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WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1856
country, but when called up by friends, I feel it due to them to express my sentiments plainly. You and I and tens of thousands of old Democrats who were the true Covenanters under Jackson, wash our hands of these absurdities, follies, and evidences of culpable mismanagement. None of these things are fraught with the principles of that Democracy which was taught at the Hermitage, and treasured up by us. I can find no relief in the nomination made at Cin- cinnati. I regard the gentleman upon whom it fell as a man of abilities, and one with whom I have always maintained kind per- sonal relations; and for Mr. Buchanan I yet retain the highest respect. From his antecedents I cannot regard him as more patriotic and national than Mr. Filmore. In the office of Presi- dent, one has been tried, the other has not.-lt is a matter of astonishment to me that the nomination happened to fall to the lot of Mr. Buchanan, when other names, as I have learned, were used on the occasion, who had been the active advocates of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which had been declared to be the main issue in the approching Presidential contest. That plank is prom- inent in the platform, and the platform has been accepted, cordially, by the nominee. We have regard to squatter sovereignty as one of the cardinal points in modern Democracy. The candi- date, however has merged himself in the platform, or the prin- ciples of it, which, to my mind, are not in harmony with Jackson Democracy, and I accordingly repudiate them. I canno~ separate the candidate and the platform in this instance, as they are identical, inasmuch as the nominee has said that he could no longer speak for himself, as James Buchanan, but as the exponent of the principles set forth in the platform. I am constrained, acco1·ding to my notions of Democracy, utterly to reject the plat- form, and cannot give my support to the nominee of the present Democratic party. Of the Republicans, I can only say that their platform and principles are sectional, and l cannot see how any man loving this Union, devoted to its princi1>les, can support a ticket fraught with such disastrous consequences to the whole country as its success would be. It has been my habit :in life to deprecate and oppose everything of a sectional character, and therefore, I cannot view with complacency anything which is calculated to mitigate against the Union, or any section of the whole country.- You, my dear sir, know as well as I do, that when Texas was annexed to the United States, .she did not consider · herself as identified with any particular section, but viewed herself as
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