17

the Texas boundary bill "—the first to come up, and the last on which he was able to record his ballot. On September 7, the House passed the California Bill (for which Wilmot would certainly have voted if present) and the Utah Bill, which he just as certainly would have opposed. On this he was paired with Mr. William T. Hamilton, of Maryland, democrat-an effective pairing, as Hamilton took occasion to say that if free he would have supported the bill.18 Nor was he present nor voting at the passage of the bill abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia, September 17 (Cong. Globe, p. 1837).

He was denounced later for his absence from the House at that season, by the very people who had created the situation which compelled him to return to his Pennsylvania congressional district (See Chapter XXIV). But in any case, the issue of the compromise bills was in no slightest doubt, and there was nothing more that Wilmot could do to assure or prevent their passage. The real fighting had all taken place much earlier—not merely earlier in the passing session, but in the years preceding. Wilmot's main contribution to it at this particular phase-the first session of the Thirty-first Congress -took the form of two speeches, neither, as it happened, delivered when the California Bill was formally under consideration, though both were addressed almost entirely to the critical questions involved in that act. The first, spoken May 3, was an interpolation, by consent, during the proceedings on the Census Bill. That measure was laid aside informally that Mr. Wilmot might be heard on the California question prior to his departure for several weeks' absence. The second was delivered, July 24, when the subject nominally under discussion was the appropriation for the Military Academy. These speeches are reproduced in the Appendix.

17 Cong. Globe, Aug. 28, 1850, p. 1683. This was in preliminary proceedings. The bill was not put upon its passage until Sept. 6.

18 Cong. Globe, Sept. 7, 1850, p. 1776.

CHAPTER XXIV

UNHORSED

WHILE the huge struggle over the principle of the Proviso was thus engrossing House, Senate and Administration, and capturing the attention of the great dailies throughout the United States and even abroad,' Wilmot's enemies were working diligently, in his absence from his home district, to perfect fresh schemes for his political destruction there.

Only the intensity of their effort was new. The methods were merely an extension of the old ones: progressive alienation of working politicians in his former following, by a shrewdly apportioned distribution of threats and smiles; and the development of the hostile home press. In the former of these phases, Buchanan himself did not hesitate to take a hand, when the game was important enough-as, for example, in the case of Colonel Piollet, who had long been a democratic leader in Bradford County, and originally one of Wilmot's closest colleagues. Not many months before, on account of that alliance, the Secretary of State had aimed a blow at Piollet by attempting to defeat his appointment to a paymastership; but when the blow missed (as already described in Chapter XIV), Buchanan signaled a change of course and policy by writing the Colonel a propitiatory letter in which he opened a glimpse of the possibilities of amity and patronage. By the beginning of 1850, the correspondence had ripened to a tone of intimate confidence and close, even playful friendliness, as the subjoined letter suggests:

1 The London Times devoted a leader, Nov. 19, 1850, to the prospect of a dissolution of the Union “in a contest for ascendancy on a point of domestic policy."

Wheatland, near Lancaster, 4 March, 1850.

My dear Sir: Absence from home has alone prevented me from sooner answering your kind & friendly letter of the 18th ultimo. I rejoice in the assurance which it affords me of your constant friendship & trust that we may always be friends, "as long as we both do live."

If I had the matter under my own control, I would pursue the very course you recommend in regard to the Presidential nomination. . . . But it is impossible for me to prevent premature movements from being made, or afterwards to condemn those who have made them from the kindest motives. The difficulty in my way which prevented my nomination in 1848, & may do so again in 1852 (but for the last time), is not that a great division exists at home, but that any division exists at all. At the last Baltimore Convention it was strongly represented that I could not carry my own State-that I would run 10,000 behind my party, &c., &c., & these statements were confirmed by Delegates instructed to support me who voted for me in public & did all they could against me in private. Should the State Convention of 1854 again elect my enemies to Baltimore, that very instant I shall decline, unless I should feel morally certain that I could be nominated without the aid of Penna.—a thing almost impossible.

The Presidency is considered so high an honor for any State, that the Democrats of other States, not being acquainted with our domestic politics, cannot understand how a fierce division can exist in the party of Penna. against the nomination of one of her own sons, & infer from this a bitterness of feeling which would prevent numbers from voting for him at the polls.

If the Slavery question were settled, all would appear propitious. In the course of human events the time has arrived when I can be nominated, unless the active exertions of my enemies at home shall prevent. Please request Mr. Wien Forney to send me the North Pennsylvanian. I would thank you to remember me to Mr. Ward, Mr. Addison McKean & my other friends in Bradford.

No man who has not been at Washington & whilst there behind the scenes can form any proper idea of the deep and excited feeling which exists among Southern men in regard to the Slavery question. I do most firmly believe, that had the Wilmot Proviso

become a law, nothing short of a special interposition of Divine Providence could have saved the Union. The refusal of our [that is, the Pennsylvania] House of Representatives to take the measure up followed as it was by the H. R. at Washington voting to lay it on the table has averted though it has not removed the danger.

Please present my love to Mrs. Piollet & don't be jealous. I should be glad to give her & you a cordial welcome to my abode & I hope that the next time you visit Harrisburg or Philadelphia you may afford me the opportunity.

From your friend,
Very respectfully,

Col. Victor E. Piollet.

JAMES BUCHANAN.

In the newspaper propaganda, however, while Plitt's letters show that Buchanan kept a close control and was constantly informed of every move, not infrequently contributing articles himself under cover, he left all open moves to his lieu

tenants.

2

So far as Wilmot was concerned, the time was particularly inviting for a decisive attack, as another congressional campaign was to be fought before the following October. The Eagle was already established against him in Tioga County. The Democrat was at least cooling in his cause in Susquehanna. With a concentrated assault in Bradford, Wilmot's support in the entire district might be demoralized. So the preliminary outline of the offensive was sketched in a letter from C. L. Ward, one of Wilmot's fellow townsmen (the same Mr. Ward to whom Buchanan sent greetings), written from Philadelphia to Colonel Piollet, January 6, 1850:

2 Thus Plitt suggests, Dec. 16, 1852, that Buchanan write some articles for the Pennsylvanian, adding that "either Sophie or myself will copy the articles out and insert them editorially." Buchanan papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

Dear Sir:

I rec'd yours of the 31st ult. on my return from Washington yesterday I had seen Gen. Patton in Washington, and learned he had written you in regard to the Type- The matter is settled— I have told our friends, at Washington and here, that a new Democratic paper is to be started at Towanda-and started it shall be I shall get some few things which are requisite to make the office lately in Col. Bull's hands a first rate one, and have them sent up from New York-as soon as next week

There is but one opinion among Democrats everywhere, as to Wilmot and his course. Not ten minutes since, I was at the Pennsylvanian office-Col. Florence, Charles Brown, Sheriff Deal, McCann, Plitt and a dozen more of the stanchest Democrats Philada can boast, were there. Every one of them said, and not a few swore, they would vote against ever admitting him into a State Convention again, even if sent by Bradford CountyYou have no idea, how bitterly he is hated by the Pennsylvania Democrats in Congress and at Washington- Those who choose to follow him, must go to certain political infamy.

I think Forney will be elected without his vote- The Telegraph gives him 107 votes on last trial-Campbell (Whig) 103-that's to-day's (Monday's) trial.

The South will go en masse for Buchanan for President, if some unlucky difficulty does not spring up from the fanatical movements in regard to slavery. His chance was never so good as at this moment

I shall be home in the course of ten days, and have much to say to you I write very hurriedly; and with my regards to your family

I am, dear sir,
Very truly yours,

C. L. WARD.

Col. V. E. Piolett.

3 Mr. Ward, no doubt, reported accurately the views of the men he listed and their associates, but he went a little too far in attributing them to "Democrats everywhere." The Van Burens, Silas Wright, Salmon P. Chase, Hannibal Hamlin, Preston King, John P. Hale, William Cullen Bryant to mention only a few Democrats who certainly were somewherediffered very widely from Mr. Ward, Sheriff Deal and George Plitt, as to "Wilmot and his course."