tle of
what Mr. Forsyth had said? I took the case as he had left it, and
conducted it upon the principles which he left. I should have considered
that I disgraced myself if I had said, "Pray, my Lord Ashburton, we are
more rational persons than our predecessors, we are more considerate
than they, and intend to adopt an entirely opposite policy. Consider, my
dear Lord, how much more friendly, reasonable, and amiable we are than
our predecessors."

But now, on this very subject of the extension of the slave power, I
would by no means do the least injustice to Mr. Van Buren. If 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 reasons for those of his own party who cannot
conscientiously vote for General Cass to vote for him, because I think
him 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 Congress
interfered with slavery in the District of Columbia, he would apply the
veto to their bills. Mr. Van Buren, in his inaugural address, quotes the
following expression from his letter accepting his nomination: "I must
go into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising
opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in
the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slave-holding States;
and also with a determination equally decided 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
reasons 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 those whom they most
immediately affect. It now only remains to add, that no bill conflicting
with these views can even receive my constitutional 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 any incendiary