THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 13 had said, indeed, in the electoral campaign, that the "passions" of the people had been excited "to the highest degree," because that campaign turned upon questions of "vital importance;" but he had claimed also that the "tempest at once subsided and all was calm," when the people had made known their will. What ground was there to consider this calm a sign that the storm was gathering strength for a new outbreak with redoubled violence? Was there not rather every reason to hope that the agitation of the slavery question would cease, and that sectional or geographical parties, so much dreaded by Washington, would disappear? Since congress had evolved the "happy conception" to apply to the question of slavery in the territories the simple principle that the will of the majority must decide, the "agitation" was "without any legitimate object." If the hope that the long and violent struggle between slavery and freedom had been terminated by the electoral campaign was based only on this, it evidently did. not deserve to be likened even to a soap-bubble. That "happy conception" of congress had already become a law in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 1854. But it was this very bill that led to the formation of the republican party; and on that very ground the last electoral battle had been fought with the high degree of passion alluded to by the president. Thus far, therefore, the people had certainly not believed that "the recent legislation of congress" had deprived the agitation of every “legitimate object." Hence the suspicion could not but be awakened that the alleged hope that the tomahawk would now be buried, was a conscious sham; for Buchanan must have become a victim of megalomania to think that his ipse dixit would convert the people to his belief. Or might there not be, after all, some other positive foundation for this fair hope discovered? Much as Buchanan might admire the "great principle of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he could not help admitting that it had not furnished, immediately, a complete solution to the question at issue. Will or not, he had to remember that the partisans of that bill held very divergent opinions on the question, when the decision by the majority was to be made. He explained that he had always understood the bill to mean that it was to be made when the population of the territory had grown so large that they could give themselves a constitution in order to be admitted into the Union. The practical importance of the question, however, he considered very small. Scarcely a moment before he had said that, in the electoral campaign, a "question of vital importance" was at issue. But nothing whatever had been changed by the presidential election, or since it. The republicans had performed no evolution, and the democrats were as much at variance as ever in their interpretation of the "great principle." Notwithstanding this, the controversy had shrunk, Buchanan claimed, to a question. "of but little practical importance," so that the president now thought himself warranted to tell public opinion that it might turn its attention to questions of "more pressing and practical importance." This was sheer nonsense unless reason were introduced into the evident contradiction, by the sentence immediately following the assertion, that the question in controversy, when the principle of "popular sovereignty" in respect to slavery should come into force, was practically of little importance. "Besides," that sentence reads, "it is a judicial question BUCHANAN'S POSITION. 15 which rightly belongs to the supreme court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled." If this announcement were correct some meaning might be made out of the nonsensical reasoning of the president, but a meaning very different from that which the president himself intended. What reason was there for the express assurance that he, "in common with all good citizens," would "cheerfully" submit to the decision soon to be expected?1 If it were certain that the decision lay with the supreme court of the United States, how could it be doubted that all citizens would submit to its judgment, even if not "cheerfully?" Was there not, in the allusion to the "good citizens," an expression of the anticipation that the jurisdiction of the supreme court would be contested? Bad as those citizens might be who would not submit to its decision, with respect to the practical importance of the question on which the president had laid the greatest stress, it was evident that only their number was of any influence. It was not individuals only, but the great political parties, whose creed hitherto came in conflict with the decision of the supreme court. It was not individuals only, but the great political parties, who denied its jurisdiction, and who, therefore, claimed that its judgment was not binding. Hence its decision, as a matter of fact, could not be final. In the very nature of things, the battle must be renewed with increased bitterness on both sides, 1 James Buchanan Henry, nephew of the president, says that the inaugural address was composed at Wheatland, and that Buchanan added to it, afterwards, only the portion relating to the Dred Scott decision. Curtis, Life of James Buchanan, II, p. 187. Nicolay and Hay, in their history of Lincoln, add, this "leads to the inference that it was prompted from high quarters." The Century Magazine, June, 1887, p. 215. as the correspondent wrote, attention as an indication of the future, could no longer be doubted, when the Tribune, on the 12th of January, was telegraphed from Washington that Buchanan had said Rusk was dead with the republican party. Even if the thought had not been expressed thus strongly, but had been merely intimated, the despatch, that more clear-sighted democrats began anxiously to ask themselves what the party had to expect from the president, had to be believed.' But not only the democratic party but the entire country had every reason to be anxious, when, under a cloud so pregnant with the storm, a fog thus dense obscured the vision of the old man in whose hands the helm of the ship of state was to be placed during the next four years. The pomp displayed at the festivities of the inauguration exceeded what was usual on such occasions. A mild, clear, spring day put the population of Washington and the guests who had flocked thither in great numbers in the best of humor. Buchanan tried not to dampen their spirits. Those who honored him as the "sage of Wheatland" were able to come down Capitol Hill, after listening to the inaugural address, gladder than when they had ascended it. The president began with the assurance that, in his administration, he would be governed by no motive except the wish to serve his country faithfully and well, and to live in the grateful memory of the people, as he was resolved not to seek re-election. Why might not a happy future be looked forward to, considering such excellent intentions? The president the latter (Rusk), with others, argued that if such delusion could be entertained, others more serious might easily occur. There seems to be a foreboding on the democratic side that the administration is doomed, under a fatality of the president." the 66 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 13 had said, indeed, in the electoral campaign, that the "passions" of the people had been excited "to the highest degree," because that campaign turned upon questions of "vital importance;" but he had claimed also that tempest at once subsided and all was calm," when the people had made known their will. What ground was there to consider this calm a sign that the storm was gathering strength for a new outbreak with redoubled violence? Was there not rather every reason to hope that the agitation of the slavery question would cease, and that sectional or geographical parties, so much dreaded by Washington, would disappear? Since congress had evolved the "happy conception" to apply to the question of slavery in the territories the simple principle that the will of the majority must decide, the "agitation" was "without any legitimate object." If the hope that the long and violent struggle between slavery and freedom had been terminated by the electoral campaign was based only on this, it evidently did. not deserve to be likened even to a soap-bubble. That "happy conception" of congress had already become a law in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 1854. But it was this very bill that led to the formation of the republican party; and on that very ground the last electoral battle had been fought with the high degree of passion alluded to by the president. Thus far, therefore, the people had certainly not believed that "the recent legislation of congress" had deprived the agitation of every “legitimate object." Hence the suspicion could not but be awakened that the alleged hope that the tomahawk would now be buried, was a conscious sham; for Buchanan must have become a victim of megalomania to think that his ipse dixit would convert the people to his belief. Or |