Part 8

"If we had a discreet and energetic leader in Mexico, I think we might bring the war to a close. But the lieutenant-general has been slain, and with him I think dies all prospect of success by arms or diplomacy. Our only chance is in luck, and Mr. Polk is so fortunate in getting out of scrapes just when he is most straitened that I am inclined to bet on him yet.

"Yours in haste, "JOHN A. DIX."

THE FIRST GUN FOR FREE SOIL

"_April, 1848._

At the threshold of the Free-soil revolt of 1848, ex-President Van Buren, who was spending the winter in lodgings at Julian's Hotel in Washington Place, New York, said one day to Mr. Tilden, as he handed him a roll of manuscript: "If you wish to be immortal, take this home with you, complete it, revise it, put it into proper shape, and give it to the public."

Mr. Tilden replied that he had not the slightest wish to be immortal by any process that would impose upon him at that time any more labor; but he consented to take the manuscript down to the residence of the ex-President's son, John Van Buren, who then resided in White Street, and he agreed that if John would do half of the work he would do the other half. John did agree, and a few days after the interview referred to, Tilden and John met at the ex-President's lodgings to report.

Mr. Van Buren opened the subject by asking what they had done with Niagara Falls. This referred to a somewhat ambiguous metaphor which had found its way into the ex-President's manuscript. "We have struck that out," was the reply. He laughed, as if rather relieved at having an unpleasant duty discharged by other hands, while they went on to read the result of their joint labors.

After the address had received the combined approval of each party to its composition, the next question was how to get it before the public. After discussing various plans, they finally decided to issue it as an address of the Democratic members of the Legislature. Accordingly, on the 12th of April, Senator John G. Floyd, from the committee of Democratic members of the Legislature to prepare and report an address, read the paper to his colleagues, by whom it was unanimously adopted. This memorable and epochal document was given at length in the _Public Writings and Speeches of Tilden_, Vol. II., page 537. This address deserves to be regarded as the corner-stone of the "Free-soil" party, as distinguished from the party of unconditional abolition.

S. P. CHASE[14] TO JOHN VAN BUREN

"COLUMBUS, _June 19, 1848_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Many of our Free-Territory men in this quarter are in doubt as to the course which the New York Democracy intend to pursue in reference to the Buffalo convention. Will they be represented in it? Will they concur in the nominations made by it? If Judge McLean can be induced to accept a nomination for the Vice-Presidency, in connection with Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency, will they cordially accept it? If the convention, on mature deliberation, should think it expedient to nominate Judge McLean for the Presidency and Col. Samuel Young or Bradford R. Wood or yourself for the Vice-Presidency, would the New York Democracy concur in that nomination? There is a strong disposition, also, in the West to drop the older politicians altogether and take younger men, who better represent the spirit of the time. One of the best and ablest Democrats in the State, I mean Edwin M. Stanton, said to me to-day that if John Van Buren should be the nominee of the Buffalo convention he would roll up his sleeves and go to work till the election for the ticket; and I am sure that to all the young Democrats and all the young Whigs in the State your name would be more acceptable than your father's. Suppose the convention should be animated by this spirit and nominate men of this generation, would the New York Democracy concur?

"I put these questions to indicate the various phases which the movement may assume. My own opinion is that, under existing circumstances, the best possible nomination for the Presidency has been made at Utica, provided the name of John McLean can be associated with it. Whether it can be is, as yet, in doubt, though I fear the doubt will be resolved against my wish. If it cannot be, we have no man in the West whose name on the ticket would be altogether unexceptionable. If Judge McLean should consent to allow his name to be used, the ticket would undoubtedly sweep Ohio, and would gain immense accessions of strength throughout the West. I firmly believe that the nominees may, in that event, be elected this year. It would be, to be sure, sacrificing a good deal on the part of Judge McLean, so long prominent in the regards of the people as a candidate for the first office, to accept a nomination for the second; and the bitterness with which he could be assailed by the slaveholders and their allies would exceed greatly that which is now manifested towards your father. Nothing but a strong sense of personal duty, and a deep interest in the success of the movement (and he avows that interest openly), will prevail on him to consent, and, I fear, he will not feel that duty absolutely requires the step. It is probable that he would regard an offer of a nomination for the first office differently. He would then be the recognized head or representative of the movement, and would feel the abuse directed against him, as levelled chiefly at the cause. And I think he would represent the movement almost exactly as Silas Wright would have done if living. I regard him as more nearly resembling Silas Wright in the general character of his views on public questions than any living public man. While, therefore, I repeat that if we can have Judge McLean's name for the Vice-Presidency I would rather take the ticket as it would then stand--Martin Van Buren and John McLean--than any other, you will not wonder that I regret that the action of the convention at Utica has interposed an obstacle to a different arrangement. Whether the obstacle is insuperable you are a far better judge than I am. If it be, then, we must take the Utica nomination, supply the Vice-Presidential vacancy and make the best fight we can.

"You will have observed the difficulty suggested by the _National Era_ growing out of the expressions in your father's letter, in relation to slavery in the District of Columbia; and you are doubtless aware that all that part of the letter in reference to the course of his administration on the subject of slavery is very distasteful to almost all anti-slavery men, whether Whig, Democratic, or Liberty.

"I wish that part of the letter could have been omitted. It does no good to revive the past. Our business is with the present and the future. Your remarks in your speech at Genesee on the 20th of June are full of truth. The Free-Territories question, in discussion, must bring up the whole slavery question inevitably. Our contest is with the slave power, and it will break us down unless we break it down. The people will not stop with the exclusion of slavery from Territories: they will demand its complete denationalization. Now many understand Mr. Van Buren's letter, so far as it touches upon slavery in the District, as a reiteration of his pledge to veto a bill for the abolition of slavery there if enacted by Congress. I do not myself so understand it. I cannot believe that at the present day and under present circumstances, when a strong anti-slavery sentiment exists in Maryland and Virginia, which would be vastly strengthened by such a measure--so strengthened, indeed, that those States would by it be converted into free Territory States--that he would interpose the slightest obstacle to its adoption. I cannot doubt that, on the contrary, he would give it every favor consistent with the proper discharge of his function as President.

"So many, however, take a different view from mine that it is highly desirable, in the event that M. Van Buren is to be the nominee of the Buffalo convention, to have all doubt on this matter removed, so that he may be received and understood everywhere as a true representative of the movement.

"The uprising in this State exceeds all expectation, and if we only can present a proper ticket at Buffalo we shall have the best chance of carrying the State. But the effect of the movement is different here from its effect in New York. The question in this State will be between the independent nominee and Cass. Taylor is, with us, entirely out of the question. The people reject him, and the politicians support him, when they do at all, doubtingly and without enthusiasm. The Cass men are more active and with better hopes. In conversation with Judge Wood yesterday, or the day before, I remarked to him that I was a little surprised, after reading of the interview between himself, Cass, and the people at Cleveland, to hear of his advocating on the stump the claims of Cass, as a Wilmot proviso man. 'Oh,' says the judge, 'He is for the proviso as much as any of us.' 'Do you mean to say, then, that the Nicholson letter was designed to cheat the South and get the nomination?' I asked. 'D--n them,' said he, 'it is their _turn_ to be cheated.' This is a common argument among the Cass men; and as there is something like _retribution in kind_ indicated by it, it don't take very badly among the people.

"I shall be very glad to hear from you, and to be advised of the views of yourself and others, to whom you may show this, as to what is best to be done and the best mode of doing it.

Yours very truly, "S. P. CHASE."

"P. S.--Did you or Mr. Preston King receive a telegraphic despatch, at Utica, stating the action of our people's convention, which adjourned the day before your session commenced? We, Mr. Vaughan and myself, sent one on the evening of the 21st, and it should have reached you on the morning of the 22d at the latest. We shall be glad to know whether it reached you at all, and, if so, when."

TILDEN TO S. P. CHASE

"NEW YORK, _July, 1848_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter came here in the absence of Mr. J. Van Buren, which still continues, and it has been handed to me by Mr. Bryant, with a request that I would answer it. I desire to do so with perfect candor, and with as much accuracy as I can in regard to questions which depend upon the concurring action of numerous individuals composing a large party.

"As to your inquiry whether the Barnburners of New York will be represented in the Buffalo convention, I can only say that so far as representation consists in the presence of persons who will be asked to consult with the members of that body and inform them of the views of the Democracy, there will be no want of it. But representation of the formal and authoritative character which is usual in the delegated conventions of organized parties will not be possible, either from the nature of the convention itself or the circumstances in which the Democracy of this State are placed. The convention professes to be merely a mass convention, and does not aim at the indispensable characteristics of a delegated body--among which is a proportionate representation of ascertained constituents, whose numbers and relations are already known; but it will be simply a voluntary assemblage of individuals, whose relations to each other are to be for the first time established. Nor is there any person to act authoritatively for the Democracy of this State, as an organized body, until the meeting of the Utica convention on the 13th of Sept.

"But all this is not deemed to be a matter of much consequence. The Buffalo convention must act with spontaneous harmony or it will fail of its objects, and the spirit of the people and the circumstances of the occasion will be likely to make it very independent of forms. If it acts with wisdom, the Utica convention will doubtless concur in its nomination for the Vice-Presidency.

"As to the Presidency, it will not, under any circumstances, be practicable to change the position of the Democracy of this State. Their convictions on this subject would be irresistible, whatever might be the desires of leading men. Nominated, as Mr. Van Buren was, against his wishes, and because he was believed to be the strongest candidate with nearly all to whom they had a right to look for support, and acquiescing, as he did, on the ground that his old companions and their descendants had a right to his name to strengthen them in maintaining their characters and cause amid the perils and difficulties which surrounded them, it would not be decent towards him, now that more than they at first hoped is sure to be accomplished, to seek another representative. A still stronger consideration would be the bad faith of such a procedure towards large numbers of men and influential presses which have been drawn into our support of Mr. V. B.'s name. Another would be the great impolicy of changing front on the eve of battle, when the public mind has adapted itself and individuals have found relations with reference to the candidate. And another would be the conviction that in this State at least his name is far the strongest that can be presented with reference to practicable accessions to the cause. Of course this may be assumed to be the fact among the Democrats from whom our strength must mainly come--and the aid we have derived from it has been very great--while those Whigs who are disposed to go with us prefer him to any other Democrat, if I may judge from their expressions to me and others before the convention of the 22d of June.

"The Democracy of this State supports the cause and Mr. Van Buren, an organized party having more than fifty presses, many of which are the longest established and most influential in the State, and are organs on which perhaps the contest turns."

GOVERNOR COLES TO M. VAN BUREN

"PHILADELPHIA, _October 12, 1848_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--Your very kind and flattering letter of the first instant would have been sooner acknowledged but for my having had the pleasure of having with me Mr. and Mrs. Singleton and Miss McDuffie, and also your son, the colonel, and Angelica, and since they left me I have been so unwell as to be incapable of writing. And I am still too much indisposed to do much more than to express the gratification I derived from its perusal and to receive your commendation of my letter to Mr. Richards, which gave me the more pleasure, as I found my letter would disappoint him and other friends from its treating on newspaper and common-place topics, accessible to all, instead of giving facts and anecdotes not generally known, and which had become particularly well known to me, from the deep interest I have long taken in the subject, from my residence in Illinois at the period when efforts were made to make it a slave-holding State, and from my intimate acquaintance with most of the great men of the country. But I was sensible of not being able to do justice to the information I possessed, without a reference to documents not accessible to me at Schooleys Mountain.

"Your son John having requested me to send him a copy of a letter written by Mr. Jefferson to me in August, 1814, on the subject of slavery, and also a communication made by me to the _National Intelligencer_, and published in that paper Feb. 14, 1838, in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, I have since my return home from my summer excursion enclosed them to him to 91 White Street, New York, and hope he has received them, as I think the republication of Mr. Jefferson's letter at this time will do much good.[15]

"In explanation of some parts of Mr. Jefferson's letter, I ought to add that it was written in reply to one from me, informing him of my repugnance to holding slaves, and my determination to leave Virginia unless I could see some prospect of abolishing slavery in the State, and urging him to step forward as the leader in the great work. He showed our correspondence to many persons, and urged them to associate with me and form what he called a phalanx for bringing forward the necessary measures to put an end to slavery. Seeing no prospect of success, I abandoned the State, restored to my slaves their liberty, and removed them to Illinois, where I have had the high gratification of seeing them free, happy, and prosperous.

"I have been too unwell to see and to deliver to our old friend, Mr. Short, your kind message. As soon as I am well enough to walk to his house I will do so. As I am now suffering a good deal from headache I must conclude, after repeating assurances of my great respect and sincere regard.

"EDWARD COLES.

"_Martin Van Buren, ex-President U. S._"

THOMAS VAN RENSSELAER TO MARTIN VAN BUREN

"NEW YORK, _Oct. 16, 1848_.

"HON. MARTIN VAN BUREN.

"RESPECTED SIR,--Under ordinary circumstances it would be out of place for such an humble individual as myself to address you, but I consider that a crisis has arrived in this country which calls for the untiring exertions of every good man to check the spread of slavery which threatens the very existence of the institutions of the country, and my apology may be found in the fact that I am identified with this proscribed class. You will recognize me as the conductor of a small newspaper in this city called the _Ram's Horn_, a few copies of which I have taken the liberty of mailing to your honor.

"The approaching election I look upon as one of considerable importance to the country, and altho my paper is not a political one, yet I have thought right under existing circumstances to advocate the nominees of the Buffalo convention,[16] and try to induce the few hundred of my colored brethren in this vicinity who have votes to cast them in favor of Free Soil. We have had several meetings, and, in fact, done all we could with our limited means, and I have consulted with the Free Soil men here what is our best course to pursue, and the conclusion is to continue publishing and operating as efficiently as we can among ourselves, and if we can obtain a little pecuniary assistance for a short time I think we can do considerable in the right direction. Can you put us in a way to have a little funds at our disposal, and thereby enable us to forward the good cause?

"Respectfully, "THOS. VAN RENSSELAER."

M. VAN BUREN TO S. J. TILDEN

"LINDENWALD, _October 18th, '48_.

"MY DEAR SIR,--As you are the man of business, if not the only one in our ranks, you must not complain of the trouble I am about to give you. The enclosed has embarrassed me not a little. Having been pleased with the writer's very successful reply to Mr. Gerrit Smith, which I think we read together, I feel loath to slight him altogether, and yet I can neither do what he suggests without falsifying my position or open a correspondence with him without exposing the act to perversion. I wish, therefore, you would take the trouble to send for him and explain to him my situation upon the said point.

In haste, very truly yours, "M. VAN BUREN."

TILDEN ON MR. GREELEY, THE LEGISLATOR, AND THE SLAVERY QUESTION[17]

[_From the "Evening Post," Dec. 23, 1848._]

"When we wrote our former articles on the bill of Mr. Douglass we had not seen the letter from Mr. Greeley which was published in Saturday's _Tribune_ (Dec. 16, 1848). The intimation contained in that letter of his sentiments and probable course in regard to that bill if presented in its original form, would not have been allowed to pass without the animadversion which its extraordinary nature calls for, and which we shall now briefly make, not upon the impersonality which edits the _Tribune_, but upon Mr. Greeley, the legislator, who represents in part the people of this city in the highest councils of the nation.

"When, after having professed to consider the extension of slavery to free Territories as the question of questions involved in the late election--after having for months exhorted all to treat it as far above the other objects of party association, and reproached those who did not so treat it as false to freedom--after having at first distrusted the noble band of Democrats who proclaimed their determination to maintain throughout the canvass and at the polls the sentiments which they had before professed, taunted them with the prediction that they would ultimately surrender principles to a slavish subserviency to party, and at length applauded their constancy when it could no longer be disputed; after having stigmatized as recreant to principle and duty all who should support a candidate for the Presidency not avowedly in favor of the Wilmot proviso; after having denounced General Taylor as identified in interest and association with the slave power, and probably unsound in principle on the greatest of issues; when, after having done all this, the editor of the _Tribune_, on the eve of election, announced his intention to support General Taylor, to vote for a man because he was available, whom he had denounced for that very reason when nominated as an available; to vote for a man because he would beat Gen. Cass, whom he had denounced when nominated on that express ground; to vote for a man whom, after three months of nice balancing, he found to be a shade less objectionable than another candidate, because it was necessary to make a choice of evils between the nominees of the two old party organizations, no matter how wrong and dangerous the principles of both might be; thus surrendering the great question of freedom in the Territories, in the same manner and for the same reasons, for which most of the supporters of Taylor and Cass at the North professed to surrender it, and uniting with them in presenting the miserable spectacle of a number of electors sufficient to choose the President, all voting for men not representing their sentiments on a question professedly regarded by them as the most important, because there was _no chance_ of electing one who did represent those sentiments; when, in a word, after all his former professions, Mr. Greeley ended in doing precisely what the original Taylor men and the Cass men of the North did, and for precisely the same reasons, and addressed to others precisely the same arguments which had been so long addressed to him in vain, and which he had been so long refuting, he shook deeply--very deeply--the confidence in his sincerity which his apparent zeal in behalf of freedom had inspired. For our part, we were inclined to take a charitable view of his conduct. We thought we saw him struggling in the meshes of party association, and yielding not until he had half satisfied his own conscience that he could vote for Taylor as not so certainly declared as Cass, and therefore not quite so objectionable on the great issue, and at last reconciled to himself by the general sense that it was a little better that Taylor should be elected than Cass. We thought we saw a painful conflict with his self-respect and his sense of consistency--a consciousness that he had not chosen the nobler, even if the more expedient, part--that he was doing at best a doubtful act against which his better nature revolted. We are disposed always to respect, in silence, such manifestations, and not to reproach.

"But what shall we think, what shall we say, of the spirit exhibited and the sentiments expressed in the following passage of Mr. Greeley's letter, which we have read with astonishment and regret: