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Show 10 went into the Department of State under General Harrison , I found in the conrluct of my predecessor mauy things that I could have wished I~ ad been otherwise. Did I retract a jot or tittle of what Mr. Forsyth had sa1d 1 I took the r.ase as he had left it, and coruJuctcd it upon the principles which he left. And I should have considered that l disgraced myself, if I had said, 11 Pray, my Lord Ash burton, we are more rational persons thnu our predecessors, we are more considernte than they, aud intend to adopt an entirely opposite policy. Consider, my dear Lorrl, how much more friend ly, reasonable, and amiable we the successors are, than our predecessors." But now, on this very subject of the extension of the slaYe power, I would by no means do the least injustice to Mr. Van Buren. lf he has come up to some of the opinions expressed in the platform of the Buffalo Convention, I am very glad of it. I do not mean to say that there may not be very good reason3 for those of his ow1~ party who cam~ot c~nscientiously vote for General Cass, to vote for hun, because I thmk hun much the least dangerous of the two. . But in truth, looking at Mr. Van Buren's conduct as President of the United States, I am amazed to find that he should be placed at the head of a party professing to be, beyond all other parties, friends of liberty and enemies of African slavery in the Southern States. Why, the very first thing that Mr. Van Buren did after he was President, was to declare that if Con(1ress interfered with slavery in the District of Columbia he would apply"the Veto to their Dills. Mr. Van Buren in his Inaugural, quoting from his letter accepting his nomination, says that he therein declared that "I must go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of C\'ery attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, against the wishes of the slaveholding States; and also with a determination equally clecided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists." He then proceeds," I submitted also to my fellow citizens, with fulness and frankness, the reason:s which led me to this determination. The result authorizes me to believe that they have been approved and are confided in, by a majority of the people of the United States, including thos-e whom they most immediately nffect. It now only remains to add, that no bill conflicting with these views can ever receive my constitutionRI sanction." In the next place, we know that Mr. Van Buren's casting vote was given for a law of very doubtful propriety, a law to allow Postmasters to open the mails and see if there was auy incendiary matter in them, and if so, to dP.slroy it. I do not say that there was no constitutional power t<> pass such a law. Perhaps the Southern statesmen thought it was necessary to protect thcmselve:; from insurrections. So far as any thing endnngers the li\·es and property of the South, so far I agree that there may be such legislation in Congress as shall prevent such results. But, gentlemen, no man has exercised a more controling influence on the conduct of his friends, in this country, than Mr. Van Duren. I take it, that the most important event in our time, tending to the extensiort of slavery and its everlasting establishment on this continent, was the annexR.tion of Texas, in 1844. Where was Mr. Van Buren then? Let me ask,-three or four years ago, where was he T HEN 1 Every friend of Mr. Van Buren, so far as I know, supported the measure. The two Senators from New York supported it, and the members of the House of Representati\'eS from New York supported it, and nobody resisted but Whigs. 11 And I say in the face of the world, I say in the face of those connected with, or likely to be benefited by, the Bulfalo convention, I say to all of them, that there has been no party of men in this country, which has firmly and sternly resisted the progress of the Slave Power but the Whigs. Why, look to this very question of the annexation of Texas. We talk of the dictation of the Slave Power! At l•ast they do, I do not. I do not allow that any body dictates to me. They talk of the triumph of the South over the North! There is not a word of truth or reason in the whole of it. I am bound to say, ou my conscience, that of nil the evils inflicted upon us by these acqui~itions of slave territory, the North has borne its full pn~t in the in fli ction. Northern votes, in full proportion, have been given 111 both Houses, for the extension of territory, and for the extension of slave territory. We talk of the North. There has been no North. I think the North Star is at last discovered ; I think there will be a North; but up to the recent session of Congress there has been no North. \Vhat ( mean to say is, I am to understand a geographical section of the country, in ~hich there has been found a stron~, conscientious, and uniicci oppositiOn to Slavery, no such North has exastcd. Pope says, you know, "tns;~~:~~~~~~ ·:t l~~ ~~~~~!~; ~1~ ~~~~~:tis on the Tweed; At Greenland, Zembla, or the Lord knows where." Now, if there has heretofore been such a Nort/1 as I have described, a North, strong in opinion and united in action aO"ainst Slavery, if such a Nortlt ha~ existed any where, it has existed 'the0 Lord knows where,' I do n?t. _Why, on this very question of the admission of Texns, it may be saJd WJth truth, that the North let in Texas. The Whigs, North and South, resasted T exas. Ten Senators from slave hold ing States, of the Whig party, resisted Texas. Two only, as I remember, voted for it. But the Southern Whig votes against Texas were overpowered by the Democratic vot~s from the free States, and from New Englaucl among the rest. Yes, 1f there had not been votes from Ne.w England in favor of Texas, fexas would have been out to this day. Yes, if men from New England had been true, Texas would have been nothing but Texas still. There were four votes in the Senate from New En(11and in favor of the admission of Texas, Mr. Van Duren's friends Demo~ratic members· one from Maine; two from New Hampshire; or;c from Connecticut. .Two of these gentlemen were confidential friends of Mr. Van Buren, and had bot~ ,been members of his Cabinet. They voted for Texas; and they let 10 1 exa~, agams_t Southern Wings and Northern "Whigs. That is the truth of 1t, my fnends. Mr. Van Buren, by the wave of his hand, could have kept out Texas. A word, a Jetter, though it had been e\'en shorter than Gen. Cass's letter to the Chicago Convention, would have been enough, and would have done the work. But he was silent. When ~orthern. members of Congress voted, in 1818, for the Missouri Comrromrse, ngaaost the knowu will of their constituents, they were called " Dough Faces." I am afraid, fellow citizens, that the generation of "dough faces" will be as perpetual as the generation of men. In l844 , as we all know, Mr. Van Durrn was a candidate for t-he Presi· den~y, on the part of the Democratic party, but lost the nomination at Baltamore. And we now learn from a letter from General Jackson to Mr. Butler, that Mr. Van Buren's claims were superseded because, after all, |