In a spirit of devotional dedication to the memory of the fathers, they planted themselves upon "the National platform of freedom in opposition to the sectional platform of slavery."

Their further resolutions included the declaration that slavery in the several States which recognized its existence depended on State laws which could not be repealed or modified by the Federal Government, and disclaimed any purpose of interference by Congress with slavery within the limits of any State; but followed immediately with the affirmation that "the Proviso of Jefferson" defined a settled policy of the nation which should never have been departed from, and to which the Government ought to return. Congress had no more power to make a slave than to make a king. The report of the Committee of Eight (the Senate committee on the territories, mentioned in the preceding chapter) was condemned as no compromise, but an absolute surrender of the rights of the nonslaveholders of all the States. The Convention "accepted the issue which the slave power had forced upon them; to their demand for more slave States and slave territories, the calm but final answer was, no more slave States and no more slave territory." Specific demand was made for freedom and established institutions in Oregon, New Mexico and California. The platform closed with the cry, "We will inscribe on our banner 'Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men' and under it we will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions."

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE FIELD FOR FREE SOIL

DAVID WILMOT's participation in the field work of the freesoil campaign of 1847 and 1848, throughout the extraordinary series of conventions at Syracuse, Herkimer, Utica, Harrisburg, Baltimore, Buffalo, was restricted by the demands of his duties in the House of Representatives and by some other more distressing interruptions.

He entered actively into the initial movement at Herkimer, in November, 1847, by the speech already quoted; but shortly thereafter the first session of the Thirtieth Congress convened, and he appears by the record to have been pretty steadily in attendance. He went to Harrisburg, in March, perforce, to give battle for his political life. The triumph won there was sadly chilled but a month later, when his son Clarence-a boy of twelve in whom his hopes and his pride were centereddied of the poisonous effects of eating wild parsnips. Wilmot was called by telegraph from Washington, too late to reach home before the child's death.

Later, after his return to Washington, he suffered severely from one of the recurrent attacks of gout to which he was subject. May 17 he wrote to his then friend, Victor E. Piollet, "I was quite lame this morning, & it raining hard all day, I did not go out." The next day he reports, "My rheumatism is worse, so much so that I could hardly stand or walk when I first got up this morning. I have been too lame to leave the house, and if as bad to-morrow morning shall send for the Doct. The principle difficulty is in my feet." He recovered sufficiently to make the short trip to the National Democratic Convention, May 22, as a spectator only, not as a delegate.

His enemies seized upon the fact of his presence to spread a story that he had personally pledged himself to Cass; after the nominations, and then betrayed his promise by working for Van Buren. This assertion (which Cass never indorsed-it was circulated only by irresponsible agents) Wilmot indignantly and utterly denied. He saw Cass for a moment only after the convention, when the General came over to the hotel to bid good-by to the Michigan delegation, and the presidency was not mentioned. The pledge Wilmot made at Harrisburg, that his special friend and representative in the Pennsylvania delegation, Sanderson, would support the Baltimore nominees, was faithfully kept. For himself, he always and openly reserved complete freedom of action.

He did not get to Buffalo for the convention of August 9. Congress was in the closing days of the session, immersed in the final consideration of important measures, including the Oregon Bill; and Wilmot was in his seat and voting. After the adjournment of the House, he had his own campaign for reëlection to conduct; but he combined national with local issues and extended his work for the Buffalo ticket after the contest in the twelfth congressional district of Pennsylvania was over. The Tioga Eagle (an opposition paper) quotes him in mid-November as having given notice that he had made twenty-five speeches for Martin Van Buren.

The eager interest with which he followed the movement from his distant posts is suggested by a group of letters written at this period, the first being addressed to Preston King, September 25, 1847, and tinged with gravity caused by a triple blow to the cause to which both were devoted: the death of Silas Wright; the publication of Buchanan's "Berks County letter," evidencing the surrender of the leading northern presidential candidate to the demands of the South and presaging the use of the democratic party machinery of Pennsylvania, in connection with the Federal organization, against the antislavery-extension movement; and lastly, the Syracuse convention, usurping the organization of the democratic party in New

York for the same alliance with the slavery propagandists. In this mood he wrote:1

I feel the death of Mr. Wright at this time, as an overwhelming, an irreparable calamity. There was more moral and political power united in his person, than in that of any other American citizen. Silas Wright has left behind him no living man in whom is combined the same elements of strength and moral grandeur of character. He was the man for the crisis, and the death of such a leader has more discouraged me, than could the letters of ten-thousand Buchanans. I feel deeply the want of the moral and political force of some great names on the side of freedomit is vitally important in giving proper direction at this time to the public sentiment of the North. You and I, and other good and true men, can fight the battle in our own counties and districts, but we want a man whose voice can reach and electrify the Nation. I agree with you, there is ample time to bring out Presidential candidates, and there should be no hurry on this score. You will say, make the question popular and strong, and candidates enough will present themselves; but we want some great names to help make it strong-some one to whom we can direct the eyes of the northern democracy. The fact that no democrat of the North known to the whole Nation has publicly declared himself in favor of the Proviso, has a strong tendency to create the impression with the mass, that our position is weak or untenable, and either impression will exert an unfavorable influence upon the public mind. Will not Mr. Van Buren speak out, if called upon by a respectable portion of the northern democracy?

Do not, from what I have written, draw a conclusion that I am greatly alarmed, and much less, that I think, or ever have thought for one moment, of giving up the fight. I resolved from the first, and that resolution has been daily confirmed, and strengthened, never to yield an inch. So far as any personal consequences to myself are concerned, I am prepared for defeat, but I am intensely anxious that the principle should triumph.

Mr. Buchanan, backed by the patronage and favor of the Ad

1 Van Buren papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. The inference is that King forwarded Wilmot's letter to Van Buren, who preserved it.

ministration, and a dependent, servile press, may for a time swing Pennsylvania from her moorings (though I doubt it), but my county and district shall be as a battery of a thousand guns against him. I will fight every inch of the ground. I will go into the churches and schoolhouses of my district and cry aloud against the treason and the Traitor.

I sent you the proceedings of our county convention. They had Mr. Buchanan's letter before them when they passed those resolutions. I addressed, on my late visit to Tioga, a large meeting, and found the democracy of that banner county of the North sound to the core. I was invited by letters signed by all its most leading and influential democrats to write out my speech for publication, and if I can find time will do so. It became necessary to show to friends abroad that Buck's letter has not quite upset the Proviso in this State. If I can hold the 12th Congressional district up to the mark, and I see no reason to doubt it, its 8,000 democratic votes will alone seal the doom of Mr. Buchanan...

We can make a strong and nearly united expression in this co. for Van Buren, and there has been some talk of doing it, in order to call him out. What think you of such a move?

Hon. Preston King.

Truly your friend,

D. WILMOT.

Whether under encouragement from Preston King, or in further pursuit of his own idea, Wilmot took the initiative in writing to Van Buren himself, six weeks before the assembling of the Herkimer convention (which merely voiced sentiments without seeking candidates), and eight months before the Utica convention by which the nomination was formally tendered. His letter bears the date of Towanda, Pa., October 6, 1847.3

Respected Sir:

I take the liberty of sending to you an address, recently made before a portion of my constituents. Convinced as I am that the

2 This speech is given in another chapter.

Van Buren papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. This is the Tioga speech (already quoted), of September 21, 1847.