Such, I say, form'd,
or absolutely controll'd the forming of, the entire personnel, the
atmosphere, nutriment and chyle, of our municipal, State, and National
politics--substantially permeating, handling, deciding, and wielding
everything--legislation, nominations, elections, "public sentiment,"
&c.--while the great masses of the people, farmers, mechanics, and
traders, were helpless in their gripe. These conditions were mostly
prevalent in the north and west, and especially in New York and
Philadelphia cities; and the southern leaders, (bad enough, but of a
far higher order,) struck hands and affiliated with, and used them.
Is it strange that a thunder-storm follow'd such morbid and stifling
cloud-strata?
I say then, that what, as just outlined, heralded, and made the ground
ready for secession revolt, ought to be held up, through all the
future, as the most instructive lesson in American political
history--the most significant warning and beacon-light to coming
generations. I say that the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
terms of the American Presidency have shown that the villainy and
shallowness of rulers (back'd by the machinery of great parties) are
just as eligible to these States as to any foreign despotism, kingdom,
or empire--there is not a bit of difference. History is to record
those three Presidentiads, and especially the administrations of
Fillmore and Buchanan, as so far our topmost warning and shame.
Never were publicly display'd more deform'd, mediocre, snivelling,
unreliable, false-hearted men.
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