ment the South into one common brotherhood of Democ racy. He also knew full well that the annexation of Texas, whose independence had not been recognized by Mexico, would necessarily lead to a war with Mexico, provided she felt herself in a condition to resent the outrage upon her well-known right to Texas as a revolted province, and through his instruments at home he raised the cry of "Texas without the Union, rather than the Union without Texas," which soon became the rallying-cry of the Democratic party throughout the Southern States; and it was upon this issue, thus adroitly but mischievously made, that thousands of the Whig party, of casy virtue and shallow brains, were democratized, and through their instrumentality, to the infinite surprise of the nation and the world, Mr. James K. Polk beat Mr. Clay for the Presidency in 1844.

THE STRICT DISCIPLINE IN THE DEMOCRATIC RANKS.

Thus you have seen, though not exactly in chronological order, how and for what purpose Toxas was annexed, and how and for what purpose the war with Mexico was made by the Democratic party through their agent and representative, Mr. Polk, and without the sanction of Congress, though then in session. This was made, not because war in itself was at all more desirable to Democracy than to any other people, but because it would lead to acquisition of territory, and to long and angry sectional disputes, and ultimately either to the security of their power under the national government or to a dissolution of the Union, all of which followed as had been anticipated; for whatever else may be said of the Democratic party, it can not be denied that it was the best-organized and the best-drilled party that the world has produced in any age or country; and it never lacked the boldness to do any thing, however mon

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strous and violent, or unconstitutional, to accomplish the object of its leaders. One of the distinguishing features that has always marked the difference between the Democratic and Whig parties in this country has been, that the former was never afraid to do what they knew to be wrong to accomplish an end, while the latter was always afraid to do what they knew to be right for the same end.

No army under the lead of the great Napoleon was ever more under his control, or more obedient to his orders, than were the masses of the Democracy to the demands made upon them by the hungry and greedy set of demagogues, their leaders, after the spoils of office, the dispensation of patronage, and the exercise and perpetuation of power; and so far did this well-digested plan succeed that the safety of the Union was then greatly imperiled by the result. I rcpeat here what I said in my Academy of Music speech in New York in 1859:

"I do not mean to say, because I do not believe that vice and corruption pervade the entire body of Democratic politicians, although there is far too much of it in politicians of all parties, and none are too good to bear watching; but it is the nature and character of their organization, which is the most perfect, compact, and formidable that ever controlled a party, that leads to all these mischiefs; it is the system and policy they pursue, and to which few of them. do not subscribe; and when they do not they are excluded from the fleshpots, which is the severest punishment known to their codes-that policy is to make all things bend to success, to sacrifice all things human and holy to the ascendency of party and the perpetuation of power; neither the lights of experience, the peace of the country, the harmony of sections, the preservation of the Constitution, the safety of the Union, the prosperity of the nation, the purity

of the bench, the sanctity of the church, neither one nor all these combined are allowed to break through the serried ranks of their political organization, which has no principle for its basis, and no manly incentive for its conduct."

THE WILMOT PROVISO.

So alarming were the threats of dissolution occasioned by the application of the Wilmot Proviso (which was nothing but the revival of the provisions of the Ordinance of 1787,and for which this same Southern Democracy had themselves just before voted-I believe unanimously or nearly so -when applied to the Territory of Oregon) to all territory acquired from Mexico, of which full notice had been given during the war, and before the territory was acquired, that Mr. Clay, who had resigned his seat in the Senate and retired to private life with a determination never again to engago in the turmoil of political strife, was induced by a lofty spirit of patriotism to leave the comforts of home, which at his advanced age had become essential to his health and repose, to return again to the Senate, onco moro to still the elements of an approaching political hurricane that threatened to sweep every thing of value in our institutions before it. The result you well know to have been the adoption of the Compromise Measures of 1850.

The adoption of these measures of compromise was hardly a less staggering blow struck at the wicked aims of this reckless and disloyal party than that struck by General Jackson in 1833, even at the moment that they had indulged in the insane fancy that the time had arrived for a bold outbreak into open revolution. But discomforted and disheartened as they were, the leaders did not lose their courage, for they were always a bold, daring, and desperate set of men, who had set their hearts on the destruction of a gov

ernment that they saw must soon pass from under their control. The standard of rebellion was raised, and they called a Southern Convention, to be held at Nashville, for the purpose of resisting by force the measures which had been adopted; but the loyalty of the people had not then been sufficiently corrupted to encourage an open outbreak. Nevertheless, the secession flag was raised in most of theCotton States. In Mississippi, General Quitman was the sccession candidate for governor, and the Mr. Henry S. Foote now a member of the Confederate Congress, and the constant eulogist of his then opponent, and as active a champion of secession as is to be found in all the South, was the Union candidate. He boldly repudiated and denied the right of a state to secede, denounced it as treason, and in a short time Davis was driven from the field.

Jeff. Davis supplied his place, but the people of Mississippi triumphantly sustained Foote, and he was elected governor by a large majority. The same flag was also raised in Georgia under the lead of the then Governor M'Donough. IIowell Cobb, late Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and now a general of the Confederato Army, was the Union candidate; he also denounced secession as treason, and was likewise triumphantly sustained by the people of Georgia.

The party seeing these overwhelming indications of determined hostility to the doctrine of secession, and of the popularity of the measures they had so persistently opposed, wheeled to the right about, claimed the compromises as their own, went into convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency, and adopted a platform, pledging themselves unequivocally to a faithful support of the measures they had thus resisted.

This it was necessary they should do to give them a ghost of a chance to elect a Democratic President; and for

that end they were prepared, as they always had been, to do any thing deemed requisite to their success. This was their solemn pledge to the people of the United States; how far they adhered to this pledge, after they had deluded and cheated the people into a trust to their sincerity and honesty, will be seen in the sequel. But upon this pledge to the nation they set up Mr. Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, a man unknown to fame, a man, for such a position, of absolute obscurity, a man without talents, without firmness, without reputation, without popularity or influence, as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency against General Scott, whom they charged with being unsafe, and unsound, and not to be trusted on the measures of compromise; and, by hard swearing, they succeeded in persuading the great masses of the Southern people that this New England pettifogger was more to be relied on for the protection of Southern rights and Southern institutions than General Scott, a nativo born Virginian, who was not only born and raised in the midst of slavery, but whose whole property and interests were located here in Virginia, and who had a most enlarged national reputation-one, indeed, that extended throughout the world, and who was known to have been extremely active and efficient in Washington in procuring the passage of the Compromises of 1850.

THE EXTREMISTS OF BOTH SECTIONS UNITED IN ACTION.

It is a circumstance not to be overlooked here, that throughout the period that these measures were before Congress, the extreme men of both sections, to wit, the Northern Abolitionists and the Southern Seccders and "Fire-caters," as they were called, uniformly and invariably acted and voted together. In illustration of this, I will mention an amusing incident that occurred at the Exchange Hotel