Part 12

_Resolved_, That, in the judgment of this convention, Congress has no more power to make a slave than to make a king; no more power to institute or establish slavery than to institute or establish a monarchy. No such power can be found among those specifically conferred by the Constitution, or derived by any just implication from them.

_Resolved_, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence or continuance of slavery wherever the Government possesses constitutional authority to legislate on that subject, and is thus responsible for its existence.

_Resolved_, That the true and, in the judgment of this convention, the only safe means of preventing the extension of slavery into territory now free is to prohibit its existence in all such territory by an act of Congress.

_Resolved_, That we accept the issue which the slave power has forced upon us; and to their demand for more Slave States and more slave territory, our calm but final answer is, no more Slave States and no more slave territory. Let the soil of our extensive domains be ever kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land, and the oppressed and banished of other lands, seeking homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in the New World.

_Resolved_, That the bill lately reported by the committee of eight in the Senate of the United States was no compromise, but an absolute surrender of the rights of the non-slaveholders of all the States; and while we rejoice to know that a measure which, while opening the door for the introduction of slavery into territories now free, would also have opened the door to litigation and strife among the future inhabitants thereof, to the ruin of their peace and prosperity, was defeated in the House of Representatives, its passage, in hot haste, by a majority embracing several Senators who voted in open violation of the known will of their constituents, should warn the people to see to it that their representatives be not suffered to betray them. There must be no more compromises with slavery; if made, they must be repealed.

_Resolved_, That we demand freedom and established institutions for our brethren in Oregon, now exposed to hardships, peril, and massacre by the reckless hostility of the slave power to the establishment of free government for free territory, and not only for them, but for our new brethren in New Mexico and California.

_And whereas_, It is due not only to this occasion, but to the whole people of the United States, that we should declare ourselves on certain other questions of national policy; therefore,

_Resolved_, That we demand cheap postage for the people; a retrenchment of the expenses and patronage of the Federal Government; the abolition of all unnecessary offices and salaries; and the election by the people of all civil officers in the service of the Government, so far as the same may be practicable.

_Resolved_, That river and harbor improvements, whenever demanded by the safety and convenience of commerce with foreign nations, or among the several States, are objects of national concern; and that it is the duty of Congress, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to provide therefor.

_Resolved_, That the free grant to actual settlers, in consideration of the expenses they incur in making settlements in the wilderness, which are usually fully equal to their actual cost, and of the public benefits resulting therefrom, of reasonable portions of the public lands, under suitable limitations, is a wise and just measure of public policy which will promote, in various ways, the interests of all the States of this Union; and we therefore recommend it to the favorable consideration of the American people.

_Resolved_, That the obligations of honor and patriotism require the earliest practicable payment of the national debt; and we are, therefore, in favor of such a tariff of duties as will raise revenue adequate to defray the necessary expenses of the Federal Government, and to pay annual instalments of our debt, and the interest thereon.

_Resolved_, That we inscribe on our banner, “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men,” and under it will fight on, and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions.

The Presidential contest of 1848 for the first time presented the Native American party in the field with national candidates. It had its origin chiefly from the Philadelphia riots of 1844, resulting from a bitter feud between the Catholics and Protestants in the uptown river districts of Philadelphia. The organization of the Native American party immediately followed in Philadelphia, with opposition to Catholics and foreigners as its faith, and for nearly a decade it held the balance of power between the Whigs and Democrats in that city, and several times elected members of Congress. A like party was organized in New York, and attained some local success in that city. The national convention of the Native Americans was held in Philadelphia in September, 1847, and while it did not make a formal nomination, it recommended General Taylor for President and chose Henry A. S. Dearborn, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. The party was unknown and unfelt in the contest, although it aided somewhat in giving the electoral vote of Pennsylvania to Taylor.

In November, 1847, the Liberty party, that had twice nominated and ran Birney as its candidate for President, met at New York and nominated John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for President, and Leicester King, of Ohio, for Vice-President. When the Free-Soil Democracy developed huge proportions and nominated Van Buren, the old Abolition party was entirely absorbed in the Free-Soil organization. The Liberty League, made up of a small number of the more radical Abolitionists, held a meeting at Rochester on the 2d of June, 1848, and nominated Gerrit Smith, of New York, for President, and Rev. Charles E. Foote, of Michigan, for Vice-President; and what was called the Industrial Congress, made up of a handful of labor agitators, met at Philadelphia on the 13th of June, 1848, and nominated Gerrit Smith for President and William S. Waitt, of Illinois, for Vice-President. Neither the Hale Abolition party, the Liberty League Abolition party, nor the Industrial Congress party presented any electoral tickets of which I have been able to find any record. The canvass was a very earnest one, and the Whigs steadily grew in confidence as it progressed, while the Democrats were threatened on every side with disaster.

Pennsylvania broke from her Democratic moorings at the October election, when William F. Johnson, Whig, was elected Governor by 305 majority, and generally the preliminary elections were favorable to the Whigs. There were then thirty States, as Florida had come in March 3, 1845; Texas, December 29, 1845; Iowa, December 28, 1846, and Wisconsin, May 29, 1848, and the Presidential electors were then for the first time all chosen on the same day, with the single exception of Massachusetts. Van Buren did not carry a State, but he gave Taylor an easy triumph by the large Democratic defection he caused in the pivotal States. The following table exhibits the popular and electoral votes as declared by Congress:

══════════════════╤════════════════════════════════════╦════════════════ │ POPULAR VOTE. ║ ELECTORS. ├───────────┬───────────┬────────────╫───────┬──────── STATES. │ Zachary │Lewis Cass,│ Martin Van ║Taylor.│ Cass. │Taylor, La.│ Mich. │Buren, N. Y.║ │ ──────────────────┼───────────┼───────────┼────────────╫───────┼──────── Maine │ 35,125 │ 39,880 │ 12,096 ║ ―― │ 9 New Hampshire │ 14,781 │ 27,763 │ 7,560 ║ ―― │ 6 Vermont │ 23,122 │ 10,948 │ 13,837 ║ 6 │ ―― Massachusetts │ 61,070 │ 35,281 │ 38,058 ║ 12 │ ―― Rhode Island │ 6,779 │ 3,646 │ 730 ║ 4 │ ―― Connecticut │ 30,314 │ 27,046 │ 5,005 ║ 6 │ ―― New York │ 218,603 │ 114,318 │ 120,510 ║ 36 │ ―― New Jersey │ 40,015 │ 36,901 │ 829 ║ 7 │ ―― Pennsylvania │ 185,513 │ 171,176 │ 11,263 ║ 26 │ ―― Delaware │ 6,421 │ 5,898 │ 80 ║ 3 │ ―― Maryland │ 37,702 │ 34,528 │ 125 ║ 8 │ ―― Virginia │ 45,124 │ 46,586 │ 9 ║ ―― │ 17 North Carolina │ 43,550 │ 34,869 │ ―――― ║ 11 │ ―― South Carolina[13]│ ―――― │ ―――― │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 9 Georgia │ 47,544 │ 44,802 │ ―――― ║ 10 │ ―― Alabama │ 30,482 │ 31,363 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 9 Florida │ 3,116 │ 1,847 │ ―――― ║ 3 │ ―― Mississippi │ 25,922 │ 26,537 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 6 Louisiana │ 18,217 │ 15,370 │ ―――― ║ 6 │ ―― Texas │ 4,509 │ 10,668 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 4 Arkansas │ 7,588 │ 9,300 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 3 Missouri │ 32,671 │ 40,077 │ ―――― ║ ―― │ 7 Tennessee │ 64,705 │ 58,419 │ ―――― ║ 13 │ ―― Kentucky │ 67,141 │ 49,720 │ ―――― ║ 12 │ ―― Ohio │ 138,360 │ 154,775 │ 35,354 ║ ―― │ 23 Michigan │ 23,940 │ 30,687 │ 10,389 ║ ―― │ 5 Indiana │ 69,907 │ 74,745 │ 8,100 ║ ―― │ 12 Illinois │ 53,047 │ 56,300 │ 15,774 ║ ―― │ 9 Wisconsin │ 13,747 │ 15,001 │ 10,418 ║ ―― │ 4 Iowa │ 11,084 │ 12,093 │ 1,126 ║ ―― │ 4 ├───────────┼───────────┼────────────╫───────┼──────── Totals │ 1,360,099 │ 1,220,544 │ 291,263 ║ 163 │ 127 ══════════════════╧═══════════╧═══════════╧════════════╩═══════╧════════

[13] By Legislature.

All parties made earnest efforts to control the popular branch of Congress, and national interest naturally centred in the Wilmot district of Pennsylvania, as he was the author of the Wilmot Proviso, that was the fountain of the slavery dispute. He had been twice elected to Congress in what was then a strong Democratic district, composed of Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga, but which have been among the strongest Republican counties in the State since the organization of that party. The district had given over 2000 majority for Polk against Clay, and although Wilmot was the only member of Congress from Pennsylvania who voted for the tariff of 1846, he was re-elected in the fall of that year by a decided majority.

When Van Buren was nominated, Wilmot openly declared himself as a Free-Soil Democrat, but he received the regular Democratic nomination for Congress in his district. The Cass pro-slavery Democrats bolted and nominated Jonah Brewster as a Simon-pure Democrat, and the Whigs nominated Henry W. Tracy, confidently expecting to elect him. Wilmot was triumphantly elected, receiving 8597 votes to 4795 for Tracy, Whig, and 922 for Brewster, Cass Democrat. He also nearly evenly divided the Democratic vote of Bradford and Tioga between Cass and Van Buren, giving Taylor a large plurality over Cass in the district.

While the Wilmot Free-Soil Democrats bolted on the Democratic national ticket, they generally supported Morris Longstreth, the Democratic candidate for Governor, who was defeated by Johnson in October by 305 majority. The re-election of Wilmot in one of the strong Democratic districts of Pennsylvania greatly strengthened the antislavery cause throughout the country. He and his followers fell back into the regular Democratic line in 1852 in support of Pierce, and they finally severed their relations with the Democratic party in 1854, provoked by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and in 1856 they carried the Northern counties of the State by large majorities for Fremont.

Cass carried every State west of the Pennsylvania line, including Ohio, where the antislavery sentiment of the Western Reserve was unwilling to accept a large slaveholder as a candidate for President. Corwin, the most brilliant and impressive of the stump-speakers of that day, made desperate efforts to save the State, but Van Buren received over 35,000 votes, and Cass won the electors by a plurality of over 16,000. I once heard Corwin in his inimitable way tell the story of that campaign. The people of Ohio in that day were taught their politics by mass-meetings, and any one of the audience was entirely at liberty to interrogate the speaker. Corwin, in his plausible and fascinating way, was trying to explain how the antislavery cause would be best served by electing a slaveholder President, when a tall, lank countryman, sitting on the fence, put a very pointed question to him, that he felt unable to answer. He tried to meet it in a humorous way, but only aroused his interrogator to make a more pointed inquiry of him, that Corwin could not answer. He was one of the few orators who could convulse an audience with his superb humor, and his facial expression was at times even more mirth provoking than his language. The question involved the negro issue, and Corwin had an unusually swarthy complexion, and he unhorsed his inquirer by saying to his audience with an expression that powerfully accentuated his remark: “I submit, fellow-citizens, whether it is proper to put such a question to a man of my complexion,” and the dispute ended in boisterous laughter and cheers for Corwin. The Whigs won easy victories in all the debatable States of the South; and General Taylor came to the Presidency knowing less about how his election had been accomplished than any man who had ever been called to the Chief Magistracy of the Republic. Thus was Martin Van Buren avenged for the Southern betrayal of 1844.

THE PIERCE-SCOTT CONTEST

1852

While the Whigs were apprehensive as to General Taylor’s fidelity to an aggressive Whig policy both before and after his election, when he came to the selection of his Cabinet he quieted all doubts by appointing a positive Whig Cabinet, with John M. Clayton, one of the ablest of the Whig leaders of that day and an eminently practical politician, to the Premiership. Taylor had little fitness for responsible civil duties, and charged his Cabinet, that was made up of eminently able men, with the administration of their different departments. The slavery question was uppermost in the politics of the day, and the Taylor Cabinet finally decided upon a policy to solve the delicate problem by admitting none of the newly acquired Mexican possessions as Territories, but leaving the question of slavery to be determined by themselves when they came to admission as States.

[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE]

This policy was antagonized by the ultra antislavery people, who wanted the distinct prohibition of slavery in Territorial organizations, and also by the extreme slavery Whigs, who desired them admitted as Territories without any expression on slavery, believing that slaves could be taken into any Territory south of the Missouri Compromise line unless prohibited by the organic law. Clay had returned to the Senate, and being neither more nor less than human, he had little inclination to harmonize with an accidental Whig President who filled the position to which Clay felt he was justly entitled. As opposed to the policy of the President, Clay came in as pacificator and proposed what then became known, and what have since been known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. It is doubtful whether either the administration or the Clay Compromise policy could have been successful had the President lived. Certainly the Compromise bill would have failed, but it is uncertain whether the administration could have wielded sufficient power to carry its policy through Congress. Its policy was a negative one, postponing the slave issue in the new acquisitions until the people could act in their sovereign capacity in the creation of States.

President Taylor died July 9, 1850, and Millard Fillmore became President by virtue of his office as Vice-President. Taylor’s death changed the political purposes of the administration in the earnest struggle then in Congress to meet the question of slavery in the newly acquired territory. Fillmore, like nearly all Vice-Presidents, was not in harmony with the President, and when he became President himself he reversed the policy of the administration.

It was on this issue that Webster wrecked himself. He was in the confidence of the Taylor administration, and was chosen to be the champion of its policy for meeting the slavery issue in the Territories. He personally conferred with the Cabinet forty-eight hours before he delivered his memorable seventh-of-March speech, in which he cast his lot with Clay and the pro-slavery wing of the party, and neither the President nor any Cabinet officer had any notice of his purpose to change until they were astounded by hearing the views he expressed in his speech. William M. Meredith, of Philadelphia, was then Secretary of the Treasury, and he was so much offended by what he regarded as Webster’s perfidy that he never spoke to him thereafter.

Fillmore was the second Vice-President who had succeeded to the Presidency by the death of the President, and, like Tyler, he reversed the policy of the party, and estranged the Whigs of the North very generally from him. After he became President the Compromise Measures were revived, and Clay made the last great battle of his life as pacificator. With the power of the administration added, the Clay Compromise Measures passed both branches of Congress, and were promptly approved by the President. They declared, first, against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; second, in favor of the admission of California as a Free State; third, in favor of a severely stringent Fugitive Slave law; fourth, for the payment to Texas of $10,000,000 for yielding her claims to New Mexico, and fifth, in favor of the admission of Utah and New Mexico as Territories without restrictions as to slavery.

The passage of the Compromise Measures practically united the Democratic party, as the friends of slavery extension had won a substantial triumph, and the Democrats of the North were generally in harmony with that policy, but it greatly weakened the Whigs in the North without strengthening them in the South, and Fillmore, and Webster, then Secretary of State, became rival candidates for the Whig nomination, while the anti-Compromise or antislavery element of the Whigs united on General Scott.

When the Democratic National Convention met at Baltimore, June 1, 1852, the leaders were entirely confident of electing their candidates. John W. Davis, of Indiana, was made President, and the two-thirds rule reaffirmed. The sessions of the convention were protracted, lasting six days, but there was little angry dispute as to either candidates or measures. There were 49 ballots for President, Cass and Buchanan being the leading competitors at the start. The Virginia delegation, that was always potential in Democratic conventions, had become weary of the hopeless contest between the candidates, and on the 35th ballot cast a solid vote for Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, whose name had not up to that time been before the convention. The friends of Cass made an earnest rally, but were unable to concentrate sufficient strength to approach the two-thirds vote, and Marcy finally loomed up as the leading competitor of Pierce. The following table gives the detail vote on each ballot: