Details
BUCHANAN, James. Autograph letter signed ("James Buchanan"), as U. S. Senator, to John C. Plumer, Esq., Senate Chamber, 13 January 1842. 2 full pages, 4to. FINE.
BUCHANAN EXULTS IN WHIG DISUNITY AND REJOICES THAT THE DEMOCRATS "WERE NEVER MORE UNITED"
A long, full letter, rich in political commentary. Buchanan strongly endorses the nomination of "my old friend & competitor at the Bar, Judge Roberts" to the Pennsylvania high court: "I have been upon terms of the closest intimacy with him for almost thirty years & I have never known a more honest & honorable man nor a more safe & upright judge."
Turning to national affairs he reports "the Exchequer Bill alias Government Bank is still under discussion. Mr. Benton is now making a powerful speech against it. In its present form, or anything like it, Congress will never adopt it. The task was assigned to me of making the opening speech against it. The subject was then new & the Press was eager. The consequence was that my remarks appeared both in the Intelligencer & the Globe the next morning without having been submitted to my supervision. There were many mistakes in both reports. They were corrected by me & the speech...was republished in the Globe & in pamphlet form. But when falsehood gets a start truth can rarely overtake it..." Buchanan then boasts of the greater unity among his fellow Democrats, in contrast to the opposition: "The Democratic party, at least in the Senate, were never more united or more harmonious. They move along on the direct road of their principles & are acquiring moral strength throughout the country every day. On the other hand the Whigs are divided & dispirited & know not what to do." Buchanan served in the Senate from 1834 to 1845 when James K. Polk made him Secretary of State. A Jacksonian on fiscal matters like the national bank, Buchanan generally hewed closely to the Southern, pro-slavery line. And it was that issue, more than any other, that wrecked havoc among the Whigs, splitting their ranks between Northern and Southern factions.
BUCHANAN EXULTS IN WHIG DISUNITY AND REJOICES THAT THE DEMOCRATS "WERE NEVER MORE UNITED"
A long, full letter, rich in political commentary. Buchanan strongly endorses the nomination of "my old friend & competitor at the Bar, Judge Roberts" to the Pennsylvania high court: "I have been upon terms of the closest intimacy with him for almost thirty years & I have never known a more honest & honorable man nor a more safe & upright judge."
Turning to national affairs he reports "the Exchequer Bill alias Government Bank is still under discussion. Mr. Benton is now making a powerful speech against it. In its present form, or anything like it, Congress will never adopt it. The task was assigned to me of making the opening speech against it. The subject was then new & the Press was eager. The consequence was that my remarks appeared both in the Intelligencer & the Globe the next morning without having been submitted to my supervision. There were many mistakes in both reports. They were corrected by me & the speech...was republished in the Globe & in pamphlet form. But when falsehood gets a start truth can rarely overtake it..." Buchanan then boasts of the greater unity among his fellow Democrats, in contrast to the opposition: "The Democratic party, at least in the Senate, were never more united or more harmonious. They move along on the direct road of their principles & are acquiring moral strength throughout the country every day. On the other hand the Whigs are divided & dispirited & know not what to do." Buchanan served in the Senate from 1834 to 1845 when James K. Polk made him Secretary of State. A Jacksonian on fiscal matters like the national bank, Buchanan generally hewed closely to the Southern, pro-slavery line. And it was that issue, more than any other, that wrecked havoc among the Whigs, splitting their ranks between Northern and Southern factions.