10 how the Kane letter induced them to believe that the protective tariff policy would be safe under the Administration of Mr. Polk ; how they read that letter to the people of Pennsylvania, and made them believe the same thing; and they entreat their democratic brethren to take into consideration their peculiar position, and implore them not to pass the Administration measure now under consideration. What response do they receive ? They have been repeatedly regularly read out of the Democratic party, and denounced for cherishing, what is called a bastard Democracy. Without venturing to express any opinion upon so delicate a question as the relative claims to orthodoxy, and respectability, of the legitimate, and bastard branches of the Democratic family, I proceed with the question which I am examining. Mr. Buchanan is, I repeat, a member of the Administration which is employing all its influence to pass this free trade .measure ; and this fact precludes the possibility of the conclusion that he Was himself deceived by the Kane letter., and thus became the innocent and unwitting instrument of deceiving the State to which he owed so large a debt of gratitude. If this had been true, when Mr. Polk developed his free trade policy, he would have resigned his place in the cabinet with indignation, saying to Mr. Polk,li you induced me to believe that the protective tariff policy would be fostered and guarded by your Administration. Under that belief I made assurances to the people of Pennsylvania, which induced them to make you the President of the United States. You have deceived me, and made me the instrumait of deceiving those who confided in me, and to whom I am indebted for all that I am. Therefore, self-respect, honor, patriotism—every high motive which ought to control the conduct of man, compel me to cut myself loose from your Aministration, and cooperate, as best I may, with my deceived and injured friends in redressing our common wrongs.” But where is he? What is he doing? He is, as I before remarked, a member of that Administration which is employing its whole influences abolish the policy which Mr. Buchanan made the people of Pennsylvania believe would be safe in its keeping. He is dancing attendance at the White House, where he can “ lick absurd pomp, and crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning.” He is literally lending the strength of his arm to aid the feebler arm of his master- in striking down the interests of the people of Pennsylvania. Therefore, it is impossible for the most Christian charity to believe that he was not knowingly and wilfully a party to the foul and atrocious fraud that has been practised upon the, American people, but more especially upon those of New York and Pennsylvania. The President of the United States cannot escape the same damning imputation by referring to the generalities of his Kane letter. If he had not intended that letter to do a work of fraud and deception, he would have responded to the interrogatories propounded to him by the public meetings in Tennessee, to which I have referred, thereby relieving himself from the possibility of being misunderstood. Mr. Chairman, I do not understand the casuistry which makes a distinction between the perfidy of an individual and that of a public man, and decides the one to be less reprehensible than the other. If personal disgrace and dishonor were the penalties with which public opinion punished politi- , cal perfidy, it would be impossible to conceive of a lower deep of infamy than that to which James K. Polk and James Buchanan would be con
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