Presidential Candidates Part 18

The debate occurred March 27, 1854, and we quote from a report of it:

"The House of Representatives, Monday, resolved itself into committee of the whole on the Custom House bill, Mr. Hamilton in the chair; but the chairman decided that before that bill could be taken up, all those preceding it must first be set aside; and that the first business in order was the consideration of the bill making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1855. Mr. Houston moved that the committee take up the bill named by the Chair, which was agreed to.

"Mr. Cutting then arose and replied to the remarks made by Mr.

Breckinridge on Thursday last. He adverted to his course in moving that the Senate Nebraska bill be committed to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union, and said that at that time he gave his reasons for the act, and declared that there was no gentleman on this floor who was to be regarded as a stronger and more zealous advocate of the great principle which the measure was said to contain--that of non-intervention--than he was. But the bill required amendment and discussion before it could receive that support to which, in his opinion, it was ent.i.tled. After this subject had been disposed of, and after the elapse of some two days, a gentleman from a slaveholding State, who had had no lot or parcel in its discussion, as a volunteer merely, came into the House, and thought it not incompatible with his character as a leading member to undertake to a.s.sail his motives; though it was true that he disclaimed any intention of attacking them. The gentleman [Mr. Breckinridge] came into the House, with concentrated wrath and bitterness, to a.s.sail him for having, in his place, and under his responsibility as a member, stated his views frankly as to the direction this bill ought to take.

"The gentleman had charged him with being a secret enemy of the bill, and, while professing friendship for it, as having taken a course which would end in its destruction. When did the gentleman from Kentucky ever hear him say he was friendly to the bill? The gentleman was present, and heard him declare his opposition to it in the shape in which it came from the Senate, and the belief that not only himself, but a majority of the House, would be found against it. Had not the gentleman sufficient perspicuity of understanding to know the difference between the principles involved in a measure and a bill which professed to carry them out? And when he [Mr. C.] declared in this House frankly and openly, before the question on the motion to commit was put, that he was against the bill, but in favor of the principles which it professed to enact, how came the gentleman to undertake to declare that he [Mr. C.] had declared himself a friend of the bill, against the record, against the reports that appeared everywhere?

"The gentleman had complained that by the motion to commit he [Mr.

C.] had consigned this measure to the tomb of the Capulets. If this were so, and this bill could never again be brought before the House, why did the gentleman submit to an hour's argument to prove that it ought to pa.s.s? It was time wasted, time thrown away.

No gentleman acquainted with the orders of the calendar could for a moment believe that sending this bill to the committee of the whole would prevent action on it this session. The gentleman had said that there were scores and scores of bills before it on the calendar. Now, what was the fact? There were some eighteen or nineteen bills and resolutions, all told, large and small, of great and little degree, ahead of it on the calendar, including appropriation bills, which were subject to the control of the committee of ways and means. Then why, with this fact staring the gentleman in the face, did the gentleman undertake, for the purpose of making an a.s.sault on him, to declare that there were scores upon scores of bills before this measure on the calendar?

By what authority did the gentleman, who had a supposed connection with the Administration, complain of him, a friend of the measure, of undertaking to send it to a tomb, where there was a mountain piled upon it, for the purpose of creating a false impression in the public mind?

"For the course he had seen proper to pursue he had been a.s.sailed in papers of this city (one of them, the "Union," it was said, conducted by the clerk of this House), and by other presses. How was it that he, a friend of the measure, had been selected as a victim to drive off those who had given the principle their support? Was it to a.s.sa.s.sinate the friends who had stood with him on this subject?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--Does the gentleman intend to apply that remark to me?

"MR. CUTTING.--Not unless you consider yourself a portion of the Union newspaper.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I was at that moment taking a note, and heard the word. I would ask whether the gentleman applied the remark to me?

"MR. CUTTING.--I did not. I am the only one charged with being an a.s.sa.s.sin.

"He had been subject to the continual attacks of New York papers, which, while opposing this measure, were enjoying the patronage of the Administration.

"In the course of his remarks, he said that there was but one single ground upon which the Democracy of the North could stand, and that was the principle of non-intervention. If this was found in the bill, he should vote for it; and the reason why he wished it referred was for the purpose of examining into the matter, that there might be a distinct and plain understanding between the different sections of the country, as to the character of the act, so that there might be no misunderstanding upon the subject of the principles contained in it.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had forborne to interrupt the gentleman; but whilst his remarks were fresh in his mind he wished to reply.

"Mr. Cutting yielded, and no objection was made to Mr. B.'s proceeding.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had listened to the gentleman from New York, who had not met a single position which he took the other day. He had been amazed at the manner in which a man of intellectual ingenuity had twisted and distorted words and opinions out of their proper connections.

"He explained that the reason why he permitted two days to elapse before he replied to the gentleman, was because the gentleman himself after making his speech the other day on the motion to commit, put down the hatchway of the previous question, so that he was denied an opportunity of responding to him.

"He had said, and he now repeated, that with the gentleman's motives he had nothing to do; he had made and should make no attack upon them. When he spoke of the movement of the gentleman, he characterized it as one the effect of which would be to kill the bill, and said that after the question was decided, he was surrounded by every abolitionist in the hall, and received their congratulations for the course he had pursued. He did not intend to charge the gentleman with intentionally playing the part of an a.s.sa.s.sin; but said, and could not take it back, that the act, to all intents, was like throwing one arm around it in friendship, and stabbing it with the other--to kill the bill.

"The gentleman from New York had said that there were but eighteen or nineteen bills before the Nebraska bill on the calendar?

"MR. ENGLISH.--There are fifty bills before the Senate bill.

"MR. CUTTING.--Before the House bill?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I will nail the gentleman to the counter there. 'Before the House bill?' says he. 'Why, I give up that we will never reach the Senate bill, but we will reach the House bill.' But did not the gentleman say that his object in moving to commit the bill was that he might discuss the bill and examine the Badger proviso? And is not the Badger amendment contained in the Senate bill? Thus it would be seen that the bill which the gentleman moved to commit for the purpose of examining into could never be reached.

"The meaning of the gentleman's remarks about the press was, that he (Mr. B.) had acted in concert with papers in this city to drive the gentleman from the support of the bill. Was it not a low ambition for a man to take a course against a measure because another was for it? Did the gentleman suppose that twenty Administrations could ever drive him (Mr. B.) from his position?

Even if the Administration were against the bill, he (Mr. B.) would go for it. They should never influence him in this respect.

He had no more connection with the Administration than any other gentleman on this floor.

"The gentleman had said that he (Mr. B.) was the last individual whom he supposed would have made an a.s.sault on him, because in the hour of his greatest need the Hards came to his a.s.sistance. This innuendo was so deep that he could not understand it, and therefore asked for an explanation.

"MR. CUTTING replied, that he had been informed that during the canva.s.s in Kentucky, it having been intimated that the gentleman's friends needed a.s.sistance to accomplish his election, his friends in New York made up a subscription of some $1,500, and transmitted it to Kentucky, to be employed for the benefit of the gentleman, who is now the peer of Presidents and Cabinets. [Laughter.]

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--And not only the peer of Presidents and Cabinets, but the peer of the gentleman from New York, fully and in every respect.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE, resuming, said that the gentleman should have known the truth of what he uttered before he p.r.o.nounced it on this floor. He (Mr. B.) was not aware that any intimations were sent from Kentucky that funds were needed to aid in his election, nor was he aware that they were received. He did not undertake to say what the fact might be in regard to what the gentleman had said, but he had no information whatever on that fact. He (Mr. B.) came here not by the aid of money, but against the use of money.

[Applause.] The gentleman could not escape by any subtlety, or by any ingenuity, a thorough and complete exposure of any ingenious device to which he might resort for the purpose of putting gentlemen in a false position, and the sooner he stopped that game, the better.

"MR. CUTTING said that he had given the gentleman an opportunity of indulging in one of the most violent, inflammatory, and personal a.s.saults that had ever been known upon this floor; and he would ask, how could the gentleman disclaim any attack upon him when he followed it up by declaring that his (Mr. C.'s) intention and motive was to destroy a measure for which he professed friendship?

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE asked the gentleman to point to the occasion when he made such a remark.

"MR. CUTTING submitted to the committee that the whole tenor and scope of the speech of the gentleman from Kentucky was an attack upon his motives in moving to commit the bill. It was in vain for the gentleman to attempt to escape by disclaiming it; the fact was before the committee. But he would say to the gentleman that he scorned his imputation. How dare the gentleman undertake to a.s.sert that he had professed friendship for the measure, with a view to kill it, to a.s.sa.s.sinate it by sending it to the bottom of the calendar? And then, when he said that the committee of the whole had under its control the House bill upon this identical subject, which the committee intended to take up, discuss, amend, and report to the House, the gentleman skulked behind the Senate bill, which had been sent to the foot of the calendar!

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--I ask the gentleman to withdraw that last word.

"MR. CUTTING.--I withdraw nothing. I have uttered what I have said in answer to one of the most violent and most personal attacks that has ever been witnessed upon this floor.

"MR. BRECKINRIDGE.--Then, when the gentleman says I skulk, he says what is false.

"THE CHAIR.--The gentleman is not in order.

"MR. CUTTING.--I do not intend upon this floor to answer the remark which the gentleman from Kentucky has thought proper to employ. It belongs to a different region. It is not here that I will desecrate my lips with undertaking to retort in that manner.

"Mr. C. then declared that in moving to commit the bill, his object was to get it in such a shape as would be satisfactory to the country, and put at rest the outcries of fanaticism which now prevailed throughout the land.

"He desired peace and harmony, and would suggest to gentlemen who were anxious for the pa.s.sage of the bill, that it was not the best mode of accomplishing their object by a.s.sailing those who proclaimed themselves favorable to its principles and its great cardinal outlines. It seemed to him, if gentlemen desired the success of the bill, it would answer a better purpose if they would turn their batteries upon its enemies, rather than attempt to destroy those who were its friends."

The result was, that the preliminaries of a duel were arranged, but fortunately, by the interposition of friends, an amicable adjustment of the difficulty was arrived at.

When Mr. Pierce was in power, he offered Mr. Breckinridge the Spanish mission, but he refused it. In 1856, he was put upon the Democratic ticket and elected Vice-President of the United States.

The official position of Mr. Breckinridge has been such as to render his position on some of the present political issues somewhat doubtful. He is, of course, a believer in the old Democratic creed, and is a moderate supporter of the South and her inst.i.tutions. It was generally understood at Washington, during the Lecompton struggle, that he sided with the President against Mr. Douglas--in other words, was in favor of the bill. He was a warm supporter of Mr. Douglas in 1854, and his great measure, the Kansas act. In the last session of Congress, Mr. Breckinridge gave his casting vote to postpone the consideration of the Homestead bill, which gives an indication of his hostility to the measure. He is a very fair politician, of unspotted integrity as a man, and is possessed of talents of high order, such as fit him to occupy with ability any office within the gift of the people.

JOHN C. FREMONT.

The leadership of Mr. Fremont in a Presidential campaign has doubtless made his name and history familiar to all intelligent men, but the fact that he is a prominent candidate for the Presidency in 1860, makes it proper to give in this volume an outline sketch of his life.

Aside from this, such men as Fremont, whether Presidential candidate or not, whether President or not, are the great, daring, characteristic, men of our times, and their deeds should always be held in remembrance.

Mr. Fremont is a native of Savannah, Georgia, where he was born, June 21, 1813. At an early age he entered the law office of John W.

Mitch.e.l.l, of Charleston, where he gave such indications of talent, that Mr. Mitch.e.l.l bestowed unusual pains upon his education, placing him under the care of an excellent teacher, Dr. Robertson, a Scotch gentleman, who carried him through the cla.s.sics. At the age of sixteen, young Fremont was confirmed in the Protestant Episcopal church. In 1833, the sloop-of-war Natchez entered the port of Charleston and was ordered from there to South America. Fremont, just twenty years old, got the situation of teacher of mathematics aboard of her, and made a cruise of two and a half years. Upon his return, he was made professor of mathematics and appointed to the frigate Independence. He afterward made one of a corps of topographical engineers to explore a route of a railway from Charleston to Cincinnati. It was here that Fremont got his first experience of camp life. He went next to the Upper Mississippi on a similar undertaking.

In 1841, Mr. Fremont was ordered to examine the Desmoines River, in Iowa--then a wilderness; and when it was performed, he returned to marry Jessie Benton, the young daughter of Thomas H. Benton. The next year he projected his first great exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, setting out from Washington, May 2, 1842. The results of the expedition were great and made a deep impression upon the Government and nation, and a second expedition was ordered, much more complete in preparation than the first. The party left Kansas in May, 1843, and did not get back to the United States until August of 1844.

The tour was full of dangers and thrilling incidents, and the results were still more striking than those of the first expedition. Col.