The Administration and the Democratic Party
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THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Indications are multiplying of a schism in the Democratic party, too wide to be healed even by the cohesive power of the spoils. Senator Douglas1 has openly broken ground against the Administration, in favor of submitting the entire Lecompton Constitution to the people of Kansas;2 and the President,3 as if to render reconciliation between himself and the Northern Democrats impossible, has removed Secretary Stanton,4 and it is rumored, Gov. Walker also.5 When it is remembered that not only Senator Douglas, but Gov. Wise,6 endorses Gov. Walker, and that Walker himself is one of the most able and popular leaders of the Democratic party, it seems probable that a formidable opposition to the Administration, both in and out of Congress, will be created.
At the same time, the President's removal of John McKeon,7 for supporting Mayor Tiemann,8 will not improbably divide the party in New York, like Pierce's9 removal of Bronson.10
At the bottom of all this trouble lie the aspirations of different individuals for the succession. It is feared by Douglas that either Secretary Cobb,11 or the President himself, has an eye on 1860; and the Little Giant feels that unless he retrieve some of the ground which the revocation of the Missouri compromise lost him in the North, he cannot hope to be an available candidate for the Presidency, or even to be reelected to the Senate.
The vast majority of the people of both sections admit the propriety of submitting to the people of Kansas the Constitution under which they are to be governed as a State; and Douglas, insisting on the submission, occupies a vantage ground from which all the patronage and power of the Administration cannot dislodge him. More than this, his present attitude is an apology to the North for his past actions, for it seems to indicate that in fathering the Nebraska bill he did really intend to afford the people of the Territories the free and uncontrolled formation of their own Constitution and institutions.
Notes:
1. Stephen Arnold Douglas (1813–1861), nicknamed the "Little Giant," was a U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1847 to 1861. Douglas promoted the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 and ran for President against Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He was a well-known proponent of "Popular Sovereignty," the idea that the question of slavery should be left for voters of a given state to decide. For more information, see T. Gregory Garvey, "Douglas, Stephen Arnold (1813–1861)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
2. The Lecompton Constitution of 1857 was written by pro-slavery forces in Kansas. President Buchanan supported it and it was eventually approved by the Senate, but dismissed by the House. Ultimately, Kansas held another local election which resulted in the Constitution’s final rejection. [back]
3. James Buchanan (1791–1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857–1861). Late in life Whitman still considered Buchanan "perhaps the weakest of the President tribe—the very unablest" (With Walt Whitman in Camden, Monday, November 5, 1888). For more information on Whitman and his disdain for Buchanon, see also Bernard Hirschorn, ""To a President" (1860)," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
4. Frederick P. Stanton (1814–1894) served as an acting governor for the territory of Kansas from April to May of 1857, and then again as secretary from November to December of 1857. [back]
5. Robert J. Walker (1801–1869) served as a Mississippi Senator between 1835 and 1845 and Secretary of Treasury between 1845 and 1849. During a contentious period between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists regarding slavery, Walker was appointed as the fourth territorial governor of Kansas from May to November of 1857. [back]
6. Henry A. Wise (1806–1876) was a Confederate general and politician, known for refusing to commute John Brown’s sentence; Wise was governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860. [back]
7. John McKeon (1808–1883) was a Democratic politician from New York, serving in a variety of state legislative roles beginning in the 1830s. From 1854 to 1858 he served as the U.S. District Attorney for the southern district of New York. [back]
8. Daniel Fawcett Tiemann (1805–1899) was mayor of New York City from 1858 to 1860. He won against ousted Democratic mayor Fernando Wood on a fusionist ticket (Independent Party), supported by Republicans and Know Nothings. [back]
9. Franklin Pierce (1804–1869) was the fourteenth President of the United States. He served from 1853 to 1857. For context, see also Frederick Hatch, "Presidents, United States," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]
10. Greene C. Bronson (1789–1863) served as Chief Justice of New York’s Supreme Court from 1845 to 1847, and in 1853 was assigned by President Pierce to serve, albeit briefly, as collector for the Port of the City of New York. [back]
11. Howell Cobb (1815–1868) was a Democratic politician from Georgia. He served as the Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan from 1857 to 1860. [back]