from
Europe added to the enemies of the slave system. It was hard for them to
understand that the Declaration of Independence did not include the
negro.

This was the state of affairs in the campaign of 1848. The Democrats had
nominated Mr. Cass, of Michigan, for President, and presented him to the
people on a platform which placed the responsibility for the Mexican War
upon the aggressions of Mexico; it congratulated the American soldiers
of that war for having crowned themselves with imperishable glory; it
tendered to the Republic of France fraternal salutations upon the
success of republican principles, upon the recognition by the French of
the inherent right of the people in their sovereign capacity to make and
amend their forms of government. It spoke for American Democracy, a
sense of the sacred duty, by reason of these popular triumphs abroad, to
advance constitutional liberty, to resist monopolies. It advocated a
constant adherence to the principles and compromises of the
Constitution. It praised the administration of Mr. Polk for repealing
the tariff of 1842, and making a start toward free trade.

And not a word about slavery. The convention voted down a resolution
which favored "non-interference with the rights of property of any
portion of the people of this confederation, be it in the states or the
territories, by any other than the parties interested in them."

What of the Whigs? They made no declaration of principles whatever.
Complete silence. They nominated General Taylor, as Douglas had
predicted, upon his record in the Mexican War, the war successfully
prosecuted by President Polk, and through which California, with her
gold, had come to the United States. Taylor, the slave owner of
Louisiana! But this was not the end of Whig cunning. Millard Fillmore
was nominated for Vice President. He was from New York, had been in
Congress, had opposed the annexation of Texas, was a tariff man, had
fought side by side with J. Q. Adams for the abolition of slavery. But
also he had been the Congressman who had carried the appropriation of
$30,000 for Morse's telegraph. A mixed man! His good was Taylor's evil.
Taylor's evil was his good.

Well, the native Americans had a ticket in the field; the Barn-burners
had a ticket in the field; and the Abolitionists. Mr. Van Buren was
running for President as a Barn-burner on a platform which declared
that there should be no more slave states, and no more slave territory.