If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it
in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in
advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in
charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it
was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the
mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can
truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude
to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose there is of
black-cockade federalism about me, and therefore they shall take me up as
their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of
me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a
military hero.
While I have General Cass in hand, I wish to say a word about his
political principles. As a specimen, I take the record of his progress in
the Wilmot Proviso. In the Washington Union of March 2, 1847, there is a
report of a speech of General Cass, made the day before in the Senate, on
the Wilmot Proviso, during the delivery of which Mr. Miller of New Jersey
is reported to have interrupted him as follows, to wit:
"Mr.
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