It will appear worse. It will appear a
hostile government. It will represent to their eye a vast region
of states organized upon anti-slavery, flushed by triumph,
cheered onward by the voice of the pulpit, tribune, and press;
its mission, to inaugurate freedom and put down the oligarchy;
its constitution, the glittering and sounding generalities of
natural right which make up the Declaration of Independence....
Practically the contest, in my judgment, is between Mr. Buchanan
and Colonel Fremont. In these circumstances, I vote for Mr.
Buchanan."
The party of political evasion thus became the refuge of the old
original Whigs who were forced to take advantage of any port in a
storm. Buchanan was elected by an overwhelming majority. To the
careless eye, Douglas had been justified by results; his party
had triumphed as perhaps never before; and yet, no great
political success was ever based upon less stable foundations.
To maintain this position, those Northerners who reasoned as
Choate did were a necessity; but to keep them in the party of
political evasion would depend upon the ability of this party to
play the game of politics without acknowledging sectional bias.
Whether this difficult task could be accomplished would depend
upon the South.
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