Details
BUCHANAN, JAMES, President. Autograph letter signed ("James Buchanan") to Isaac G. McKinley, Wheatland, near Lancaster, 16 July 1851. 2 full pages, 4to, integral blank. Fine.
"THE GREAT ISSUE...OUGHT TO BE: THE MAINTENANCE OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW WITHOUT MODIFICATION"
A letter with important political implications, in light of Buchanan's later stand on the issue of slavery: "...You cannot be more deeply impressed than I am with the importance of our success in the coming contest to the [']safety and perpetuity of the Union.' The great issues, therefore, ought to be, the maintenance of the Fugitive Slave law, without modification; and the repeal of our State laws denying the use of our jails for the detention of fugitive slaves. The former is all the South have obtained by the [Missouri] compromise. Take this from them & nothing remains; but their exclusion from all the vast territories conquered from Mexico by their & our arms. Do you read the Southern papers & observe the deep excitement & alarm which prevail in the far South? In my opinion, the bold & manly course on these questions is the course not only of justice but of true policy. If we adopt it, we shall secure many Union Whig votes...Should we buckle in the least degree to the principles of the free soilers, we may lose the race. I would say nothing unnecessarily to offend the free soilers, but would gladly receive them into the Democratic party, if they will sustain the men & the principles of the National Democracy..." Buchanan closes his letter by speculating on a local political contest.
Buchanan was one of four major candidates vying for the Democratic Presidential nomination at the 1852 Convention, eleven months after this letter was written, and eventually lost to Franklin Pierce on the forty-ninth ballot. But, when the Democrats convened in 1856, Buchanan had the advantage of having been abroad as Ambassador to England during the bitter debate over the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1856, though he was already regarded by the Southern states as a political ally for his appeasing attitude towards any limitations of slavery and its expansion.
"THE GREAT ISSUE...OUGHT TO BE: THE MAINTENANCE OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW WITHOUT MODIFICATION"
A letter with important political implications, in light of Buchanan's later stand on the issue of slavery: "...You cannot be more deeply impressed than I am with the importance of our success in the coming contest to the [']safety and perpetuity of the Union.' The great issues, therefore, ought to be, the maintenance of the Fugitive Slave law, without modification; and the repeal of our State laws denying the use of our jails for the detention of fugitive slaves. The former is all the South have obtained by the [Missouri] compromise. Take this from them & nothing remains; but their exclusion from all the vast territories conquered from Mexico by their & our arms. Do you read the Southern papers & observe the deep excitement & alarm which prevail in the far South? In my opinion, the bold & manly course on these questions is the course not only of justice but of true policy. If we adopt it, we shall secure many Union Whig votes...Should we buckle in the least degree to the principles of the free soilers, we may lose the race. I would say nothing unnecessarily to offend the free soilers, but would gladly receive them into the Democratic party, if they will sustain the men & the principles of the National Democracy..." Buchanan closes his letter by speculating on a local political contest.
Buchanan was one of four major candidates vying for the Democratic Presidential nomination at the 1852 Convention, eleven months after this letter was written, and eventually lost to Franklin Pierce on the forty-ninth ballot. But, when the Democrats convened in 1856, Buchanan had the advantage of having been abroad as Ambassador to England during the bitter debate over the Kansas-Nebraska bill in 1856, though he was already regarded by the Southern states as a political ally for his appeasing attitude towards any limitations of slavery and its expansion.