Chapter I (1)

1848-1852.

PURCHASE OF WHEATLAND—NOMINATION AND ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR—HIS
DEATH AND THE ACCESSION OF PRESIDENT FILLMORE—THE COMPROMISE
MEASURES OF 1850—LETTERS TO MISS LANE—PUBLIC LETTERS ON POLITICAL
TOPICS.

At the distance of a little more than a mile from that part of the city of Lancaster where Mr. Buchanan had lived for many years, and a little beyond the corporate limits, there had long stood a substantial brick mansion on a small estate of twenty-two acres known as Wheatland, and sometimes called “The Wheatlands.” The house, although not imposing, or indeed of any architectural beauty, was nevertheless a sort of _beau ideal_ of a statesman’s abode, with ample room and verge for all the wants of a moderate establishment. Without and within, the place has an air of comfort, respectability, and repose. It had been for some years owned and occupied as a summer residence by the Hon. Wm. M. Meredith of Philadelphia, a very eminent lawyer, who became Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Taylor. The house stands about half way up a gently rising ground, and has a wide lawn stretching down to the county road, shaded by oaks, elms, and larches, interspersed with evergreens. The view from the front of the house, looking to the west of north, ranges over a broad expanse of the county of Lancaster, one of the richest of Pennsylvania’s lovely domains, spread out in a map of highly cultivated farms, and dotted by the homesteads of a wealthy agricultural population. Behind the house stands a noble wood, which is reached through the gardens; and from the crown of the hill, in a southerly direction, the eye ranges over another fine valley of smaller extent. Coolness and peace pervade this attractive old place, and it is not singular that a man of Mr. Buchanan’s habits and temperament, who could not afford time and had no strong tastes for large pursuits of agriculture, should have coveted this his neighbor’s dwelling.

But he did not break the commandment in seeking it. A treaty between two persons for the purchase of an estate is not ordinarily a matter of much interest. But this one was conducted in a manner so honorable to both parties that a few words may be given to it. The buyer and the seller had always been on opposite political sides; but they were friends, and they were gentlemen. In the month of June, 1848, Mr. Buchanan, having heard that Mr. Meredith wished to sell this property, addressed to him the following letter:

[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.]

WASHINGTON, June 12, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR:

I have received an intimation from our friends Fordney and Reynolds
that you are willing to sell the Wheatlands, for the price which you
gave Mr. Potter for them. As I intend, in any event, to retire from
public life on the 4th of March next, I should be pleased to become
the purchaser. The terms of payment I could make agreeable to
yourself; and I should be glad if you would retain the possession
until the autumn. In making this offer, I desire to purchase from you
just what you purchased from Mr. Potter, and to pay you the same price
which you paid him. If I have been misinformed in regard to your
desire to sell, I know you will pardon this intrusion.

Yours, very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

To this letter Mr. Meredith replied as follows:

[MR. MEREDITH TO MR. BUCHANAN.]

PHILADELPHIA, June 19, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR:—

On my return home a day or two since I had the pleasure of finding
your letter. A month ago, I should probably have accepted your offer,
as I had then an opportunity of securing a place in this neighborhood
that would have suited me better in point of proximity than Wheatland.
I have missed that, and it is now too late to make new arrangements
for my family for the summer. I should not like to occupy the place
after having sold it, for several reasons, and principally because the
certainty of leaving it would tend to render the children
uncomfortable through the season. These little people are imaginative
and live very much on the future, and it would scarcely do to destroy
all their little plans, and schemes, and expectations connected with
the place at the very commencement of their holidays. I will
therefore, with your permission, postpone the subject to the autumn,
when, if I should be disposed to part with the place, I will do myself
the pleasure of writing to you. Of course your offer does not stand
over; but I will certainly make no disposition of the property without
first offering it to you.

With great esteem, I am, sir, yours most respectfully,
W. M. MEREDITH.

In the autumn, Mr. Buchanan again wrote:

[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.]

WASHINGTON, September 25, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR:—

Upon my return to this city, on Saturday night, I found your letter to
Mr. Fordney kindly offering to dispose of Wheatland, including all
that you bought from Mr. Potter, to myself at the price you paid, and
the matting in the house at a valuation. I accept this proposition,
and you may consider the bargain closed.

Of the purchase-money I can conveniently pay $1750 at present, and the
remainder on or before the first of January. If, however, you should
need it sooner, I can procure it without much difficulty.

You can make the deed when you think proper, and the affair of the
matting may be arranged at any time.

With many thanks for your kindness,
I remain yours very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

In the succeeding month of November, the following letters passed between the two gentlemen:

[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. MEREDITH.]

(Private.) LANCASTER, November 21, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR:—

I have seen Mr. Fordney since I came here, who read me a part of your
second letter. From this I infer that you regret you had parted with
Wheatland. Now, my dear sir, if you have the least inclination to
retain it, speak the word and our bargain shall be as if it never had
been. It will not put me to the least inconvenience, as I have an
excellent house in Lancaster. Indeed I feel a personal interest in
having you in the midst of our society; and if you should retain
Wheatland, I know that after you shall be satisfied with fame and
fortune, you will make this beautiful residence your place of
permanent abode.

Please to address me at Paradise P. O., Lancaster county, as I shall
be at my brother’s, near that place, to-morrow evening, where I shall
remain until Thursday evening.

From your friend, very respectfully,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[MR. MEREDITH TO MR. BUCHANAN.]

PHILADELPHIA, November 23, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR:—

Your very kind letter was received yesterday, just as I was going to
court in the morning, where I was kept without dinner till near six. I
was then obliged to attend an evening engagement at seven. I mention
these details to excuse myself for the apparent want of promptness in
replying. I have in the first place to express to you my deep sense of
the courtesy and consideration which induced you to make me the offer
which your letter contains. I cannot accept it, because to do so would
be to take advantage of your friendly impulses, which I ought not and
cannot do. I have no doubt I shall find a place somewhere in the same
county, and hope to call neighbors with you yet. I need not say how
much I regret that Mr. Fordney should have been so indiscreet as to
communicate my letter to you.

My furniture, etc., is now removed, and I will deliver possession at
once, and I wish you heartily, my dear sir, many years of happiness
there.

I am, always your obliged friend and servant,
W. M. MEREDITH.

In December the purchase-money was paid and the deed of the property was executed by Mr. Meredith. Mr. Buchanan soon afterwards transferred his household goods to Wheatland, and from that time until his death it was his permanent abode, when he did not occupy some official residence in Washington or in London. He removed to Wheatland the furniture which he had hitherto used in Washington and Lancaster, and made some new purchases. The style of everything was solid, comfortable, and dignified, without any show. The library was in the eastern wing of the house, and was entered by a hall running transversely from the main hall, which extended through the house from east and west, and was also entered from the principal parlor. At the window of the library farthest from the main hall was Mr. Buchanan’s accustomed seat. Long years of honorable public service, however, and sore trials, are to be traced, before we reach the period when he finally retired to the repose of this peaceful retreat. He left office on the 4th of March, 1849, with a fixed purpose not to re-enter public life. But although he held no public position during the four years of General Taylor’s and Mr. Fillmore’s term, he could not avoid taking an active interest in public affairs; and it will be seen that he was not at liberty to decline all public service when his party in 1853 again came into power.

But it is now necessary to revert to the spring and summer of 1848, and to the state of things consequent upon the treaty which had been concluded with Mexico. The great acquisitions of territory made by the annexation of Texas, and the cession of New Mexico and California to the United States, had opened questions on which the Democratic and the Whig parties occupied very different positions. The acquisition of these countries was a Democratic measure; and had that party retained its control of the Federal Government, it is probable that its Northern and its Southern branches would have united upon some plan for disposing of the question of slavery in these new regions. The Whigs, on the other hand, although constituting the opposition, and as such acting against the administration of Mr. Polk and its measures, were far from being unanimous in their resistance to the treaty which Mr. Polk proposed to make with Mexico. There were very eminent Whigs who were opposed to all acquisitions of new territory, for various reasons, and especially because of the tendency of such acquisitions to re-open questions about slavery. There were other very prominent men in the Whig party who were willing to have New Mexico and California added to the Union, and to trust to the chances of a harmonious settlement of all questions that might follow in regard to the organization of governments for those extensive regions. It may not only now be seen, but it was apparent to thoughtful observers at the time, that the true course for the Whig party to pursue, was to adopt as its candidate for the Presidency some one of its most eminent and experienced statesmen, who would represent a definite policy on this whole subject, either by an application of the so-called “Wilmot Proviso,” or what was far better, considering the sectional feelings involved, by an extension to the Pacific Ocean of the Missouri Compromise line of division between free and slave territory. But there came about in the winter of 1848 one of those states of popular feeling, in which the people of this country have sometimes taken it for granted that military success, united with certain traits of character, is a good ground for assuming fitness of an individual for the highest civil station. Along with this somewhat hazardous assumption there runs at such times the vague and scarcely expressed idea that the Presidency of the United States is to be treated as a reward for distinguished military services. After General Taylor’s return from his Mexican campaign, in which a series of brilliant victories were gained, on each occasion with a force numerically inferior to that of the enemy, he became at once a sort of popular idol. There were a good many elements in his personal character, which entitled him to strong esteem, and some which easily account for his sudden popularity. He had a blunt honesty and sincerity of purpose, which were backed by great strength of will, and prodigious energy as a warrior. The appellation of “Old Rough and Ready,” bestowed on him by his soldiers, went straight to the popular heart. These indications of what has been called “availability” in the political nomenclature which has acquired a peculiar significance, were not lost upon that class of Whig politicians who were most disposed to be on the lookout for such means of political success. General Taylor, although never a politician, and although, from his military life, he had rarely even voted at elections, was known to be a Whig, but, as he described himself, not an “Ultra Whig.” He was at no pains to seek a nomination for the Presidency, but it was pretty well known that if it came to him unsought, he would accept it. At the same time, with the modesty and sincerity that belonged to his honest nature, he did not affect to conceal his own distrust of his fitness for the office. It was, with him, a matter which the people of the country were to decide. If they chose to call him to the office, he would discharge its duties to the best of his ability. The sagacity of that portion of the Whigs who expected to win a political victory with such a candidate, was not at fault. When the Whig national convention, which was to make the nomination, assembled at Philadelphia in June, (1848), it was found that both Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were to be disregarded; and on the fourth ballotting General Taylor received 171 votes out of 279. It is a remarkable fact, that although this nomination was made by a national convention of all the Whigs, several attempts to have it declared by resolution that it must be accepted as a “Whig” nomination, and to declare what the principles of the Whig party were, were voted down. One proposal was to have it declared that Whig principles were “no extension of slavery—no acquisition of foreign territory—protection to American industry, and opposition to executive usurpation.” But singularly enough, these propositions were ruled to be out of order: and although the nomination of Millard Fillmore of New York, as Vice President, might seem to give the whole proceeding a Whig aspect, Mr. Fillmore’s name, unconnected with any annunciation of a distinctive Whig policy, to be upheld in the election, could do nothing more than to acquire for the “ticket” such weight as his personal character, not then very extensively known, could give to it. It was plain enough, therefore, that the election of General Taylor as President, if it should occur, would settle nothing in regard to the very serious questions that were already resulting from the Mexican war.

It was this step on the part of the Whigs—nominating a candidate without any declared policy—that entailed upon that party, at the beginning of General Taylor’s administration, the most embarrassing questions, and increased the danger of the formation of a third party, on the subject of slavery, whose sphere of operations would be confined to the Northern States, and which might, for the first time in our political history, lead to a sectional division between the North and the South.

On the other hand, the Democratic party had to nominate a candidate for the Presidency who, besides being of sufficient consideration throughout the country to counteract the popular _furore_ about General Taylor, would represent some distinctive policy in regard to the new territories and the questions growing out of their acquisition. The friends of General Cass, who, although he wore a military title, was not in the category of military heroes, claimed that his party services and public position entitled him to the nomination. Mr. Buchanan was by far the fittest candidate whom the Democrats could have adopted; but he had made it a rule not to press his claims upon the consideration of his party, at the risk of impairing its harmony and efficiency. He had adhered to this rule on more than one previous occasion, and he did not now depart from it. General Cass was nominated by the Democratic Convention, and along with the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, W. O. Butler of Kentucky, he was vigorously supported in the canvass by Mr. Buchanan.[1] But the Whig candidates, Taylor and Fillmore, received one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes, being seventeen more than were necessary to a choice. General Taylor was inaugurated as President on the 4th of March, 1849. Although he was a citizen of Louisiana and a slaveholder, he had received the electoral votes of the free States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These, with the votes of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida, had elected him. All the other States had been obtained for the Democratic candidates; for although the Northern Whigs who were dissatisfied with such a candidate as General Taylor, and who had begun to call themselves “Conscience Whigs,” together with a faction of the Northern Democracy known as “barn-burners” had put in nomination Ex-President Van Buren of New York and Mr. Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts, this singularly combined party did not obtain the electoral vote of a single State.

Footnote 1:

The “platform” of the Democratic party contained the following
resolution: “That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, to
interfere with, or control the domestic institutions of the several
States; and that such States are the sole and proper judges of
everything pertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the
Constitution; that all efforts, by abolitionists or others, made to
induce Congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take
incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the
most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts
have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people
and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not
to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions.”
Excepting in an indirect manner, this resolution did not enunciate any
specific policy in regard to the newly acquired territories.

While General Taylor, therefore, entered upon the administration of the Government under circumstances which indicated much popular strength, the situation of the country, and his want of the higher qualities of statesmanship and civil experience, were not favorable to his success as a President of the United States. His cabinet, moreover, was not, comparatively speaking, a strong one. The Secretary of State, the Hon. John M. Clayton of Delaware, was scarcely the equal of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Buchanan, his immediate predecessors; and his negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was one of the most unfortunate occurrences in our diplomatic history. The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Meredith, was simply an accomplished lawyer and a most estimable gentleman. The Attorney-General, the Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Baltimore, was a very eminent advocate in the Supreme Court of the United States, but not a wise and far-seeing statesman. The ablest man in the cabinet, intellectually, was the Hon. Thomas Ewing of Ohio. The other Secretaries were not men of much renown or force. When this administration took charge of the executive department of the Government, a session of Congress was not to commence until December, 1849. At that session, California, which had adopted a State constitution and one that prohibited slavery, demanded admission into the Union as a free State. New Mexico and Utah required the organization of territorial governments. The whole South was in a state of sensitiveness in regard to these matters, and also in regard to the escape of slaves into free territory and to the growing unwillingness of many of the people of the Northern States to have executed that provision of the Constitution which required the surrender of fugitives from service. General Taylor’s policy on these dangerous subjects was not a statesman-like or a practicable one. In his annual message (December, 1849), he recommended the admission of California as a State; but he proposed that the other Territories should be left as they were until they had formed State governments and had applied for admission into the Union. Practically, this would have involved the necessity for governing those regions largely by military power; for the peace must be kept between the inhabitants of Texas and the inhabitants of New Mexico, and between the United States and Texas, in reference to her boundaries. In the opposite sections of the Union popular feeling was rising to a point of great excitement. In the North, the “Wilmot Proviso” was most insisted upon. In the South, this was resented as an indignity. By the end of January, 1850, the angry discussion of these subjects in Congress had obstructed almost all public business, and this excitement pervaded the legislative bodies of the States and the whole press of both sections. It seemed as if harmony and judicious legislation were impossible.

It was at this extraordinary juncture that Mr. Clay came forward in the Senate with his celebrated propositions which became known as the “Compromise Measures of 1850.”[2] The discussion of these measures went on until the 9th of July (1850), on which day General Taylor died, after a short illness. His policy was characterized by Mr. Webster as marked by the foresight of a soldier, but not by the foresight of a statesman. It was attended with the danger of a collision between the United States and Texas, which might have led to a civil war. Mr. Fillmore, however, who as Vice-President succeeded to General Taylor, and who was sworn into office as President on the 10th of July, was a civilian and was not without experience as a public man, although not hitherto very conspicuous. Mr. Webster, Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun[3] had all strenuously advocated the Compromise Measures. A particular description of this great settlement must be deferred to a future chapter. But in order that these measures might receive their consummation, a reconstruction of the cabinet became necessary. All of the Secretaries appointed by General Taylor resigned. The State Department was offered to and accepted by Mr. Webster. Thomas Corwin of Ohio became Secretary of the Treasury; Charles M. Conrad of Louisiana, Secretary of War; William A. Graham of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy; Nathan K. Hall of New York, Postmaster-General; John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Attorney-General; and Alexander H. H. Stuart of Virginia, Secretary of the Interior. Thus a new Whig administration, pledged to the pacification of the country by a policy very different from that of General Taylor, came into the Executive Department. The Compromise Measures became laws before the adjournment of Congress, which occurred on the 30th of September; and then came the question whether they were to be efficacious in quieting the sectional controversies about slavery, and were to be acquiesced in by the North and the South. Mr. Buchanan, although not in official life, in common with many other patriotic men of both the principal parties, lent all his influence to the support of this great settlement. In November, 1850, he had to address a letter to a public meeting in Philadelphia, called to sustain the Compromise Measures, in which he said:

Footnote 2:

Introduced in the Senate, January 29th, 1850.

Footnote 3:

Mr. Calhoun died at Washington on the last day of March, 1850, at the
age of 68.

[LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING.]

“WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, Nov. 19, 1850.

. . . . . . . .

I now say that the platform of our blessed Union is strong enough and
broad enough to sustain all true-hearted Americans. It is an
elevated—it is a glorious platform on which the down-trodden nations
of the earth gaze with hope and desire, with admiration and
astonishment. Our Union is the star of the West, whose genial and
steadily increasing influence will at last, should we remain an united
people, dispel the gloom of despotism from the ancient nations of the
world. Its moral power will prove to be more potent than millions of
armed mercenaries. And shall this glorious star set in darkness before
it has accomplished half its mission? Heaven forbid! Let us all
exclaim with the heroic Jackson, ‘The Union must and shall be
preserved.’

And what a Union has this been! The history of the human race presents
no parallel to it. The bit of striped bunting which was to be swept
from the ocean by a British navy, according to the predictions of a
British statesman, previous to the war of 1812, is now displayed on
every sea, and in every port of the habitable globe. Our glorious
stars and stripes, the flag of our country, now protects Americans in
every clime. ‘I am a Roman citizen!’ was once the proud exclamation
which everywhere shielded an ancient Roman from insult and injustice.
‘I am an American citizen!’ is now an exclamation of almost equal
potency throughout the civilized world. This is a tribute due to the
power and resources of these thirty-one United States. In a just
cause, we may defy the world in arms. We have lately presented a
spectacle which has astonished the greatest captain of the age. At the
call of their country, an irresistible host of armed men, and men,
too, skilled in the use of arms, sprang up like the soldiers of
Cadmus, from the mountains and valleys of our confederacy. The
struggle among them was not who should remain at home, but who should
enjoy the privilege of enduring the dangers and privations of a
foreign war, in defence of their country’s rights. Heaven forbid that
the question of slavery should ever prove to be the stone thrown into
their midst by Cadmus, to make them turn their arms against each
other, and die in mutual conflict.

. . . . . . . .

The common sufferings and common glories of the past, the prosperity
of the present, and the brilliant hopes of the future, must impress
every patriotic heart with deep love and devotion for the Union. Who
that is now a citizen of this vast Republic, extending from the St.
Lawrence to the Rio Grande, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, does
not shudder at the idea of being transformed into a citizen of one of
its broken, jealous and hostile fragments? What patriot had not rather
shed the last drop of his blood, than see the thirty-one brilliant
stars, which now float proudly upon our country’s flag, rudely torn
from the national banner, and scattered in confusion over the face of
the earth?

Rest assured that all the patriotic emotions of every true-hearted
Pennsylvanian, in favor of the Union and Constitution, are shared by
Southern people. What battle-field has not been illustrated by their
gallant deeds; and when in our history have they ever shrunk from
sacrifices and sufferings in the cause of their country? What, then,
means the muttering thunder which we hear from the South? The signs of
the times are truly portentous. Whilst many in the South openly
advocate the cause of secession and union, a large majority, as I
firmly believe, still fondly cling to the Union, awaiting with deep
anxiety the action of the North on the compromise lately effected in
Congress. Should this be disregarded and nullified by the citizens of
the North, the Southern people may become united, and then farewell, a
long farewell, to our blessed Union. I am no alarmist; but a brave and
wise man looks danger steadily in the face. This is the best means of
avoiding it. I am deeply impressed with the conviction that the North
neither sufficiently understands nor appreciates the danger. For my
own part, I have been steadily watching its progress for the last
fifteen years. During that period I have often sounded the alarm; but
my feeble warnings have been disregarded. I now solemnly declare, as
the deliberate conviction of my judgment, that two things are
necessary to preserve this Union from danger:

‘1. Agitation in the North on the subject of Southern slavery must be
rebuked and put down by a strong and enlightened public opinion.

‘2. The Fugitive Slave Law must be enforced in its spirit.’

On each of these points I shall offer a few observations.

Those are greatly mistaken who suppose that the tempest that is now
raging in the South has been raised solely by the acts or omissions of
the present Congress. The minds of the Southern people have been
gradually prepared for this explosion by the events of the last
fifteen years. Much and devotedly as they love the Union, many of them
are now taught to believe that the peace of their own firesides, and
the security of their families, cannot be preserved without separation
from us. The crusade of the Abolitionists against their domestic peace
and security commenced in 1835. General Jackson, in his annual message
to Congress, in December of that year, speaks of it in the following
emphatic language: ‘I must also invite your attention to the painful
excitement produced in the South by attempts to circulate through the
mails inflammatory appeals, addressed to the passions of the slaves,
in prints and various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate
them to insurrection, and produce all the horrors of a servile war.‘

From that period the agitation in the North against Southern slavery
has been incessant, by means of the press, of State Legislatures, of
State and County conventions, Abolition lectures, and every other
method which fanatics and demagogues could devise. The time of
Congress has been wasted in violent harangues on the subject of
slavery. Inflammatory appeals have been sent forth from this central
point throughout the country, the inevitable effect of which has been
to create geographical parties, so much dreaded by the Father of his
Country, and to estrange the northern and southern divisions of the
Union from each other.

Before the Wilmot proviso was interposed, the abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia had been the chief theme of agitation.
Petitions for this purpose, by thousands, poured into Congress,
session after session. The rights and the wishes of the owners of
slaves within the District were boldly disregarded. Slavery was
denounced as a national disgrace, which the laws of God and the laws
of men ought to abolish, cost what it might. It mattered not to the
fanatics that the abolition of slavery in the District would convert
it into a citadel, in the midst of two slaveholding States, from which
the Abolitionist could securely scatter arrows, firebrands and death
all around. It mattered not with them that the abolition of slavery in
the District would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution
and of the implied faith pledged to Maryland and Virginia, because the
whole world knows that those States would never have ceded it to the
Union, had they imagined it could ever be converted by Congress into a
place from which their domestic peace and security might be assailed
by fanatics and Abolitionists. Nay, the Abolitionists went even still
further. They agitated for the purpose of abolishing slavery in the
forts, arsenals and navy-yards which the Southern States had ceded to
the Union, under the Constitution, for the protection and defence of
the country.

Thus stood the question when the Wilmot proviso was interposed, to add
fuel to the flame, and to excite the Southern people to madness.

. . . . . . . .

It would be the extreme of dangerous infatuation to suppose that the
Union was not then in serious danger. Had the Wilmot proviso become a
law, or had slavery been abolished in the District of Columbia,
nothing short of a special interposition of Divine Providence could
have prevented the secession of most, if not all, the slaveholding
States.

It was from this great and glorious old Commonwealth, rightly
denominated the ‘Keystone of the Arch,‘ that the first ray of light
emanated to dispel the gloom. She stands now as the days-man, between
the North and the South, and can lay her hand on either party, and
say, thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. The wisdom, moderation
and firmness of her people qualify her eminently to act as the just
and equitable umpire between the extremes.

It was the vote in our State House of Representatives, refusing to
consider the instructing resolution in favor of the Wilmot Proviso,
which first cheered the heart of every patriot in the land. This was
speedily followed by a vote of the House of Representatives at
Washington, nailing the Wilmot Proviso itself to the table. And here I
ought not to forget the great meeting held in Philadelphia on the
birthday of the Father of his Country, in favor of the Union, which
gave a happy and irresistible impulse to public opinion throughout the
State, and I may add throughout the Union.

The honor of the South has been saved by the Compromise. The Wilmot
Proviso is forever dead, and slavery will never be abolished in the
District of Columbia whilst it continues to exist in Maryland. The
receding storm in the South still continues to dash with violence, but
it will gradually subside, should agitation cease in the North. All
that is necessary for us to do ‘is to execute the Fugitive Slave Law,‘
and to let the Southern people alone, suffering them to manage their
own domestic concerns in their own way......

2. I shall proceed to present to you some views upon the subject of
the much misrepresented Fugitive Slave Law. It is now evident, from
all the signs of the times, that this is destined to become the
principal subject of agitation at the present session of Congress, and
to take the place of the Wilmot Proviso. Its total repeal or its
material modification will henceforward be the battle cry of the
agitators of the North.

And what is the character of this law? It was passed to carry into
execution a plain, clear, and mandatory provision of the Constitution,
requiring that fugitive slaves, who fly from service in one State to
another, shall be delivered up to their masters. The provision is so
explicit that he who runs may read. No commentary can present it in a
stronger light than the plain words of the Constitution. It is a
well-known historical fact, that without this provision, the
Constitution could never have existed. How could this have been
otherwise? Is it possible for a moment to believe that the slave
States would have formed a union with the free States, if under it
their slaves, by simply escaping across the boundary which separates
them, would acquire all the rights of freemen? This would have been to
offer an irresistible temptation to all the slaves of the South to
precipitate themselves upon the North. The Federal Constitution,
therefore, recognizes in the clearest and most emphatic terms, the
property in slaves, and protects this property by prohibiting any
State into which a slave might escape, from discharging him from
slavery, and by requiring that he shall be delivered up to his master.

. . . . . . . .

The two principal objections urged against the Fugitive Slave law are,
that it will promote kidnapping, and that it does not provide a trial
by jury for the fugitive in the State to which he has escaped.

The very same reasons may be urged, with equal force, against the act
of 1793; and yet it existed for more than half a century without
encountering any such objections.

In regard to kidnapping, the fears of the agitators are altogether
groundless. The law requires that the fugitive shall be taken before
the judge or commissioner. They must there prove, to the satisfaction
of the magistrate, the identity of the fugitive, that he is the
master’s property, and has escaped from his service. Now, I ask, would
a kidnapper ever undertake such a task? Would he suborn witnesses to
commit perjury, and expose himself to detection before a judge or
commissioner, and in the presence of the argus eyes of a
non-slaveholding community, whose feelings will always be in favor of
the slave? No, never. The kidnapper seizes his victim in the silence
of the night, or in a remote and obscure place, and hurries him away.
He does not expose himself to the public gaze. He will never bring the
unfortunate object of his rapacity before a commissioner or a judge.
Indeed, I have no recollection of having heard or read of a case in
which a free man was kidnapped under the forms of law, during the
whole period of more than half a century, since the act of 1793 was
passed.

. . . . . . . .

The Union cannot long endure, if it be bound together only by paper
bonds. It can be firmly cemented alone by the affections of the people
of the different States for each other. Would to Heaven that the
spirit of mutual forbearance and brotherly love which presided at its
birth, could once more be restored to bless the land! Upon opening a
volume, a few days since, my eye caught a resolution of a Convention
of the counties of Maryland, assembled at Annapolis, in June, 1744, in
consequence of the passage by the British Parliament of the Boston
Port Bill, which provided for opening a subscription ‘in the several
counties of the Province, for an immediate collection for the relief
of the distressed inhabitants of Boston, now cruelly deprived of the
means of procuring subsistence for themselves and families by the
operation of the said act of blocking up their harbor.‘ Would that the
spirit of fraternal affection which dictated this noble resolution,
and which actuated all the conduct of our revolutionary fathers, might
return to bless and reanimate the bosoms of their descendants! This
would render our Union indissoluble. It would be the living soul
infusing itself into the Constitution and inspiring it with
irresistible energy.”

I select from the letters of Mr. Buchanan to his niece, written in the years 1850, 1851, and 1852, some of those which indicate his constant interest in her, and in their home circle of friends, amid the very busy life which he led even when he was not in any official position:

[TO MISS LANE.]

BEDFORD SPRINGS, August 4, 1850.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

I received your letter yesterday and was rejoiced to hear from home,
especially of Mr. ——’s visit to Miss Hetty, which, I know must have
rendered her very happy. I hope he will do better than Mr. —— or Mr.
——.

I have found Bedford very pleasant, as I always do; but we have very
few of the old set, and the new are not equal to them. I will not tell
you how many inquiries have been made for you, lest this might make
you vainer than you are, which to say the least is unnecessary.

I intend, God willing, to leave here to-morrow morning. Six of us have
taken an extra to Chambersburg: Mr. Wilmer and his daughter, Mrs. and
Miss Bridges, Mr. Reigart and myself. I shall leave them at Loudon, as
I proposed, and hope to be at home on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday
next, I know not which.

It was kind in you, and this I appreciate, to say a word to me about
Mrs. ——. Should Miss Hetty marry Mr. ——, I shall bring this matter to
a speedy conclusion one way or the other. I shall then want a
housekeeper, as you would not be fit to superintend: and whose society
would be so charming as that of Mrs. ——-?

Remember me affectionately to Mrs. Dunham and Miss Hetty, and believe
me to be yours “with the highest consideration.”

JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, October 12, 1850.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

Mr. McIlvain of Philadelphia, with whom I had contracted to put up a
furnace and kitchen range this week, has disappointed me, and I cannot
leave home until this work shall be finished. He writes me that he
will certainly commence on Monday morning; and if so, I hope to be in
New York the beginning of the week after, say about the 22d instant.

You ask what about your staying at Mrs. Bancroft’s. With this I should
be very much pleased; but it seems from your letter that she did not
ask you to do so. She wished “to see a great deal” of you when you
came to New York, implying that you were not to stay with her all the
time. If she has since given you an invitation, accept it.

Could I have anticipated that you would not pass some time at Governor
Marcy’s, I should have arranged this matter by writing to Mrs.
Bancroft. It is now too late.

I may probably pass a few days at the Astor House in New York; but I
may have to see so many politicians, that I should have but little
time to devote to you. I desire very much to reach New York before the
departure of Mr. Slidell which will be on the 26th instant.

I shall be very glad, if Clementina Pleasanton should accompany you
home, though the leaves are beginning to change color and to fall.

. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .

Professor Muhlenbergh, having been appointed a professor in
Pennsylvania College (Gettysburg), has ceased to teach school, and
James Henry left for Princeton on Thursday last.

We have no local news, at least I know of none, that would interest
you. I think we shall have very agreeable neighbors in the Gonders at
Abbeville. Please to remember me very kindly to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson
and give my love to Rose.

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, January 17, 1851.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

I have received yours of the 15th, and we are all happy to learn that
you have reached Washington so pleasantly. I hope that your visit may
prove agreeable; and that you may return home self-satisfied with all
that may transpire during your absence. Keep your eyes about you in
the gay scenes through which you are destined to pass, and take care
to do nothing and say nothing of which you may have cause to repent.
Above all be on your guard against flattery; and should you receive
it, “let it pass into one ear gracefully and out at the other.” Many a
clever girl has been spoiled for the useful purposes of life, and
rendered unhappy by a winter’s gaiety in Washington. I know, however,
that Mrs. Pleasanton will take good care of you and prevent you from
running into any extravagance. Still it is necessary that, with the
blessing of Providence, you should take care of yourself.

I attended the festival in Philadelphia, on the occasion of the
arrival of the steamer “City of Glasgow,” but did not see Lilly
Macalester. Her father thinks of taking her to the World’s Fair in
London. I saw Mrs. Plitt for a moment, who inquired kindly after you.

We are moving on here in the old way, and I have no news of any
interest to communicate to you. Eskridge was out here last night, and
said they were all well in town. I met Mrs. Baker yesterday on the
street with her inseparable companion. She was looking very well.

I have not yet determined whether I shall visit Washington during the
present session; but it is probable that I may, on or about the first
of February.

Give my love to Laura and Clementina, and remember me in the kindest
terms to Mr. and Mrs. Pleasanton.

Miss Hetty and James desire their love to you.

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND near LANCASTER, April 7, 1851.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

Supposing that you are now in Baltimore, I send you the enclosed
letter received yesterday. It was inadvertently opened by me; but the
moment I saw it was addressed to “My dear Harriet” it was closed. It
may contain love or treason for aught I know.

Eskridge was here yesterday; but he gave me no news, except that Mary
and he were at a party at Mr. McElrath’s on Wednesday evening last.

The place now begins to look beautiful, and we have concerts of the
birds every morning. Still I fear it will appear dull to you after
your winter’s gaiety. Lewis has gone, and we have a new coachman in
the person of Mr. Francis Quinn, who with his lady occupy the
gardener’s house. They have no children. Mr. C. Reigart will leave
here on Saturday next for the World’s Fair and a trip to the
continent. Your _ci-devant_ lover, Mr. ——, purposes to go likewise;
but many persons think he will not get off on account of the expense.
Mr. and Mrs. Gonder prove to be very agreeable neighbors. They are
furnishing their house and fitting up their grounds with much taste
and at considerable expense.

With my kindest regards for Mr. and Mrs. White and the young ladies, I
remain,

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, Nov. 4, 1851.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

I have received your favor of the 29th ultimo, and would have answered
it sooner had I not been absent at Lebanon on its arrival. You appear
to have already got under full sail in Pittsburgh, and I hope your
voyage throughout may be prosperous and happy. If you have found the
place even blacker and dirtier than you anticipated, you will find the
people warm-hearted, generous, kind and agreeable. But do not for a
moment believe that any hearts will be broken, even if you should fail
to pay all the visits to families where you are invited. I know,
however, that you are not so romantic a girl as to take for gospel all
the pretty things which may be said to you.

My dinner to the bride and groom is to come off next Saturday, and I
intend to call upon Mrs. Baker to be mistress of ceremonies. I had to
send for her on Friday last to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Yost, whom I was
compelled to leave, by an engagement to be present at a Jubilee at
Lebanon.

Eskridge was here on Sunday, but brought no budget of news. Indeed, I
believe, there is nothing stirring which would interest you.

I have a friend in Pittsburgh, such as few men ever had, by name Major
David Lynch. He does not move in the first circle of fashionable
society, but he exercises more influence than any other Democrat in
that region. His devotion to me is unexampled. With one such man there
would be no difficulty in Lancaster county. I know that Dr. Speer
don’t like him; but when you visit Mrs. Collins, get Mr. McCandless to
request him to pay you a visit and treat him with the utmost kindness.
His wife is a lady of fine sense; but I presume you will not be asked
to visit her. If you should, make it a point to go.

Miss Hetty and myself are now alone, although I have many calls. For
the last two days, and a great part of the night I have been
constantly at work in answering the letters which have accumulated
during my absence at New York, the Harrisburg Fair and Lebanon.

Miss Hetty desires to be kindly remembered to you. Take care of
yourself. Be prudent and discreet among strangers. I hope you will not
remove the favorable impression you have made. Please to present my
kindest regards to Dr. and Mrs. Speer, Miss Lydia and the family, and
believe me to be,

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

P.S.—If I believed it necessary, I would advise you to be constant in
your devotions to your God. He is a friend who will never desert you.
Men are short-sighted and know not the consequences of their own
actions. The most brilliant prospects are often overcast; and those
who commence life under the fairest auspices, are often unfortunate.
Ask wisdom and discretion from above. ——, and ——, and —— married
unfortunately. I should like nothing better than to see you well
settled in life; but never think of marrying any man unless his moral
habits are good, and his business or his fortune will enable him to
support you comfortably. So now my postscript is like a woman’s; the
best the last.

[TO MISS LANE.]

Saturday Morning, Nov. 8, 1851.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

Our excellent friend and neighbor, Mr. Gonder, died this morning, and
this event has covered us with gloom. Of course there will be no
dinner party to-day. We are all well and going on as usual.

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, Dec. 12, 1851.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

I have received your letter of the 6th instant, and am happy to learn
you are still enjoying yourself at Pittsburgh. I have not any news of
interest to communicate, unless it be that Mary and Kate Reynolds went
to Philadelphia on Wednesday last, and James Henry is to be at home
next week. At Wheatland we are all moving on in the old way. My
correspondence is now so heavy as to occupy my whole time from early
morning until late at night, except when visitors are with me.

I still continue to be of the same opinion I was concerning the
Presidency; _but this is for yourself alone_.

My life is now one of great labor, but I am philosopher enough not to
be very anxious.

. . . . . . . .

With my kindest regards for Mrs. Collins and Sis,

I remain yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, near Lancaster, Feb. 24, 1852.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

On my return home from Richmond and Washington, on the day before
yesterday, I received yours of the 9th instant. I am truly grateful
that you have enjoyed your visit to Pittsburgh so much. I have no
desire that you shall return home until it suits your own inclination.
All I apprehend is that you may wear out your welcome. It will be
impossible for me to visit Pittsburgh and escort you home.

. . . . . . . .

Senator Gwin misinformed me as to the value of Mr. Baker’s office. The
salary attached to it is $4000 per annum. He thinks that Mrs. Baker
ought by all means to go to California. I have not seen Eskridge since
my return.

I took Miss —— to Washington and left her there, and am truly glad to
be clear of her.

Whilst in Washington I saw very little of the fashionable society. My
time was almost constantly occupied with the politicians. Still I
partook of a family dinner with the Pleasantons, who all desired to be
kindly remembered to you. I never saw Clementina looking better than
she does, and they all appear to be cheerful. Still when an allusion
was made to her mother, she was overcome at the table and had to leave
it. Mr. Pleasanton is evidently in very delicate health, though he
goes to his office.

I called to see Mrs. Walker, who inquired very kindly for you, and so
did Col. King and others.

The mass of letters before me is “prodigious,” and I only write to
show that you are not forgotten.

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

[TO MISS LANE.]

WHEATLAND, near LANCASTER, March 13, 1852.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—

I have received yours of the 9th instant. It was difficult to persuade
you to visit Pittsburgh, but it seems to be still more difficult for
you to leave it. I am, however, not disappointed in this particular,
because I know the kindness and hospitality of the people. There is
not a better or more true-hearted man alive than John Anderson, and
his excellent wife well deserves such a husband. Make out your visit,
which, it is evident, you propose to continue until the middle of
April; but after your return I hope you will be content to remain at
home during the summer. The birds are now singing around the house,
and we are enjoying the luxury of a fine day in the opening spring.

Miss Hetty has just informed me that Mrs. Lane gave birth to a son a
few days ago, which they call John N. Lane. She heard it this morning
at market from Eskridge, whom I have not seen since last Sunday week.
I hope he will be here to-morrow.

The new Court House is to be erected on Newton Lightner’s corner. Its
location has caused much excitement in Lancaster. It enables your
sweetheart, Mr. Evans, Mr. Lightner and Mr. —— to sell their property
to advantage. We have no other news.

Yours affectionately,
JAMES BUCHANAN.

P.S.—Miss Harriet Lane to me; but Miss Harri_ette_ to the rest of man
and womankind.

[TO MISS LANE.]

SARATOGA SPRINGS, August 8, 1852.

MY DEAR HARRIET:—