood would have flowed on the scaffold as a sacrifice to appease the spirit of British vengeance. In this awful situation, whilst the dark cloud of destruction appeared ready to burst upon them, they declared to the world our In- dependence. They thought that, " Oi.e day, one hour of virtuous liberty, Was worth a whole eternity of bondage." Everlasting honor to their names ! The gratitude of a free people will forever hallow their memory. It is not my intention, at this time, to give yon a narrative of those glorious eveuts of the revolution- ary war, which led to the recognition of our Inde- pendence by Great Britain and the world. They have been the subject of so many orations, and of such general interest, that they are familiar to every mind. The present oration shall contain a short his- torical sketch of the most prominent action of the party now in power in this country, and their conse- quences ; aud also an inquiry concerning the course which sound policy dictates that the government of the United States should pursue in future. The impor- tance of those subjects, although not strictly con- nected with the celebration of this day, will, I trust, be their apology to every miud. Mr. Buchanan attacks the Democracy. There was a powerful faction in the United States, opposed to the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The individuals of which it was composed were called anti-federalists, and were the founders of the Democratic Party. They gloried in setting them- selves in array against our present admirable form of- government. The authors of this opposition were chiefly Demagogues, who might have risen to the head of a state faction, but who felt conscious that their talents would be eclipsed, wheu the lumi- naries of the United States should be collected around the General Government. To gratify tbeir ambition, they wished that this country should con- tinue divided into a number of petty state sovereign- ties without any efficient government for their con- trol. This they desired, although they had the ex- ample of ancient Greece before their eyes, and well knew the clashing interests of the States and their mu- tual jealousies, kept alive by alliances with different foreign nations, would have made this country a per- petual theatre of contention and c'- ;i war, until it had fled for refuge into the arms of d >tism. They therefore sounded the alarm tbroagL it the Union against the Federal Constitution. They predicted ruin to the State governments and to the liberties of the people, from the powers given to the general government. By these means they succeeded in alarming the fears of many good men, and inducing them to believe that government, which is now the palladium of their safety, would be the instru- ment of their destruction. Notwithstanding their desperate efforts the Constitution was adopted, and Washington was elected President. It might have been Bupposed that these factionariea would have been awed into silence by his wisdom EV^ 2 and virtue. This was not tlie case. The opposition which they had given to the Federal government, was now transferred to its administration. At first, in- deed, the voice of calumny dared only to whisper against Washington and his measures, but ere long it was heard in thunder. When the French Revolution commenced, it was hailed by the people of this country, generally, as the dawn of rational liberty in Europe. But when, in its progress, it had become the destruction of reli- gion and morality — when thousands of citizens were daily sentenced to death, and butchered without trial and without crime — when all the horrors of an- archy were poured out upon that devoted country at home — and when Attila-like it had become "the Bcourge of God to foreign nations, the Washington party began to entertain fears of its result, and thought it necessary to stem the French influence, which was rapidly overflowing our country. To this duty they were imperiously called, as it was not only in theory one of the avowed objects of thatgov- erumeut to spread revolutionary principles over the whole world, but they had actually attempted to sow the seeds of rebellion throughout the United States. True to their original principles and their first love, the democratic party of that day became more the friends of the French as they became niofp the enemies of social order. — When "the proclamation of neutrality was issued by Washington — that procla- mation which is now almost universally admitted to have been the salvation of our country — that procla- tion which impartially placed England and France upon the same footing, and laid open the commerce of the world to America, they were enraged that we had not entered inU) an alLiauce with the French Republic, and waged war under their banners, against the human race. But when the treaty of peace with England, commonly called Jay's treaty, was ratified by Washington, torrents of personal abuse icrre poured out by the democratic party Kjwri his head. They openly charged the father of j his country with an intention of destroying his wen beloved offspring. To such a pitch of ingra- titude were they carried by their diabolical passions that they dared publicly, and without the slightest foundation, to accuse him of secretly putting his hand into the treasury like a felon. and appropriating without authority, the money of the nation to his own individual use. That man, the vigor of whose youth had been worn out in those splendid military achievements which made our country independent, and whose age and experience had been devoted to the creation and organization Of thi! federal government — that man who had never received <<w farthing more of the public money than what he had expended in the public service was ac- cused ol being a base peculator of the public treasure. — During this cruel persecution his noble mind felt sensibly the stings of his countrymen's ingratitude. In the bitterness of his soul he complained that he lii 1 been abused, to use bis o wn emphatical language in "such exaggerated and indecent terms, as could scarcely be applied to a Negro — a notorious de- faulter — or even to a common pick pocket." What must be our opinion of an opposition, whose passions wire so dark mid malignant as to be gratified in endeavoring to blast the character and embitter the old age of Washington? After thus persecuting the savior of his country, } imv can the democratic party dare to call themselves his disciples ! But no opposition could divert the steady soul of Washington from its purpose. Fie had digested a system of policy, which ne steadily pursued, amid the storms of faction. Bis successor in office for the mo^t part, walked in his footsteps. To continue at peace a nation must be prepared for war, was a maxim by which the Federal administrations were constantly directed. Under their auspices, there- fore, public credit was well established as the best means of public defence. The debt of the revolu- tionary war was funded, and moderate taxes were imposed. A navy was built to the protection of com- merce. We considered all nations equally, in war as enemies, in peace as friends ; and therefore a strict neutrality towards all nations was preserved. It would be impossible to enumerate every wise measure of the W ashington administration ; suffice it to say, that during their continuance, the prosperity of this country was unexampled in the annals of time. The dreams of fancy we almost realize. Cities raised up as by magic throughout our country, and wealth flowed in upon us from all nations. The wilderness yielded to agriculture, and fields loaded with the richest harvests covered those gloomy forests, where wild beasts but a few years ago hail used to roam. Happy indeed, were those people, had they but known their own happiness. Notwith- standing their prosperity, faction still continued to rage and to increase. — The possession of power was the end of the opposition, about the means, they were regardless. Their leaders pretended to tender solicitude for the welfare of the people. Their voices were loud in favor of public economy and against a navy, an army, and taxes. Although France had wautonly captured a number of our vessels without cause, had actually demanded tribute from us and had threatened our country with invasion, and with the dreadful fate of Venice if it were not paid ; although she had twice refused to recognize our min- isters who went supplicating for peace, they were opposed to raising an army or navy for our defence. After an army had been raised, notwithstanding it was commanded by Washington, and destined to act against a foreign enemy, they loudly expressed their apprehension that it was intended to destroy our republican form of government and substitute mon- archy in its stead. The taxes necessary for its sup- port afforded them a fresh theme of declamation. By means such as these they succeeded so well in their endeavors that they at length became the majority of the nation, and got its destinies placed in their hands. — How they have used their power it will now be my endeavor to show. They began by the destruction of the navy. It had been supposed by the Federal administrations that a navy was our best defence. — From the local- ity of our country, and from the nature of such a force, they knew that it would be peculiarly calcu- lated to protect our shores from foreign invasion, and to make us respected by the nations of the world; without, like a standing army, endangering our liberties. It was also foreseen by them, that without a navy our commerce would be exposed, and in consequence of our weakness we would be exposed to constant insult and injury upon the ocean, without the power of resistance. It had therefore been their policy gradually to erect a navy, and they had built a great number* of vessels at the time when the first democratic administration came into power. At that moment the scene changed. They had promised the people an exemption from taxes, and unless they could perform, their popularity was in danger. They did not hesitate what course to pur- sue. They immediately sold our national ships, dis- armed the country, left commerce unprotected, and invited insult and injustice from abroad, that they might not be under the necessity of imposing a trifling tax, and thereby injuring their popularity at home. Thanks be to Providence their delusion on this subject has vanished, and their conduct now appears in its proper light before the public. The little remnant of that navy which had been fondly cherished by Washington and his adherents, but which was deapia&d by the patriots of the present day, has risen triumphant above its enemies at Lome, and has made the proud mistress of the ocean trem- ble. The people are now convinced that a navy is their best detente. The democratic administration next declared war against commerce. They were not satisfied with depriving it of the protection of the navy, but they acted aa'tuough they .vere determined upon its anni- hilation. At a time when the nations of Europe were convulsed in deadful wars, the United States being neutral, and vhen in consequence thereof all our native productions were in the greatest demand, and the carrying V ade presented to our merchants a rich harvest in ev -ry quarter of the globe, they shut up our ports by embargoes and non-importation taws. By these means the streams of wealth which were flowing into our national treasury and into our coun- try from the thousand fountains of commerce, were suddenly dried up. These acts of parricide gave in- stantaneous and a dreadful blow to our posterity. The voice of business was no longer heard in our cities. The stillness of death pervaded every street. Dejection and despair sat on each man's counte- nance. The newspapers of the day instead of being liued with arrivals from abroad and sales of mer- chandize, teemed with bankruptcies. And our ships were laid up to rot, as melancholy monuments of the weak and wicked policy of our government. Who that has witnessed these things cannot ob- serve the hand of the Corsican despot, like that dreadful hand upon the wall of the Babylonish mon- arch, writing our destruction ? — Who can avoid be- lieving that Bonaparte was the source of this policy V and that it was intended to operate in unison with his continental system? It' might, perhaps.be un- warrantable to assert that our administration was actually corrupted by France ; but that their politics were biased by a warm and improper partiality for that country, there can be no doubt. Time will not allow me to enumerate all the other wild and wicked projects of the Democratic adminis- tration. Suffice it to say, that after they had deprived us of the means of defence, by destroying our navy and disbanding our army; after they had taken away from us the power of re-creating them, by ruining commerce, the great source of our na- tional and individual wealth; after they had, by refusing the bank of the United States a continuation of its charter, embarrassed the financial concerns of the Government, and withdrawn the ouly universal paper medium of the country from circulation : after the people had become unaccustomed to, and of course, unwilling to bear taxation; and without money in the treasury, they rashly plunged us into a war with a nation more able to do us injury than any other in the world. What was the dreadful ne- cessity for this desperate measure ? Was our coun- try invaded? No. Were our liberties in danger? No? Was it to protect our little remaining com- merce from the injuries it sustained by the orders in council? Commerce was not such a favorite, and the merchants wished for no war at all on that ac- count. Besides, if the existence of the orders in council had been its true cause, after their repeal, our coun- try would have accepted the olive branch which wus offered by England. What then was the cause? The one for which we professed to draw the sword and risk oor all, was to determiue an abstract question of the law of nations, concerning which, an opinion dif- ferent from that of our administration, was hHd by all Europe. To decide whether a man can expatriate or not. In the decision of this question our admi- nistration pretended to feel deep interest. The great part of those foreigners who woi-'.d be affected fry it. had long been tlieir earnest friends. They had been one of the great means of elevating the present ^Democta- tic) ruling party, and it would have been ungrati '. for that party to have abandoned them. Superficial observers may suppose this to ha\ been the real source of the war. but whoever w care* ally and impartially examine the history of o Country, will find its true origin to have been far d ferent. It took its rise from the over-weening pa tia.ity which the Democratic party have uniform! shown for France, and the consequent hatred whiu they felt against her great adversary, England. 1 secure this foreign feeling has been the labor of the leaders for more than twenty years, and well hai they been repaid for their trouble, for it has been o- of the principal causes of introducing and continue them in power. Immediately before the war, /. foreign influence, had completely embodied its* with every political feeling of a majority of the p< pie, particularly in the fVest. — Its voice was heard loud at the seat of government, that the President w obliged either to yield to its dictates or retire frc office. The choice in this alternative was easily ma by a man (Madison) who preferred pi'ivate interest' the public good. We were, therefore, hurried in war unprepared. What has been its result? Exactly what eve reasonable man expected at its commencement! V declared our intention of conquering Canada, whetli for the purpose of annexing it to the United Stat or of compelling our enemy to yield the doctrine- Imprisonment, is immaterial to the present questit Instead of conquering it, we have ourselves been in- vaded in every quarter, and the best blood of our country has streamed in defence of our soil. The verv capitol of the United States, the lof'tly temple of liberty, which was reared and consecrated by Washington, has been abandoned to its fate by bis degenerate successor, (Madison,) who ought to have shed his last drop of blood in its defence. After the (Democratic) administration had enter- ed upon the war, instead of coming forward with manly confidence and taxing the people for its sup- port, they basely shrunk from their duty, in order to maintain their popularity, and adopted the ruinous system of carrying on the contest by borrowing mo- ney. What were the effects of this policy? Does not every man in the country know, was it even disguis- ed by the administration, that the United States would, in a short time, have become bankrupt, had not peace been concluded? Thanks to Heaven, that we have obtaiued peace, bad and disgraceful as it is; otherwise, the beautiful structure of the Federal Government, supported by the same feeble hand*, might have sunk, like the capitol, into ruins. This system of anticipating our revenue has left an immense load of debt upon the country, the payment of which will be a grievous burden, not only upon the present generation, but upon posterity. This burden has fallen more heavily upon our country than upon any other part of the Union: on account of our uumerous and extensive distilleries. The late additional duty upon whisky has almost destroyed its manufacture. In its consequence it has not only affected the distilleries, but it has given a severe blow upon the prosperity of this country generally. Whilst the distilleries were in active operation, the cattle and grain found a good and ready market at home. The balance of trade was greatly in our favor, and wealth was rapidly diffusing itself "through, out the country. But Congress, by imposing a tax upon the article, more grievous than it was able to bear, hare destroyed the very revenue which they intended to raise. This instance, among many others of a similar nature, shoivs how totally destitute are our present rulers of wisdom and foresight, even upon sub- jects immediately regarding the pecuniary interest* of the government. These are not th»» only evils consequent upon that timid and time-serving policy. It has embarrassed the government so much that it must be a long time indeed before we can dare again to go to war with any powerful nation, even for the maintenance of our dearest rights. All these evils would, in a great meas- ure, have been prevented by sufficient independence in the administration, to have imposed moderate taxes at the commencement of the contest. The cre- dit of the nation would then have continued good, and we might have avoided the painful spectacle of seeing the public stock sold in the market at an enor- mous discount, and greedy speculators enriching themselves by its purchase, at the expense of the toil and sweat of the honest yeomany of our country. Instead of exempting seamen hailing under our flag from impressment by the war, we have alto- gether relinquished that principle ; because it is a well established truth in the history of nations, that if war be waged by one country against another for a specified claim, and the treaty wfeich terminated the contest is silent upon thai subject, it is forever abandoned. — Thus the government have at last yield- ed the very point for the maintenance of which they professed to go to war, after having expended nearly $200,000,000. We have not only not obtained by the war any- thing which we ought to expect, but we have lost many valuable privileges. All the numerous rights and advantages guaranteed to us by Jay's treaty have been relinquished. Nay, we have not only been compelled to conclude a treaty which does not con- tain one solitary stipulation in our favor, except that there shall be peace, but which unsettles the boun- daries of our country, and leaves to the decision of commissioners whether we shall retain a part of our own territory, which we have held in quiet posses- sion for more than twenty years. But notwithstanding our immense national debt, which, if the war had continued, would soon have resulted in national bankruptcy ; notwithstanding all our (jpverty, even the very necessaries of life have been taxed heavily; notwithstanding we have not obtained a single object which we had in view at the commencement of the contest, but have lost many valuable privileges ; notwithstanding our country has been invaded in every quarter, and the capitol of the United States has been laid in ashes by a marauding party of the enemy, this has been called a glorious war. Glorious it has been in the highest degree to the American character ; but disgraceful in the extreme to the administration. When the in dividual States discovered that they were abandoned by the General Government, whose duty it was to protect them, the fortitude of the citizens arose with their misfortunes. The moment we were invaded, the genius of freedom inspired their souls. — They rushed upon their enemies with a hallowed fury, whkh the hireling soldiers could never feel. They taught our foe that the soil of freedom would ever be the grave of its invaders. But do the administration, who involved us in the tale unnecessary war, derive any credit from their ex- ertions ? Certainly not. — They were the spontaneous efforts of the country, undirected by the government. The militia, who were chiefly engaged in these glori- ous conflicts, were often without pay, and without comfortable clothing. The dreadful situation of the country compelled them to abandon their families and the sweets of domestic life, without any previous warning, to defend places which were left utterly un- protected by their proper guardians — places which ought to have been ready for a siege at the com- mencement of the contest. As well might Ferdin- and the VII. of Spain, who was not in his kingdom, but who was nominally king, claim the glory of res- cuing his country from the armies of France, as our government take to itself the credit of expelling our invaders. When we tarn our attention to the regular army which were peculiarly under the direction of the national government, what do we discover ? During the first year of the war, that year in which it was to have closed with glory, that year within which our triumphant banners were to have floated upon the walls of QueDec, and all Canada was to have been ours, the year in which that province was left unprotected, and the forces of our enemy were em- ployed in Europe, it experienced nothing but degra- dation and defeat. Is there an American on the fleor of this house, who has not blushed for his country a thousand times, during that disgraceful year ? Until all the general officers who had been appointed for political purposes, and entrusted with the command at the commencement of the contest were disgraced ; and until others had fought themselves into credit and into notice, all our battles ended in defeat. During the last year of the war, the regular army under their new commanders retrieved their lost character, and performed prodigies of valor, but unfortunately, on account of the impotence of the government, they fought against such fearful odds that they were hardly able even to defend our northern frontier. Indeed, so dreadful was the situation of our country, for some time previous to the close of the contest, that the occasional spendid exploits of our heroes, like the gleams of lightning in a dark and tempestuous night, only added new horrors to the surrounding gloom. They only served to show what brilliant exertions our country might have made, had we been governed by men who were capa- ble of properly collecting and directing its resources. But peace has again returned to bless our shores. Again commerce, who has been for years weeping over the misfortunes of our country, begins to smile. Again we stand neutral towards all the European powers. What then should be the political conduct of our country in future ? Precisely to pursue the political maxims adopted by Washington. We ought to cultivate peace with all nations, by adopting a strict neutrality not only of conduct but of sentiment. We ought to make our neutrality respected by placing ourselves in an attitude of defence. We ought forever to abandon the wild project of a philosophic visionary, of letting commerce protect itself. For its protection we ought to increase our navy. We ought never to think of embargoes and non-intercourse laws without abhorrence. We ought to use every honest exer- tion to turn out of power those weak and wicked men who have abandoned the political path marked out for this country by Washington, and whose wild and visionary theories have been at length tested by experience and found wanting. Mr. Buchanan as a Know Nothing. Above all we might to drive from our *Ao»-» foreign influence, and cherish exclusive American feelings. Foreign influence has been hi every age, the curse of republics. Her jaundiced eye sees all things in false colors ! The thick atmosphere of prejudice, by which she is forever surrounded excludes from her sight the light of reason. While she worships the nation which she favors for their very crimes, she curses the enemy of that nation even for their virtues. In every age she has marched before the enemies of her country, pro- claiming peace when there was no peace, and lulling defenders into fatal security, whilst the iron hand of despotism has been aiming a death blow at their liberties. Already has our infant republic felt her withering influence. Already has she involved us in a war which has nearly cost us our existence. Let us then learn wisdom from experience, and for- ever banish this fiend from our society. We are sepa- rated from the nations of Europe by an immense ocean. We are still more disconnected from them by a different form of government, and by the enjoy- ment of true liberty. Why then should we injure ourselves by taking part in the ambitious contests of despots and kings ? Should this Washingtonian policy be pursued, our country will again rise to its former greatness and wealth. Under the blessings of Providence, we may then calculate on a long and happy existence as i nation. We may reasonably hope, that our chil- dren's children to remote generations may be assem- bled together upon this auspicious day. blessiug the memories of the men whom Heaven intrusted with the glorious task, of making a great nation free, happy, and independent. MR. BUCHANAN IN FAVOR OF SEIZING CUBA. THE OSTEND MANIFESTO. Br a dispatch dated at Washington, on Angnst 16th, 1854, signed by the Secretary of State, Presi- dent Pierce directed that Mr. Buchanan, then our ambassador at London, Mr. Mason at Paris, and Mr. Souls' at Madrid, would meet at some convenient point to confer about the best means of settling the then pending difficulties with Spain, and getting pos- session of Cuba. This Conference of the three ambas- sadors accordingly met at Ostend, on the 9th of Octo- ber, 1S54, and after sitting there three days, adjourned to Aix-la-Chapelle, where it also sat for several days. As Mr. Soul£ remarked in a dispatch dated at the latter place, on October 15, 1854: " The most cordial har- mony marked the progress of their labors, and there was not a single opinion expressed by the conference, but which conveys the unanimous sentiments of the conferers." He also states in a another dispatch a few days later that "The issues, with reference to which we were- mstructed to express our judgment, were of too mo- mentous an import not to tax all the discernment and discretion in our power, and it was with a deep sense of solemn responsibility that we entered upon the duties which had been assigned to us." "My colleagues " he also says, "have had a full view of the difficulties and dangers which the question presents," and with this full view, and this solemn sense of responsibility, the result of their de- liberation was embodied in the famous Ostend Mani- festo, which we proceed to give. We print it as it was presented to Congress by the President, and published by the House of Representative in Execu- tive Document, No. 93 of the second session of the thirty-third Congress. Of this Manifesto, it will Oe observed that Mr. Buchanan is the first signer. ME. BUCHANAN'S VIEWS ON FOREIGN POLICY. Aix La Chapbllk, October 13, 1S54. Sir : The undersigned, in compliance with the wish expressed by the President in the several con- fidential dispatches you have addressed to us, respectively, to that effect, have met in conference, first at Ostend, in Belgium, on the 9th, 10th, and 11th instant, and then at Aix la Chapelle, in Prussia, on the days next following, up to the date hereof. There has been a full and unreserved interchange •f views and sentiments between us, which we are most happv to inform you has resulted in a cordial coincidence of opinion on the grave and important subjects submitted to our consideration. Buy Cuba for a Slave Slate, if you can. We have arrived at the conclusion, and are tho- roughly convinced, that an immediate and earnest effort ought to be made by the government of the United States to purchase Cnba from Spain at any price for which it can be obtained, not exceeding the sum of $ The proposal should, in our opinion, be made in such a manner as to be presented through the neces- sary diplomatic forms to the Supreme Constituent Cortes about to assemble. On this momentous question, in which the people both of Spain and the United States are so deeply interested, all our pro- ceedings ought to be open, frank, and public. They should be of such a character as to challenge the approbation of the world. We Srmly believe that, in the progress of human events, the time has arrived when the vital interests of Spain are as seriously involved in the sale, as those of the United States in the purchase, of the island, and that the transaction will prove equally honorable to both nations. Under these circumstances we cannot anticipate a failure, unless possibly throngh the malign iufluence of foreign powers who possess no right whatever to interfere in the matter. We proceed to state some of the reasons which have brought us to this conclusion, and, for the sake of clearness, we shall specify them under two distinct heads : 1. The United States ought, if practicable, to pur- chase Cuba with as little delay as possible. 2. The probability is great that the government and Cortes of Spain will prove willing to sell it, because this would essentially promote the highest and best interests of the Spanish people. Then, 1. It must be clear to every reflecting mind that, from the peculiarity of its geographical position, and the considerations attendant on it, Cuba is aa necessary to the North American republic as any of its present members, and that it belongs naturally to that great family of States of which the Union is the providential nursery. From its locality it commands the mouth of the Mississippi, and the immense and annually increasing trade which must er^k this avenue to the ocean. On the numerous navigable streams, measuring an aggregate course of some thirty thousand miles, which disembogue themselves through this magnifi- cent river into the (luff of Mexico, the increase of the population within the last ten years amounts to more than that of the entire Union at the time Louisiana was annexed to it. The natural and main outlet to the products of thiH entire population, the highway of their direct inter with the Atlantic and the Pacific States, can | northern provinces to Madrid, Seville, Cadiz, Malaga. never be secure, but must ever be endangered whilst Cuba is a dependency of a distant power in whose possession it has proved to be a source of constant annoyance and embarrassment to their interests. Indeed, the Union can never enjoy repose, nor Eossess reliable security as long as Cuba is not em- raced within its boundaries. Its immediate acquisition by our government is of paramount importance, aud we cannot doubt but that it is a consummation devoutly to be wished for by its inhabitants. The intercourse which its proximity to our coasts begets and encourages between them and the citi- zens of the United States, has. in the progress of time, so united their interests aud blended their for- tunes, that they now look upon each other as if they were one people aud had but one destiny. Considerations exist which render delay in the acquisition of this island exceedingly dangerous to the United Spates. The system if immigration and labor lately orga- nized within its 'imits, and the tyranny and oppres- sion which characterize its immediate rulers, threaten an insurrection at every moment which may result in direful consequences to the American people. Cuba has thus become to us an unceasing danger, and a permanent cause of anxiety and alarm. But we need not enlarge on these topics. It can scarcely be apprehended that foreign powers, in vio- lation of international law, would interpose their influence with Spain to prevent our acquisition of the island. Its iidiabitants are now suffering under the worst of all possible governments, that of abso- lute despotism, delegated by a distant power to irre- sponsible agents, who are changed at short intervals, and who are tempted to improve the brief opportu- nity thus afforded to accumulate fortunes by the basest means. As lo;i<j as this system shall endure, hnmanity may in fain demand the suppression of the African slave trade in the island. ' This is rendered impossible whilst that infamous traffic remains an irresistible temptation and a source of immense profit to needy and avaricious officials, who, to attain their ends, scruple not to trample the most sacred principles under foot. The Spanish government at home may be well dis- poa 1. but experience has proved that it cannot con- trol these remote depositaries of its power. B ■sides, the commercial nations of the world can- not fail to perceive and appreciate the great advan- tages which would result to their people from a dis- -vjivition of the forced and unnatural connexion be- tween Spain and Cuba, and the annexation of the latter to the United States. The trade of England and France with Cuba would, in that event, assume at once an important and profitable character, and rapidly extend with the increasing population and prosperity of the island. 2. But if the United States and every commercial nation would be benefited by this transfer, the inter- ests of Spain would also be greatly and essentially promoted. She cannot but see what such a sum of money as we are willing to pay for the island would effect in the development of her vast natural resources. Two-thirds of this sum, if employed in the con- struction of a system of railroads, wouid ultimately prove a source of greater wealth to the Spanish people than that opened to their vision by Cortez. Their prosperity would date from the ratification of the treaty o, cession. France has already constructed continuous lines of railways from Havre, Marseilles, Valenciennes, and Strasbourg, via Paris, to the Spanish frontier, and anxiously awaits the day when Spain shall find herself In a condition to extend these roads through her and the frontiers of Portugal. This object once accomplished, Spain would becoms a centre of attraction for the travelling, and secure a permanent and profitable market for her various productions. Her fields, under the stimulus given to industry by remunerating prices, would teem w.ith cereal grain, and her vineyards would bring forth a vastly increased quantity of choice wines. Spain would speedily become what a bountiful Providence intended she should be, one of the first nations of Continental Europe — rich, powerful, and contented. Whilst two-thirds of the price of the island would be ample for the completion of her most important public improvements, she might, with the remaining forty millions, satisfy the demands now pressing so heavily upon her credit, and create a sinking fund which would gradually relieve her from the over- whelming debt now paralyzing her energies. Such is her present wretched financial condition, that her best bonds are sold upon her own Bowse at about one-third of their par value ; whilst another class, on which she pays no interest, have but a nom- inal value, and are quoted at about one sixth the amount for which they were issued. Besides, these latter are held principally by British creditors who may, from day to day, obtain the effective interpo- sition of their own government for the purpose of coercing payment. Intimations to that effect have been already thrown out from high quarters, and unless seme new source of revenue shall enable Spain to provide for such exigencies, it is not im- probable that they may be realized. Should Spain reject the present golden opportun- ity for developing her resources, and removing her financial embarrassments, it may never again return. Cuba, in its palmiest days, never yielded her Ex- chequer, after deducting the expenses of its govern- ment, a clear annual income of more than a million and a half of dollars. These expenses have increased to such a degree as to leave a deficit chargeable en the Treasury of Spain to the amount of six hundred thousand dollars. In a pecuniary point of view, therefore, the island is an incumbrance, instead of a source of profit, to the mother country. Under no probable circumstapces can Cuba ever yield to Spain one per cent, on the large amount which the United States are willing to pay for its ac- quisition. But Spain is in imminent danger of losing Cuba, without remuneration. Extreme oppression, it is now universally admitted, justifies any people in endeavoring to relieve them- selves from the yoke of their oppressors. The suf- ferings which the corrupt, arbitrary and unrelenting local administration necessarily entails upon the in- habitants of Cuba, cannot fail to stimulate and keep alive that spirit of resistance and revolution against Spain, which has of late years been so often mani- fested. In this condition of affairs it is vain to ex- pect that the sympathies of the people of the United States will not be warmly enlisted in favor of their oppressed neighbors. We know that the President is justly inflexible in his determination to execute the neutrality laws ; but should the Cubans themselves rise in revolt against the oppression which they suffer, no human power could prevent citizens of the United States and liberal minded men of other countries from rushing to their assistance. Besides, the present is an age of adventure, in which restless and daring spirits abound in every portion of the world. It is not improbable therefore, that Cuba may be wrested from Spain by a successful revolution : and in that event she will lose both the island and the price which we are now willing to pay for it — a prico far beyond what was ever paid by one people to an other for any province. It may also be remarked that the settlement of his vexed question by the cession of Cuba to the United States, would forever prevent the daugerous complications between nations, to which it may Otherwise give birth. It is certain that, should the Cubans themselves organize an insurrection against the Spanish govern- ment, and should other independent nations come to the aid of Spain in the contest, no human power could, in our opinion, prevent the people and govern- ment of the United States from taking part in such a civil war in support of their neighbors and friends. If yon canH buy Cuba, steal it. But if Spain, dead to the voice of her own interest, and actuated by stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then the question will arise, What ought to be the course of the American government under 6iich circumstances? Self preservation is the first law of nature, with States as well as with individuals. All nations have, at different periods, acted upon this maxim. Al- though it has been made the pretext for committing flagrant injustice, as in the partition of Poland and frther similar cases which history records, yet the principle itself, though often abused, has always been recognized. The United States have never acquired a foot of territory except by fair purchase, or, as in the case of Texas, upon the free and voluntary application of the people of that independent State, who desired to blend their destinies with our own. Even our acquisitions from Mexico are no excep- tion to this rule, because, although we might have elaimed them by the right of conquest in a just war, yet we purchased them for what was then considered by both parties a full and ample equivalent. Our past history forbids that we should acquire the island of Cuba without the consent of Spain, uuless justified by the great law of self-preservation. We must, in any event, preserve our own conscious rec- titude and our own 9elf-respect. Whilst pursuing this course we can afford to dis- regard the censufcs of the world, to which we have been so often and so unjustly exposed. After we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba far beyond its present value, and this shall have been refused, it will then be time to consider the question, does Cuba, in the possession of Spain, seriously en- danger our internal peace and the existence of our cherished Union? Mr. Buchanan on national morality. Should this question be answered in the affirmative, then, by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain if we possess the power: and this upon the veiy same principle that would justify an individual in tearing down the burn- ing house of his neighbor if there were no oth<;r means of preventing the flames from destroying his own home. Under such circumstances we ought neither te count the cost nor regard the odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into the ques- tion, whether the present condition of the island would justify such a measure? We should, however, be recreaut to our duty, be unworthy of our gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Africanized and become a second St. Domiugo, with all its atten- dant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our own neighboring shores, seriously to endanger or actually to consume the fair fabric of our Union. We fear that the course and current of events are rapidly tending towards such a catastrophe. We, however, hope for the best, though we ought cer- tainly to be prepared for the worst. We also forbear to investigate the present condi- tion of the questions at issue between the United States and Spain. A long series of injuries to our people have been committed in Cuba by Spanish officials and are unredressed. But recently a most flagrant outrage on the rights of American citizens and on the flag of the United States was perpetrated in the harbor of Havana under circumstances which, without immediate redress, would have justified a resort to measures of war in vindication of national honor. That outrage is not only unatoned. but the Spanish government has deliberately sanctioned the acts of its subordinates and assumed the respon- sibility attaching to them. Nothing could more impressively teach us the dan- ger to which those peaceful relations it has ever been the policy of the United States to cherish with for- eign nations are constantly exposed than the circum- stances of that case. Situated as Spain and the United States are, the latter have forborne to resort to extreme measures. But this course cannot, with due regard to their own dignity as an independent nation, continue ; and our recommendations, now submitted, are dictated by the firm belief that the cession of Cuba to the United States, with stipulations as beneficial to Spain as those suggested, is the only effective mode of set- tling all past differences and of securing the two countries against future collisions. We have already witnessed the happy results for both countries which followed a similar arrangement in regard to Florida. Yours, very respectfully, James Buchanan. J. Y. Mason. Pierre Soulb. Hon. Wm. L. Marct, Secretary of State. THE BUCHANAN CINCINNATI PLATFORM, ADOPTED MAY 22, 1856 ; Resolved, That the American Democracy place their creed and practice of Federalism, under whatever trust in the intelligence, the patriotism, and the dis- name or form, which seeks to palsy the will of the criminating justice of the American people. I constituent, and which conceives no imposture too Rexotved, That we regard this as a distinctive fea- monstrous for the popular credulity. ture of our political creed, which we are proud to Resolved, therefore, That entertaining these views, maintain before the world as a great 'noraf element j the Democratic party of this Union, through their de- in a form of government springing Pom and upheld i legates, assembled in general Convention, coming to- by the popular will ; and we contrast it with the gether in a spirit of concord, of devotion to the doo- 8 tones and faith of a free representative government, and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of their intentions, renew and reassert before the American people, the declarations of principles avow- ed by them, when, on former occasions, in general Convention, they have presented their candidates for the popular suffrage. 1. That the Federal Government is one of limited power, derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of power made therein ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents of the government, and that it is inexpedient and danger- ous to exercise doubtful constitutional powers. 2. That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government the power to commence arid carry on a general system of internal improvements. 3. That the Constitution does not confer authority upon the Federal Government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the several States, contracted for local and internal improvements, or other State purposes, nor would such assumption be just or ex- pedient. 4. That justice and sound policy forbid the Federal Government to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of another, or to cherish the interests of one portion of our common country; that every citizen and every section of the country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and privileges, and a complete and ample protection of persons and property from domestic violence and foreign aggression. 6. That it is the duty of every branch of the Gov- ernment to enforce and practice the most rigid eco- nomy in conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to defray the necessary expenses of the government, and gradual but certain extinction of the public debt. 6. That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly applied to the national objects specified in the Constitution, and that we are opposed to any law for the distribution of such proceeds among the States, as alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the Constitution. _ 7. That Congress has no power to charter a Na- tional Bank ; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of this country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a consecrated money power and above the laws and will of the people ; and the results of the Democra- tic legislation in this and all other financial measures upon which issues have been made between the two political parties of the country, have demonstrated to candid and practical men of all parties their soundness, safety and utility in all business pur- suits. 8. That the separation of the moneys of the Gov- ernment from banking institutions is indispensable to the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people. 9. That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified Veto power, by which he is enabled, under restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to sus- pend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot se- cure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and Mouse of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has saved the American people from the corrupt and tyranni- cal dominion of the Bank of the United States, and from a corrupting system of general internal im- provements. 10. That the liberal principles embodied by Jeffer- son in the Declaration of Independence, and sanc- tioned in tne Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the Democratic faith ; and every attempt to abt privilege of becoming citizens and the owners oi »»^ among us ought to be resisted with the same spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute booKs. - 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 Americans, and it is proper that the American Democracy should clearly define its rela- tions 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, ex- pans-ion, and pre-eminent example in free govern- ment built upon, entire freedom of matters of relig- ious concernment, and no respect of persona in regard to rank ; or place of birth, no party can justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon religious opinions and accidental birth-place. 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 or future pros- pects of the country, nor in unison with the spirit of toleration, and enlightened freedom which pecu- liarly distinguishes the American system of popular government. Resolved, That we reiterate with renewed energy of purpose the well considered declarations of farmer conventions upon the sectional issue of domestic slavery and concerning the reserved rights of the States — 1. That Congress has no power under the Consti- tution to interfere with or control the domestic in- stitutions 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 re- lation 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 stabi- lity and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend of our political in- stitutions. 2. That the foregoing proposition covers and wa9 intended to embrace the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress, and therefore the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national plat- form, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts known as the compromise measures, set- tled by the Congress of 1850: " the act for reclaim- ing 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 at- tempts 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. That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold the principles laid down in the Ken- tucky and Virginia resolutions of 1792 and 1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legis- lature in 1799 — that it adopts these principles as con- stituting one of the main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them out in their ob- vious meaning an ^ 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, Thit claiming fellowship with and de- siring the co-operation of all who regard the preser- vation yf the Union under the Constitution as the paramount issue, and repudiating all sectional parties 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 aud 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 solu- tion 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 compromises of 1850, confirmed by both the Democratic and Whig parties in National Conventions ratified by the peo- ple in the election of 1852, and rightly applied to the organization of the territories in 1854. 3. That by the uniform application of the Demo- cratic principle to the organization of territories, and the admission of new States, with or without domes- tic slavery as they may elect, the equal rights of all the States will be preserved intact, the origraal com- pacts 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 peo- ple of all the territories, including Kansas and Ne- braska, acting through the legally and fairly express- ed will of the majority of the actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to lorm 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 the popular institutions in the old world (and the dangerous tendencies of sectional agitation, combin- ed with the attempt to enforce civil and religious dis- abilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying citizenship in our own land), a high and sacred duty is involved 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 adher- ence 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 expression 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 in- ferior to no domestic question whatever. The time has come for the people of the United States to de- clare themselves in favor of free seas, and progress- -ve 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 politicU 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 ad- mit of no misconstruction, and should be applie4 with unbending rigidity. 5. Resolved, That the great highway, which naturt as well as the assent of States most immediately in- terested 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 suf- fered to impede or clog its progress by any interfer- ence with relations that it may suit our policy to establish between our government and the govern- ment of the States within whose dominions it lies ; we can under no circumstances surrender our pre- ponderance in the adjustment of all questions arising out of it. 4. Resolved, That in view of so commanding an in- terest 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. 6. Resolved, That the Democratic party will ex- pect of the next Administration that every proper effort be made to ensure our ascendency 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 i of our western valleys and of the Union at large. MB. BUCHANAN ON THE ABOVE PLATFORM. . He renounces his Identity, On June 9, 1856, the Keystone Club, having heard of the proceedings of the Cincinnati Convention, went to see Mr. Buchanan at hia house at Lancaster, Pa., when he delivered the following speech, declaring that he no longer regarded himself as James Buchanan, but as the embodiment of the platform erect- ed by that Convention : "Gentlemen of the Keystone Club ! — I give you a most hearty and warm welcome to my abode. I con- gratulate you, not upon my nomination, but upon the glorious privilege of being citizens of our great Republic. Your superiority over the people of other countries, has been fully demonstrated, by the con- duct of a vast concourse assembled during the past week at Cincinnati. Upon any similar occasion in Europe, the voluntary expression of the people would have been drowned in martial music, and their actions controlled by an army with banners. How unlike the spectacle at Cincinnati vhere dele- gates from the people of the different 31 ites met in Convention, under protection of the Constitution and Laws, and harmoniously deliberated upon sub- jects of vital importance to the country. Gentlemen, two weeks since, I should have made you a longer speech, but now I have been placed upon a platform of which I most heartily approve, and that can speak for me. Being the representative of the great Dem- ocratic party, and not simply James Buchanan, I must square my conduct according to Vie platform of thai party, and insert no new plank, nor take one from it. That platform is sufficiently broad and national for the whole Democratic party. This glorious party, now more than ever, has demonstrated that it is the true conservative party of the Constitution and of the Union." 10 A VIRGINIA VIEW OF MR. BUCHANAN SPEECH OP GOVERNOR H. A. WISE, AT RICHMOND, JTJN3 13, 1856. Mr. Wise said, that he presumed there was no man in the country who could more cordially say that ho con- curred in the nominations of the Cincinnati convention than he did. He ratified them with all his heart, and Vould support them in the canvass might and main. He was especially glad to meet his old friend, the Hon. Bed- lord Brown, of the good old State of North Carolina, here, and to hear hirn, and to have the opportunity of sending a message by him to the democracy of Raleigh. He had •een it reported in the papers that at the ratification meet- ing in that city, some one had asked how it. happened that the nominations were madef Why had Virginia separated herself from the other Southa j States? The reply was, It was a Wise movement. The democracy there, he was hap- Sr to learn, were then satisfied, if it was a Wise movement, e knew not in which sense to take the interrogatory and the reply. But if it was meant to inquire, whether he (Wise,) did it, he had to say that he gladly took the res- ponsibility of it. If there was any wrong in it, he would readily un the risk, without looking to any reward what- ever, for the service undoubtedly rendered to the country. Buchanan Nominated by Virginia. "Bat he preferred not to play with the question and the an- swer, and to give them a more significant and important meaning, than any personal application to himself could ' have. It was a movement wise and politic in itself. It ▼as the very wisest and best for all the country which could have been made, and, therefore, Virginia had promoted it, and did not separate from herself in doing so. He cordial- ly ratified the nomination of James Buchanan — 1st. Because it was due to the man. 9d. Because it was due to Pennsylvania. 8d. Because it was the safest, soundest, most sanitary and conservative movement which could have been made in reference to the condition of the country. 4th. Because it was, beyond doubt or question, the over- whelming voice of Virginia, united with the great central • States, without regard to sections of North or South. For these four reasons, any one of which was sufficient, he had gone for the nomination, and now heartily con- tained it. He said it was due to the man. Who is James Buchanan ? He has no military pretensions — he is no • Ctaesar, with a Senate at his heels— he never set a squadron in the field, nor wears he a sword to throw it in the scale to make it kick the beam! He is simply that which is ex- pressed by the word most precious to republicanism — a plain, unpretending, but sound, safe, conservative citizen. ' Civil in every sense, he is a civilian ; a statesman of train- ing, of age, of experience in public affairs, prudent, cau- tious, honest, patriotic, able, and has rendered the country not some, but much service. He has especially rendered this State and the South the service of that sacred regard ' to the Constitution which protects property and persons, and maintains State Sovereignty and State equality— the only policy which can guard the Union. A man of sound morals, he has conserved himself, and kept his faculties so veil by a virtuous life, that he, now at the age of sixty-five, has many year* of service still in him. Though his head he white as snow— full of years and full of honors — be Is yet vigorous in mind and body, and is a man of Herculean labor. Here Mr. Wise paused, and apostrophized the men 0/ the heroic age of the Revolution, and those who immedi- ately succeeded them, and were imbued with their spirit. He sail) James Bivchanan was about the last link to that JIne of sages who had settled our system, and secured by their virtue and wisdom the liberties of our free institu- tions ; who could, in the couree of nature, be made to serve hi the highest office, and set a last example of the men of eld to guide us. We should not lose his lessons, derived jrom personal contact with their wisdom and patriotism. Always Faithful to Slavery. B* was truly of the order of the Roman Cato — or greater (till, the Virginia Madison of the better times of the repub- lic. Venerable with age and sobered by experience, he Would command the confidence and respect of every con- tervative man who venerated the past. Such U the man, and his services rendered are the best vouchers and cre- dentials of his vigor and his merit, and of the debt due him by Virginia. He has been especially faithful on the subject of slavery. Mr. Wise undertook to say that not only no man North, but no man South could show a better record than that of James Buchanan on that vexed and danger- ous question. He had been arraigned for the imputed cffence when he was a mere boy — a very youth — of having presided at or attended a meeting in Pennsylvania which denounced slavery, and resolved in favor of the Missouri compromise. This charge had been actively circulated against him in 1S52, and it so happened that when Mr. Bu- chanan had with his own hand, furnished him (Mr. Wise) with the Irrefragable evidence to show not only that the im- putation was false, but that it was next to impossible for it to be true. Mr. Buchanan had manifested his politics by his errly adherence to the Madisouiau war of 1812. He had shouliered his musket and marched to Baltimore ; and, though it had been derisively said, "he marched to Balti- more, and marched back again" — that was all he did ; yet, that march had shown the quo anhno, and that was all which patriotism required. He was as early as 1814 in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and there sustained the war of 1812, and voted it supplies. He did not support the Mis- souri compromise. On the contrary, when he went into the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, he was found with the great democratic party a supporter of the great arch friend of Southern democracy — Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. When the issue of in- cendiary publications arose, he voted to violate the very mails rather than permit the agitators of a Nat Turner In- surrection to light the fires of incendiarism by the Post Office. When the Wilmot proviso was invented especially for his destruction by a Cameron faction in his State, he firmly withstood an Insidious contrivance in a free State to undermine the tenure of slave property, and was found maintaining the sovereign equality of slave States, when others faltered and others fell on that fatal issue. When the issue of annexation of Texas arose, he con- tented not himself by going for a measure which would ad- mit a State "with or without slavery about her," but he went " undividedly and unspent " for a measure which ad- mitted a State, a new State, not with or without, but with slavery already established as her "peculiar institution." In 1846, when the issues were coming to an issue of internal strife, or separation, he did go for an extension of the line of the Missouri compromise to the Pacific, and every south- ern man went with him. On that point Mr. Calhoun him- self went further north than Mr. Buchanan went. He sub- mitted his amendment to the Oregon bill, proposed that the clause against Involuntary slavery should be the law north of the line, if no question should be raised against slavery Bouth of the line. This was in the spirit of 1819 and '20. They did not propose that what was constitutional on one side of the line should be unconstitutional on the other side, but they agreed to disagree: that if no question was raised pro-slavery on one side, none should be raised con- slavery on the other side. They submitted to the law of climate, that Jack Frost should reign north of 86.30; and Jack Frost had decreed that the " Ebo shins and giz- zard feet of negroes" should not and could not live in the North — slavery would not be profitable there. It was profit- able in the land of sugar and cotton, and even of Virginia tobacco and corn, and Mr. Buchanan, with the whole South at his back, with myself among others — and no one here or elsewhere will say I am an anti-slavery man — went to make the Missouri line a "fixed fact" to the Pacific. Mr. Polk went for that policy, and all concurred, except Mr. Calhoun, in the position that was already a "fixed fact" — that the North was already bound in good faith to carry out the line to the Pacific. But they of the North already reached the Pacific In the Northwest. We wanted territory in the South- west to preserve the equilibrium of slave power in the Union. This we had acquired by the annexation, and its pro-slavery phase would have been preserved by running the Missouri line to the Pacific. Mr. Polk contended it did eo extend — everybody else, except Mr. Calhoun, so contended ; but in spite of friend or foe he offered his amendment to the Ore- gon bill, which conceded that it did not so extend, and he — not James Buchanan — lost the value of the extension to the South. He made it a geographical line, applying only to 11 territory acquired from France and Spain. Mr. Buchanan and Polk, and myself and all others, urged it over a cli- matory line, and did run it to the Pacific. To concede other- wise, was to put our hands in the lion's mouth of a major- ity—was to concede that we had not the fixed fact of the line to the Pacific— and was to leave us to the mercy of a majority against us. We were in a minority, and of course would lie voted down without that admission. The cost of uot running that line to the Pacific may be valued thus to In Favor of Raising the price of Slaves to .$3,000 and $5,000. Virginia: — We now get a thousand dollars for a sound slave; we would then have gotten from three to five thou- sand dollars for an operative in the gold mines of Califor- nia; four hundred thousand multiplied by five thousand, or even three thousand, will show our immense loss. One bil- lion of dollars would not compensate Virginia for her loss in not running the line on to the Pacific. The North had fixed the line. They had the advantage of it until annexa- tion. It was then our turn, and we did uot take it. That was not Mr. Buchanan's fault. Had it so been fixed, "ebo shins and gizzard feet" true, couldn't have poked their noses north into the dominion of Jack Frost, but then free- soilism couldn't have poked its nose south of that line, as it has since the compromises of 1S5U. Yet, though thus pro- posed by the South and by Buchanan, the pharisees and hypocrites who are uow howling over the repeal of the Mis- souri compromise were the very men to oppose the exten- sion of the Missouri line, and to making it a fixed fact. Their reproach to Mr. Buchanan and to the South is equal- led only in injustice by the reproach which some Southern men have cast in upbraiding Mr. Buchanan for the pro- posed extension of the line to the Pacific. The generous and just Douglas has done him justice in that behalf, and has takeu upon himself his commission of participation in the act. Mr. Buchanan was equally sound on the Kansas- Nebraska bill, lie was uot a member of Congress nor of the Cabinet when that measure was proposed and passed. Sound on the Nebraska Bill. He didn't know that Mr. B. would have proposed or "intro- duced " such a measure at the time ; but it had passed ; had repealed the Missouri compromise; had returned us to utalu quo ante lbl9-2ti: it. had but followed out the compromise measure of 1850, which had already violated and doue away with the line of 1819-20; and it left us as we ought ever to have been left, to our original rights under the Constitution. His friends ol Pennsylvania, in nominating him at Harris- burg, had, excluding the idea of squatter sovereignty, adopted the principle of non-intervention by Congress to prevent or exclude slavery, and of State equality in the Territories, leaving the rights of all to be guarded by the Constitution ; and immediately upon his return home, he adopted their nomination of him, placed on this platform. This was identification enough with that measure. It was all which could fairly be asked or given by him and liis friends. In addition to this, the principle of the Kansas- Nebraska bill has been incorporated into the democratic platform by the Convention at Cincinnati, and thereon he stands, unreservedly, without " adding or taking away a single plank" of its principles. And it was well and it was wise that the democratic party asked no more than this. It was well that they did not attempt to exclude every man from pretensions to the Presidency because he did not hanj- peu to " introduce " this measure. It would have been go- ing too far to have thus secured a monopoly of pretensions for that high office to those only who happened to be mem- bers of Congress, or of the executive, at tl>e time, of the pro- posal of a particular measure. Men there were outside as well as inside the Congress and the administration who approve of the "introduction" of the measure, though the country was not consulted about its introduction; and there were many men sound on slavery who did not ap- prove of its " introduction," and yet, who would have voted for it. and would now fight against its. repeal. It would not have done, he repeated, to have made the Kansas-Nebraska •ill a hobby-horse for a privileged few, to exclude all others from the race for honors; there were other " weightier mat- ters of the law," and other modes of manifesting soundness other than upon that particular measure. As the bill was proposed and passed, as it did repeal the Missouri line and carry out the compromise of 1350, though that compromise cost us so much — as it left us where the constitution found us — the Convention did well on the one haDd to adopt the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska rae*- sure, against the hypocrites who had bitterly opposed the extension of the Missouri line to the Pacific ; and on the other hand, to exclude the conclusion that the office of the Presidency was to be exclusively occupied by those who happened to have the opportunity at a particular time to prepare, present and pass this particular measure, though some of its friends had themselves, previously, gone for the extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific, and some had gone very far, if not fully, for the Wiluiot Proviso itself. It did very well to save the Kansas-Nebraska trtB from the odium of being made a monopoly to subserve the aspirations of a special few. It did well not to exclude from the support of the South such friends as Pennsylvania and her representative man. It did well not to allow a great political principle, touching the most delicate and distract- ing of topics, to be made a stalking horse for political cliques: odium might easily have been brought upon the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and the South might have been there- by seriously injured. Mr. Buchanan was perfectly sound upon the question, and sufficiently identified with it to sa- tisfy every Southern conservative; and the Convention did wisely and well to nominate one who opposes the restoration of the Missouri compromise, nr»v that it has been repealed; and one, too, who will resist the repeal of the Kansas-No hraska bill, whether he approved of its introduction or not And the nomination of so sound and profound a statesman casts no reflection upon the rivals to whom he was prefer- red. The venerable Cass had been once before preferred te Mr. Buchanan, and had run and been defeated— not for the want of the support of Mr. Buchanan and his friends. The hopes of but very few si ill lingered, at the Cincinnati Con- vention, around his availability in this canvass. Mr. Bu- chanan was an older, if not a better soldier, than Mr. Doug- las, who is young enough to live to run another day. Let him go on, as of late years he has made his rising greatness to shine, and Virginia, al least, in due season, will delight to honor him with her vote, as she does now with her ap- proval. He deserves thanks universally from the democracy for not allowing bis name to distract the party and defeat the nomination of a man who was preferred by an over- whelming majority of democratic States, and whose nomi- nation had on more than one previous occasion been de- feated by the votes ol non-democratic States He did not understand Mr. Douglas by bis telegraphs as yielding to a majority rule, against the well-settled two-thirds rule, hot as yielding to a couviction of preference beyond controversy or dispute, which a two-thirds rule was meant to secure. This was noble, and his withdrawal will gain him as mu«h favor and as much honor as would his nomination, and hie self-sacrifice will be remembered in future. He cordially and Douglas and Pierce love Buchanan. eloquently ratifies the nomination of James Buchanan. And no less so does Franklin Pierce, the worthy and approved President of the United States. Why should he, especially, not endorse the preference of James Buchanan over him- self? Be it remembered that he is now the President of the Union, and that James Buchanan's friends nominated htm to that high office. Pennsylvania and Virginia, North Caro- lina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, in 18S2, after giving James Buchanan 34 successive ballots, withdrew his name, and they, they alone, brought forward the name of Franklin Pierce. Mr. Buchanan and his friends gave way then to him and elected him, and why should not he and bis friends hat given way to Mr. Buchanan now? One good turn deserves another, and the recorded rule of democracy is that every good man should have his turn. We condemned not Mr. Pierce as President; he has our gratitude, and we want no better President than he has made, In the main; but Mr. Buchanan will make no worse a President, and his turn had come at last, though late and long postponed to the claims of other men. That is all in the preference of James Bu- chanan over Mr. Pierce now. On the other hand, as Penn- sylvania had, in 1S52, next to Mr Buchanan preferred Mr. Pierce, I regret only that New Hampshire did not, in 1S56, next to Mr. Pierce, if not over him, prefer Mr. Buchanan. But he had said the nomination was not only due to the man, but to the State of Pennsylvania. She is one of the oldest and largest of the Old Thirteen. From ISnl, in ISna, and the war of lsl2. In the election of Monroe, through that of General Jackson, jown to this day, she has been the keystone of the federal arch and the stay and support of the democratic parly and its principles. Among, the fait hlase ever faithful, she ha« never In any great struggle faltered until her politicians and her people, of late, were surprised 12 by the secrecy of Know-Nothingism, and she has now glo- riously redeemed herself from that ambuscade. And though, bo distinguished in every great battle for the democracy and though democracy has been so often triumphant, and though so strong among the States, she has never been hon- ored until now with a candidate for the Presidency. She has been working for other States, for other men of other States, and not been allowed to name a son of her own. Pennsylvania must be cared for. How long was she to stand the " great rejected " in the Union? Did she not deserve credit for standing rejected so long? Had she ever proposed a son of hers before 1S44? and yet, from 1844 down to this hour, in 1*44, 1848, 1852, she had patieutly submitted and rallied to the democracy, and gave her strength to its cause, though repulsed and rejected, with a majority of democratic States at her back, three times in succession, and she has not thrown down her shield and buckler and retired to her tent. The fourth time now had come. She alone of all the Middle and North- eastern States stood firm for democracy ; she alone of the Northern and non-slaveholding States jtf largest federal strength and size remains true and reliable ; again she of- fered her son, who had been thrice sacrificed by non-demo- cratic States. Was he to be again defeated — she again to be rejected? Ah I we might again have nominated without Pennsylvania; but could we have elected without her united Toice of twenty-eight electoral votes?— without the only certain first class State left to democracy and the South in the North? It was not safe to reject Pennsylvania a fourth time. She is true to principle, but true alike to herself. She holds her State pride and self-respect as high as any other State, and a fourth repulse of her pretensions might have caused disaffection in her and disaster to democracy. The Convention, then, did most wisely in recognizing the claims of a State so large, so strong, so true, so faithful, and yet so long neglected and rejected. But, above all, the nomina- tion of Mr. Buchanan was best in reference to the present condition of the country. By feud and faction, the whole nation Is internally torn— fanaticism and sectionalism are distracting the people and dividing them from each other in moody separation of societies aud States and churches. The nation's genius is acting against itself at a time when we are, by no insignificant menace, threatened with causes of foreign war. Thank God, thai in ev< ry extreme trial, in every perplexity, whenever men know not what to do to save and unite us as one people, there is yet left one moun- tain of refuge I We may yet go to the shrine of George Washington 1 We may yet rely on his precept and on his example as a tower of strength, and feel safe under the shadow of his parental influence ! We may always recur to fundamental principles, and take counsel from that rich legacy of advice he left us in his ever blessed Farewell Ad- dress 1 It is so marked by wisdom, and virtue and patriot- Ism, by disinterested devotion to country, that it has never thus far been violated but in two instances ; and it is the most remarkable proof of its prescience, that the very crop of dragons' teeth we are |ow reaping as a nation, spring from those two violations. The Father of his Country told us " Never to draw a sectional geographical line." The Missouri compromise liue was drawn, and its repeal is causing the civil war in Kansas, the pious contributions for rifles by the preachers of" Christian politics" in the North, and in attempting to set up a law higher than the Constitu- tion, at the imminent risk of peace and Union. And he told us "Never to form entangling alliances with foreign na- tions." And the wretchedly conceived and executed Clay- ton-Bulwer treaty was formed, not only to bind us to forego the dominion of the Isthmus of the two Americas, at the time when the apple was beginning to ripen, and be ready to fall Into our laps, but binding us by an alliance, offensive and defensive, to forbear all intervention by ourselves and others to 6ecure to America her sovereign right of way from one side to the other of her own continent; a treaty which binds us to exclude no nation of all nations from the way, but bound us to full one-half of the risk, responsibility Buchanan will make a Slave State of Kansas. Now, as to the first of these troubles, he (Mr. Wise) under took to say that no man in this country could bring so be- nign an influence to bear as James Buchanan, no State more material aid to restore the Constitution to its reign than the State of Pennsylvania, in the present crisis. Mr Buchanan had done all a wise man could do to run tb Missouri line, by way of guarantee to North and South, b> way of final settlement of sectional controversy, to the Pacific. Against him and his friends of the South it was destroyed, in 1850, by its now professed friends, and, being repealed, he will revert to the Constitution as the only just compromise, allow no more sectional Mnes to be drawn, and fight, if he must, against destroying State equality in the Territories. He has the standard point, the position from which he may surely and safely pursue this policy, and to this policy he and his powerful State of Pennsylvania are committed. Upon this he was nominated, and when he is elected, and another non-slaveholding President, from the great tier of Middle States, shall have confirmed the doc- trines of the late messages cf Franklin Pierce, a President from the extreme North — from the Granite State of noble New Hampshire — then we may regard the doctrine and the practice as settled and sanctioned, and the South may feel safe, and the North be content to abide by the Constitution as it is. To settle this sectional strife, no man could bring so much of Northern and slave-holding strength to unite with the South in defence of the Constitution and the Union as .lames Buchanan lias brought and can bring. His name has held Pennsylvania to Virginia; his name has united the hard and the soft factions of New York, and made them make the welkin ring with one voice of ratification, shouting together at the Park of their city, the other night, in favor of his nomination. What other name has the magic of harmony in it, so to nnite factions like these ? He was iden- tified with no feud, and had healing in his wings at once to compose these strifes. Soft, winning, gentle, forbearing, he is the man to turn away wrath, and to bear ftie olive branch of peace and reconciliation wherever his brethren dissent and differ at home. And, above all men, he is the man of men to keep the peace with Great Britain, at home and abroad. Just returned from the Court of St. James, no man has had the personal contact, no man has had the per- sonal impress with a Clarendon or a British cabinet which James Buchanan has. He is, I hope, utterly opposed to a War dangerous to the Slave-breeding States. war with England. Nothing could be more disastrous to our whole country, and especially to our Southern section of it, than a war with England at this crisis. He (Mr. Wise) did not fear England. If he was to have a war, if war must come, it was more honorable to have it with a power wor- thy of our steel. No foeman was as worthy of a war with America as Great Britain. Every laurel gained in a war with her would be an honor well won, if any were won. He wished to be distinctly understood. He was no war man in peace, and no peace man in war. He loved the English nation better than any other, except his own. He loved the Anglo-Saxon race best, because it was his own race, and ho believed it was the best race of men on earth. He knew, after all that had passed between John Bull and Brother Jonathan, notwithstanding all the hard knocks given and received between them, they at heart loved each other and respected each other. He had felt this once abroad. When the Mexican war began, he had opportunities in South Am- erica to see and to feel, and he would never forget that, whilst Spaniards and Portuguese and Frenchmen were sym- pathizing with and bantering for the Mexican, and hoping and prophesying his victory over us, John Bull rammed h:a fists in his breeches pockets and gruffly stood up for Brother Jonathan. He swore, and he offered to bet, with no little bullying in his tone, that he could whip his kinsman, but nobody else could whip his brother Jonathan. If there is bad blood between John Bull and Brother Jonathan, it is all in the family— they will settle their quarrels in their own way and nobody else must interfere. Whilst he (Mr. W ise) would rather whip an Englishman than anybody else, only and expense of the guarantee of the way without a consl ion of the , . treaty between us and our ally, which we are now incurring, Great Britain virtoric-W »|**f .£"" Jowers than our before, its selves, and he desired anything else tban a war wmi tug deration, and at the hazard of the true interpretation of the | because there was more honor in H, yet tabid rattai SW treaty between us and our ally, which we are now and which may drive us all around Cape Horn solution is arrived at. This extraordinary wanton conces gion, so much in violation of the Farewell Address, was land, unless there was necessity for it, and honor requires And he undertook to say this was the feeling of our peo- made by the famous administratis of Fillmore, which pie generally > and almost "'"ve.sally an. hi here _»»'»*** claimed to be so « Washington-like throughout." It Is the with Great Britain, It would be an act Of f oily or cnm£ ^r Lain difficulty which we have to encounter in a Mttlement of a blunder worse than cr»nej«' irMcr .there >s no* xc use With Great Britain. 1 »n d can be no pardon. He meant to cas, not We lea.t e- 13 proach upon the course of the present administration. Mr. Pierce had acted prudently, cautiously, and firmly. His policy is doubtless peace, and to preserve peace he has acted firmly and decisively. But the question of peace or war ia complicated, and the issues are somewhat involved. He meant no alarm, not even to the nerves of old women, when he said that mismanagement or bad motives might bring on a war; and to prevent war, to preserve peace, nothing could have had a more pacific effect in Great Britain, at this hour, than the selection of James Buchanan, of Penn- sylvania, late Minister of the United States at. the Court of Victoria. There he was known, there his personal confer- ences had been felt, and his correspondence weighed. He is known there to be pacific and conciliatory. It is claimed there that he was already committed to an acknowledgment of satisfaction on the enlistment issue. But a question of peace or war is to be settled. The United States say to Eng- land : " You violated our territory, you forced our neu- trality, you in veded our sovereign rights by enlistment ; we complained of your agents and requested their recall. You pretended not to justify, but apologized for their acts, and yet refused to recall them. We dismiss them and send them home to you discredited. By this we mean no discourtesy to you, but to say that your servants are not tolerahle or acceptable to us. Again, on the subject of our treaty we say your interpretation is wrong, and we will not submit to it; and we recognize as a power de facto, to be treated as a sovereign, a force, the Walker-Rivas govern- ment, which has, in the face of the treaty to guarantee non- intervention, interposed on the Isthmus and assumes its jurisdiction and control." This notice is given whilst the servants of the British government are sent home — contem- poraneously — Great Britain replies: " We regret it and re- call the act, if your jurisdiction, your neutrality, or your sovereignty has been invaded by our servants. Nothing was further from our intentions, and we issued orders im- mediately to our servants to desist. Thinking them guilty yourselves, you did not, as you might have done, adjudge them so far as to sentence them to dismissal from your limits and to send them home. Had you done so without an appeal to us, we could have taken no offence. But. you ap- pealed to us to ailjudge your complaints against them and to punish them. We could not punish without trying them, and at your request we examined your complaint and their defence, and upon trial, according to the best of our judg- ment and conscience, we were compelled to find them ' not. guilty,' anil we could not punish without convicting them. You have indignantly sent them home, reversed our judg- ment, and punished them by a dismissal from your court. You say this is not meaning to be discourteous to her Ma- jesty's government, and yet, after calling on her Majesty's government to judge her servants, how could you dismiss them without contemptuously reflecting upon and acting against the judgment of her Majesty's government which yourselves called for? The disclaimer is not reconcilable with the fact of the case, nor with the respect which is claimed for a solemn decision demanded on your part to be made upon our part. Sending these servants home, dis- missing them contrary to our judgment which you called for and which we conscientiously gave, you at the same time notify us of a contention about our treaty in respect to Nicaragua. We cannot and will not yield our interpreta- tion of that treaty; but whether that interpretation be right or wrong, you bound, whether we can claim or retain pos- session or not of any part of the Isthmus or its islands, yourselves in alliance with us to guarantee against inter- vention or occupation by any other p'^er; and yet, you have recognized a power de facto, whi!;h is notoriously a filibustering power, looking to ultimate annexation to you. In view of these plain facts, we end diplomatic relations, we send Mr. Dallas home to you, and we notify you that we will carry out our interpretation of thi treaty by taking open possession immediately of the parts we claim, and that we will drive from the country the invading and filibuster- ing forces of what you have recognized as a de facto sove- reign power, called a Walker-Rivas government." Now, if messages like these should be sent and received, there would be some danger of collision. The two issues come together in conjunction, and most inopportunely do they conplicate the adjustment and double the danger. And for us, he repeated, a war with Great Britain will be most destructive and disas- trous. We have fearful issues ou the slavery question uow, and there would be a worse one then. Fifteen years ago, when he (Mr. Wise) offered a resolution in the House of Represen- tatives declaring that Congress had no power whatever over slavery in the States of the Union, that " old man eloquent," as he was called, John Quincy Adams, said: "Sir, the pro- position of the gentleman from Accomac is not true. If Congress can.it legislate, less than Congress in the Federal government may interfere with slavery in the States. Ii\g« land was compelled to treat with Cudjo in the cockpits of Jamaica, and if he could compel England to make emanci- pation a condition of peace, much more could a President and Senate, under your treaty-making power, unlimited as it is, make emancipation a condition of peace, in case of a war, to be settled with any foreign power." This warning, horrible, revolting as it is to every sense of safety and con- stitutional and national obligation, he took to his remem- brance forever. The thought, of a war with Old England at this crisis of black republicanism in New England, made him remember it with a vengeance. If we go to war we will not have the power of privateering we had in the last war. We are without the nucleus of a navy, save in merchant marine, whose bottomry and tonnage exceeds that of Great Britain. With more commerce and shipping than England to be destroyed, we have not a hundredth part of her navy, and especially of her steam navy. It is not as in the last war, when canvas, when sails were the motors on the high seas. Now steam is the substitute, and in thirty days our shipping and sailors would be shut In and shut out at every port; and sails could not cruise against steam. One steamer could protect a fleet of argosies, which no privateer could touch. The war would have to last more than one, two or three years for us to come out of it with honor. He knew that, in the long run, if war would only continue long enough, we could fight under until the nation had time to rise up and shake off its want of preparation, and exhaust its adversary and make honor- able terms. But would we have time? Would time be al- lowed us? No, he feared. New England commerce and Southern cotton and tobacco would suffer so much they would cry out for peace like frogs for rain. And this agony for peace would aid black republicanism to propose term* alike dishonorable and destructive to our property and our independence. Aye, if such a man as that pious politician, Johu McLean, of Ohio, who is the first of the bench of the Supreme Court to stain the ermine of the Judiciary by ap- peals to fanatical prejudice to make him President, shall succeed in his mad ambition, and if a Senate shall have a majority of such men as Seward and Wilson, and Wade, anil Sumner, — with a house composed of black republicans or mulattoes or Know Nothings, headed by a Banks— can we expect anything else, if there should be a war with England, than black republicanism combining with foreign English influence to make emancipation a condition of peace? Would not such arch-fiends of national distur- bance, dishonor and disgrace with a war with Old England, in order that, the abolitionists of New England might have the chance of proposing such conditions of peace? For James Buchanan he was not authorized to speak ; but he spoke his own well-assured convict. ons, when he expressed the confidence that peace would be his policy ; and if war should come, he would repel such terms and conditions of peace as he would repel the worst invaders of peace. He trusted 30 such opportunity of mischief would be afforded to internal or external foes. He trusted that James Bu- chanan would speedily restore diplomatic intercourse with Great Britain, and guard the nation from war by abrogat- ing the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. He trusted that he would guard our neutrality laws, but would never yield our inter- pretation of the treaty anil the Monroe doctrine as long as there is " a shot in the kicker " The country will gladly accept any settlement made within these limits of peace and self-protection. He is now called upon at the right time, for his conservatisms, and because especially he is safe upon our foreign relations, his nomination for the Presi- dency is most opportune, and will be most heartily ratified and sustained by the American people. The danger of foreign war and of domestic strife alike call the peaceful sage to preside over the nation. He went for the nomina- tion lastly, because it was the emphatic voice of Virginia. Buchanan the choice of the Virginia Slave-breeders. It was not the movement of him, Mr. Wise, but It was the movement of Virginia. She made it ; without her it would not have been made; and she had the right to make it. If any State could in justice claim the right to have her wishes preferred, it was Virginia, in this nomination. Just one year ago — no, not one year ago, for that wouldn't bring us to the 24th of May, lS5ft—fourteen months ago, how stood the hopes of democracy? Overwhelmed in every Northern State, many of the leaders began to cower, shuddering in the gloom of the dark lantern in the South. The "dagger and the cord," as in Germany in the time of the Vehiue Gerichte, were stealthily in the night stuck upon men's tables, as upon that of Charles the Bold; and the boldest 14 In the South bef.-an to waver — to hash and be still. Flesh wan made to creep upon one's bones — political assassina- tions near froie the blood of men, and many turned pale and skulked to the culvert for safety — some went for suc- cor Many who are amongst those now foremost in de- nouncing 9am, since Sam is down, and none so poor as to do hira reverence, were whispering eagerly the inquiry whether it was not best to yield to the Great Unknown — the Invisible Invincible! But Sam met here in Virginia the visible invincible — the Indomitable democracy of the Old Dominion. If there is anything on earth which is Invincible, it is thai glorious democracy — ever un- moved, unshaken, un terrified ! It was not him, he was but a trumpet, a horn, to wake ibe knights and steeds of Hur- Bebloun. lie but made the rotate tour to tell the men of the lowland and the mountains the danger which lurked in the citadel of their faith, and they awoke in their might. Sam was not smart — he hallooed before he was out of the woods — he boasted of his numbers — said he had seventy-three thousand enrolled— and he had : it was about the only truth he told during the canvass. That was all that was wanting. It was like a strong athletic man seeing how far the antagonist jumped; the democracy only wanted to know the required effort to be made to secure victory. The full strength of Virginia democracy is never put wholly forth — it is never required. Her majority is no test of her power. She only wants to kuow the mark of the adversary just cleanly to leap over it. Sam told us his— he didn't keep thai secret, and its telling was fatal to him. He said 73,0110, and it was beaten more than 10,000. The Legisla- ture did not count and correct the poll. It was more than 10,000. If he had said 83,000, it would have been all the •ame — 93,000 would have been beaten. Never, until he touched the mark of 103,000 voters, would he have brought Virginia democracy to a tie. Why? Because there are 2o6,00d voters in Virginia, and therefore he said 103,000. It is the half of 206,000, and anywhere within that margin, anything known to be opposed to democracy, will be beateB in Virginia. If Sam hadn't been known to be beaten on the 24th of May, 1S65, from 5,000 to 15,OtiO— it mattered not which here — the Tenth Legion would not have been done voting until the election was sure by some certain majority. So indomitable, so sure, so true to them- selves and their country are our Virginia democracy. It is here no political pastime, it is a principle and a passion wim the people. The leaders may wander off, but the mass here are their own leaders. It is not so much, so gloriously so anywhere else on earth. This Indomitable democracy of Virginia, here and nowhere else, turned back the tide of revolution — rolled defeated back upon victory, and plucked our drowning hopes up by the locks. Dope was sunk. There was no hope before the Virginia election. Sara'8 secrecy had surprised even old Pennsylvania — and there is no hope now. Hope is made up of " desire and ex- pectation." Before the Virginia election, there was the desire, but no expectation of Buccess for democracy. Now, since the Vir- ginia election and this glorious nomination, there is still the desire, but still no "expectation "—for expectation, doubt, uncertainty, is turned into a certainty, anil is swallowed up In a glorious democratic victory and triumph. Virginia re- vived hope, restored strength and certainty of success ; and she had the right to say who should be her standard-bearer — who should wear the honors and wield the power she had won. Gratefully she turned to her sister State of Pennsyl- vania. The " sour krout " democracy of Simon Snyder had always stood true to the "red waistcoat" democracy of Thomas JeflVrson — as North Carolina with ber Macon In- tegrity had always tieen the " left bower," eo Pennsylvania had always been the "right bower" of Virginia, and neither sf ber sisters had ever had a son promoted to the Presiden- cy. Pennsylvania now had the representative man, ami North Carcdina and Virginia both needed strength In the North. New York was still divided — Ohio was hopeless — the only State left to us was Pennsylvania. In '44 Virginia had voted In her delegation'in convention for James Bu- chanan; in '48 she had voted for hira; In '52 she had voted thirty-four times in succession for him, and since then there was no change in him, and no change in events, except that the reasons for his nomination multiplied — factions In his own State had died out — Cass was no longer his competitor — the South still more than ever needed to preserve all her strength of union In the Northern and non-slaveholdlivj, democracy. Pennsylvania was our fortress and triend : he< son was the man. And here, therefore, he (Mr. Wise) grate- fully thanked the delegation from Virginia at Cincinnati, for their continuous, persistent votes for sixteen ballots more. Virginia, in the two last Conventions, has given him fifty ballots combined, until he is now the nominee of the demo- cracy, with a certainty of election. If it be asked, as it wag in Raleigh, "Why did Virginia separate herself from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Missis- sippi?" the reply is that they beparated themselves from Virginia. Virginia stood where she was in 1852. She re- membered that in 1S52 Pennsylvania then separated herself from the North to join with Virginia, North Carolina, Geor- gia, Alabama and Mississippi, to make a nomination, and they — these six States— did make it, and did well to make it. Virginia did well to stand still by Pennsylvania, and she will not atop to ask why did not the Southern States remain with her in the nomination, for they will all be with her in the election. She will prove to the South how wise and how well it was, and ever will be for the whole country that Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania shall forever be united in democra- tic and patriotic triumphs. What is to prevent his election? Mr. Fillmore has accepted— accepted without reference to the chances of success or defeat. But he wanted one thing marked— he accepts expressly, not the platform of June, 1855, with a 12lh section, but the platform of February, 1S56, which expunged and ignored the 12th section, and in a letter which goes expressly for restoring the Missouri compromise. The Mulengeons of Richmond endorsed the " late Convention " at Philadelphia, too ; but will any South- ern man — a Stuart or an Imbodin even — endorse this letter fur the restoration of the Missouri Compromise? They may re-endorse returning to the purity of the times of the Gal- phins and the Gardners, and to the wisdom of a Ctayton- Bulwer treaty by a Washington-like administration through- out; but will they go for restoring the odious Missouri compromise? There was but one excuse now made for Fillmore used only to defeat the Fremoiiters. supporting a Fillmore ticket. It had been whispered to Mr. Wise that it was politic and patriotic to let Southern men in minorities, and Northern men in majorities in some Slates, if they could be got to go for it, as it would tend to divide the black republican forces. This was a monstrous patriot- ism, and more monstrous admission. Not hoping for suc- cess, just to run to hoodwink parties. They are to allow their names to be used to prevent their partisans in the North from voting the black republican ticket. Then their partisans there have, it is admitted, black republican affini- ties. If so, how came their partisans in our midst to have affinities with their partisans in the North having black re- publican affinities? This is a juggle no more respectable than that of Know-Nothingism. No 1 — The effect of run- ning a Fillmore ticket is to keep the Souib from being united to a man — that ticket will get but few men North. This proves that the ticket is a mongrel ticket — that the offspring of it is, as he had said, a mulatto, or, as he had better said, a Mulungeon ! But the South will unite on the Cincinnati nomination. It addresses itself too strongly to the respect- able old line whigs for good men not to combine for good, when bad men are combined for evil — it is too conservative for them not to rally with us to conserve the moral princi- ples which preserve suciety — the fundamental political prin- ciples which conserve the State— the hallowed rights of reli- gion which protect the purity of churches, our altars and religion themselves against the infidelity and the anti- Christ of fanaticism — our Constitution and Union, the pal- ladium of our liberty and strength, against the higher law and lower morals of sectionalism. He said that when a boy, shooting " geese, ducks and plover," along the Atlan- tic coast, he had always found " double B's " — B. B. shot — to be most effective. This is a B. B. ticket 1 Let it be called the "double B" ticket. It has not only B. for Buchanan, but B. for a son of the chief State 'of Virginia— Kentucky j'oined to Pennsylvania — Virginia's nephew and grand- child I Now, with these double B's we had only to load the democratic big gun, take aim at the butts of the wings of the leaders or watch-geese, let fly Into the flock, and at every fire we would bring down more game than we could 15 PRESTON S. BROOKS FOR BUCHANAN. Ft-om his Letter to the Buchanan Ratification Meeting at Charleston, S. C. "Mr. Buchanan was neither ray first nor second I supplemental resolutions adopted at Cincinnati, and choice for the Presidency; but, as the represents tive of a type of principles, and standing ooldlv as he does upon the Baltimore platform, upon which General Pierce was carried into power — enlarged, improved, and strengthened as it has been by the by which resolutions our principles, as practically ap- plied to the Territory of Kansas, have been re-indorsed by the American Democracy, and by their nominee — I could not be unfaithful to the man withpat treachery to the principles he representa." MR BUCHANAN APOLOGIZES FOR BROOKS. Lancaster, Thursday, July 24, 1S5C. Correspondence of the N. T. Tribune. I retnrned.here again yesterday, to attend the An- nual Commencement of Franklin and Marshal Col- legs. The Hon. James Buchanan i9 President of the Board of Trustees, and graced the occasion with his presence upon the stage. Notking occurred to mar the pleasure of any one, unless it was the oration of W. W. Davis of Sterling, Illinois, which really troubled the Bace of Wheatland. The subject was " Decline of Political Integrity." The sentiments were noble and manly, delivered in a pleasant and forcible style, worthy of maturer years. He commended the patriotism of the fathers of the Republic, and denounced the degenerate poli- tical huxters of the present day, who make all kinds of sycophantic promises to all parties and portions of the country for even a nomination by a Conven- tion, no matter how corrupt or regardless of politi- cal integrity. "So truckling in their character and destitute of moral courage and political integrity that men are found who applaud the attack of Canine Brooks upon the noble Sumner for defending Freedom." During the delivery of this sentence the whole house was still as death, and at its close it was heartily applauded. Mr. Davis finished his oration and retired from the front of the sta^e amid thunders of applause, and showers of bouquets from his lady friends. For him it was truly a triumph. But o» retiring to his seat, next to that of Mr. Buchanan, did he receive the congratulation of the sage of Wheatland? No, no. Mr. Buchanan said to him, loud enough that the whole class could hear ; "My young friend, you look upon the dark side of the picture. Mr. Sumner's speech was the most vulgar tirade of abuse ever delivered in a deliberative body." To which the young orator replied that he "hoped Mr. Buchanan did not approve of the attacks upon Mr. Sumner by Brooks aud others." To which Mr. Buchanan rejoined that " Mr. Erooks was inconsiderate, but that Senator Butler was a very mild man." Mr. Davis expressed his regret at the moderation of Mr. Buchanan's views, and dropped the conversation. After the close of the exercises, the friends of Mr. Davis related what 1 have written. Mr. Davis himself said he " did not think for a mo- ment that he was not in conversation with James Buchanan," but now learns that it was the Repre- sentative of the Cincinnati Platform he was ad- dressed by. The whole matter has caused no little gossip here in quiet old Lancaster. LETTER FROM THE HON. A. G. BROWN TO THE HON. S. R. ADAMS. The Hon. Albert G. Brown, United States Sena- tor from Mississippi, was one of the committee chosen by the Cincinnati Convention to wait on Mr. Buchanan and apprise him of his nomination. Having done so, he reports progress to his prede- cessor in the following letter : Washington Citt, Wednesday, June 18, 1S56. Mr dear Sir : I congratulate you on the nomina- tion of your favorite candidate for the Presidency. It the nomination of Mr. Buchanan was acceptable to me at first, it is still more so now, since I have seen Mm aud heard him speak. The committee of which Was one, waited on him at his residence to give him t -mal an ? official notice of his nomination, and, in the name of the National Democracy, to request his acceptance of it. We found him open, frank, and wholly undisguised in the expression of his sentiment*. Mr. Buchanan said, in the presence of all who had as- sembled, and they were from the North and the South, the East and the West, that he stood upon the Cin- cinnati Platform and indorsed every part of it. Ha was explicit in his remarks on its Slavei-yfcatwes, sott- ing, that the Slavery issue was the absorbing element m the canvass. He recognized to its fullest extent the overshadowing importance of thatissue, and if elected, he would make it the great aim of his Administration to settle the question upon such terms as should giv» peace and safety to the Union, and security to the South. He spoke in terms of decided commendation tf the Kansas Bill, and as pointedly deprecated the un- worthy sfforte of sectional agitation to get up a na» 16 tional conflagration on that question. After the pas- sage of the Compromise measures of 1850. the Kan- sas bill was, he said, necessary to harmonize our legislation in reference to the Territories, and he ex- pressed his surprise that there should appear any- where an organized opposition to the Kansas bill, after the general acquiescence which the whole country had expressed in the measures of 1850. After thus speaking of Kansas and the Slavery issues, Mr. Buchanan passed to our foreign policy. He approved in general terms of the Ciyicinnati reso- lutions on this subject. But said that while enforcing our own policy, we must at all times scrupulously re- gard the just rights and proper policy of other na- tions. He was not opposed to Territorial extension. All our acquisitions had been fairly and honorably made. Our necessities might require us to make other acquisitions. He regarded the acquisition of Cuba as very desirable now, and it was likely to become a na- tional necessity. Whenever we could obtain the Is- land on fair, honorable terms, he was for taking it. But, he added, it will be a terrible necessity that would induce me to sanction any movement that would bring reproach upon us, or tarnish the honor and glory of our beloved country. After the formal interview was over, Mr. Buchanan said playfully, but in the presence of the whole audi- ence, " If I can be instrumental in scttliyig the Slavery question upon the terms I have mentioned, and then add Cuba to the Union, I shall, if President, be milling to give up the ghost, and let Breckenridge take the Govern- ment." Could there be a more noble ambition? You may well be proud of your early choice of a candidate, and congratulate yourself that no adverse influences ever moved you an inch from your stern purpose of giving the great Pennsylvanian a steady, earnest and cordial support. In my judgment he is as worthy of Southern confidence and Southern votes as Mr. Calhoun ever was ; and in saying this I do not mean to intimate that Mr. Buchanan has any sec- tional prejudices in onr favor. I only mean to say that he has none against us, and that we may rely with absolute certainty on receiving full justice, ac- cording to the Constitution, at his hands. Knowing your long, laborious and faithful adher- ence to the fortunes of Mr. Buchanan, I have thought it proper to address you this letter to give you assur- ance that you had not mistaken your man, nor failed in the performance of a sacred and filial duty to the South. In doing so I violate no confidence. Very truly, Your friend, A. G. Browm. To the Hon. S. R. Adams. REPUBLICAN DOCUMENTS NOW READY. LIFE OF COLONEL FREMONT. An original and authentic Biography of the People's Candidate for President, prepared ex- pressly and with great care for The Tribune Office, is now ready. It is condensed into a pamphlet of 32 large octavo pages, on good type, with spirited illustrations. Price per dozen, $ 40 Price per huudred, . . • • 2 60 Price per thousand, . . . . 20 00 A German Edition of the above is now ready, tame price. HON. CHARLES SUMNER'S SPEECH in the Senate, on Kansas Affairs— 32 pages. Price per dozen, $ 40 Price per hundred, . • • 2 50 Price per thousand, . . . .20 00 THE REPORT OF THE KANSAS INVESTIGAT- ING COMMITTEE; Submitted on Tuesday, the 1st Inst., by the Hon. Messrs Howard of Mich, and Sherman of Ohio, with 2,500 pages of evidence, the fruit of three months' faithful labor in Kansas. Price per single copy, . . . $ 04 Price per dozen, 40 Price per hundred, .... 250 Price per thousand, . . . • 20 00 BORDER RUFFIAN CODE IN KANSAS is now teady— 16 large octavo pages. Price per dozen $ 20 Price per hundred, . • . . 1 25 Price r>er thousand 10 00 GOVERNOR SEWARD'S SPEECH on the I-nmediate Admission of Kansas, is now ready— 16 large octavo page*. Price per dozen, $ 20 Price per hundred, . . • • 1 26 Price per thousand, . . • • 10 00 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX'S SPEECH on the "Laws'* of Kansas, 16 octavo pages, same price as the above. JAMES BUCHANAN, HIS DOCTRINES AND POLICY, as exhibited by himself and his frienda. 16 octa- I vo pages, same price as above. Orders enclosing the cash are respectfully solicited. GREELEY & McELRATH, Tribune Office, New Yobk. U BRABV OFC ONGBESS PlllPW 001 1 897 903 5 % 1«Ur, 0fy ^^^cs^ Era >r' :A^ ! %^*^ ; 5? ; 2#3ffif *J*3 ■'