Kitabı oku: «Presidential Candidates:», sayfa 18

In his personal appearance Senator Hammond is prepossessing. He is of medium height, has a fine, open face, sparkling black eyes, and black hair – what there is left – a broad forehead and the manners of a pleasant gentleman.

HOWELL COBB

Mr. Cobb is a native of Cherry Hill, Georgia, where he was born, in September, 1815. His father was in affluent circumstances, and the family one of distinction. He was educated at Franklin College, Georgia, where he graduated at the age of nineteen, in the year 1834. His uncle, Howell Cobb, after whom he was named, was in Congress during the war of 1812, and still later a cousin was U.S. senator. So the young man had examples in his own family of political distinction which were calculated to fire his ambition.

In 1834, Mr. Cobb was married, which was set down, we dare say, by his elderly friends as a very imprudent step, for he was but nineteen and had no profession; nevertheless, he established his household gods at that time, and two years after was admitted to the bar. The very next year he was made solicitor general of the western part of Georgia, so finely had he succeeded in his profession. For the next three years he applied himself very closely to the duties of his profession, and being naturally shrewd and quick-witted, he at once attained unusual success. To this day, in Upper Georgia, Mr. Cobb has a reputation unsurpassed by no local favorite.

Early in life, Mr. Cobb was known as a Jackson or Union man, in the thick of the nullification agitation. Either from education or nature, he seems from the first to have had a repugnance for ultraism, and has therefore never agreed with that class of southern politicians usually termed Fire-eaters.

In 1842, Mr. Cobb was elected to Congress, where he, in a short time, rose to a prominent position as one of the party leaders among the Democratic members. He was especially great on parliamentary questions, and was in his way a party oracle in these matters. Though he never sympathized with the disunionists of the South, he has been a consistent as well as an ardent supporter of the institution of negro slavery. His entire course in Congress showed his strong and persistent opposition to any of the movements of the friends of freedom. He voted against the right of petition on the 3d of May, 1844, and made a strong speech in favor of utter free trade. Mr. Cobb also favored the Mexican war. In 1849, he underwent a severe contest in Georgia. While in Congress he supported the famous compromise measures, which secured to him the opposition and enmity of the southern fire-eaters. The greatest contest of his life ensued. The Union Democrats put him in nomination for Governor of Georgia, and he took the stump and was elected by a tremendous majority. In 1855, he was reëlected to Congress and was soon known as a Buchanan man. He labored for Mr. Buchanan's nomination, and when he was nominated canvassed the county in favor of his election. This secured, Mr. Cobb was rewarded for his services by a seat in the Cabinet, and as he was thought to be peculiarly fitted for the Treasury Department, he was made Secretary of the Treasury.

As a member of the Cabinet, Mr. Cobb used his influence in favor of the Lecompton bill and made war upon Mr. Douglas. During the winter of 1858-9 his recommendations on the tariff question were thought to indicate a change of opinion. Formerly he was in favor of free trade, and lacking that, he was in favor of the nearest possible approach to it. But in his communications to Congress as Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Cobb admitted that the revenues of the country were not sufficient for its expenses, and he recommended a revision of the tariff to meet the emergency. It is not probable, however, under present circumstances, that he would favor any change in the tariff.

As a man – socially speaking, we mean – Mr. Cobb is a favorite. Good natured and intelligent, he is surrounded by scores of friends, who like him all the better for the fact that he has been independent enough in his political career to make enemies.

JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE

Perhaps no public man has more friends or fewer enemies than Mr. Breckinridge; but his modesty, or caution, is so great, that but few particulars of his history have ever got into print. His high position has attracted the eyes of the nation as well as the Senate to him, and he has been unanimously pronounced, both by political friend and foe, to be an impartial presiding officer, and a pleasant and upright man. His personal appearance is unusually prepossessing, and his social bearing is such as to win him scores of friends.

Mr. Breckinridge was born near Lexington, Kentucky, January 21, 1821, and is the grandson of John Breckinridge, who was United States Senator and Attorney General. He was educated at Central College, Danville, and studied law at Transylvania Institute. After his professional education was complete, he emigrated to Iowa, but the frontier life did not suit him, and he returned to Kentucky, where there was a better field for the display of his talents. Soon after his return, he married Miss Birch of Georgetown, Kentucky, and settled down in Lexington in the practice of his profession. When the Mexican war broke out, he volunteered at once to take a part in it, and was elected Major of the Third Regiment of Kentucky volunteers. The regiment came to the scene of strife so late that they did not see much active service.

Upon Mr. Breckinridge's return from Mexico, he was elected to the State legislature, and in 1851, after an exciting contest with General Leslie Coomb, he was elected to Congress. In 1853, a still fiercer canvass ensued; but he was reëlected to the House by a heavy majority. One of his first acts was to deliver a eulogy upon Henry Clay, a political opponent.

In the Thirty-third Congress, an unpleasant scene occurred between Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Cutting of New York, upon the Kansas and Nebraska act. Mr. Cutting, though a Democrat, refused to support that measure, while Mr. Breckinridge supported it with considerable zeal.

The debate occurred March 27, 1854, and we quote from a report of it:

"The House of Representatives, Monday, resolved itself into committee of the whole on the Custom House bill, Mr. Hamilton in the chair; but the chairman decided that before that bill could be taken up, all those preceding it must first be set aside; and that the first business in order was the consideration of the bill making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the year ending June 30, 1855. Mr. Houston moved that the committee take up the bill named by the Chair, which was agreed to.

"Mr. Cutting then arose and replied to the remarks made by Mr. Breckinridge on Thursday last. He adverted to his course in moving that the Senate Nebraska bill be committed to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union, and said that at that time he gave his reasons for the act, and declared that there was no gentleman on this floor who was to be regarded as a stronger and more zealous advocate of the great principle which the measure was said to contain – that of non-intervention – than he was. But the bill required amendment and discussion before it could receive that support to which, in his opinion, it was entitled. After this subject had been disposed of, and after the elapse of some two days, a gentleman from a slaveholding State, who had had no lot or parcel in its discussion, as a volunteer merely, came into the House, and thought it not incompatible with his character as a leading member to undertake to assail his motives; though it was true that he disclaimed any intention of attacking them. The gentleman [Mr. Breckinridge] came into the House, with concentrated wrath and bitterness, to assail him for having, in his place, and under his responsibility as a member, stated his views frankly as to the direction this bill ought to take.

"The gentleman had charged him with being a secret enemy of the bill, and, while professing friendship for it, as having taken a course which would end in its destruction. When did the gentleman from Kentucky ever hear him say he was friendly to the bill? The gentleman was present, and heard him declare his opposition to it in the shape in which it came from the Senate, and the belief that not only himself, but a majority of the House, would be found against it. Had not the gentleman sufficient perspicuity of understanding to know the difference between the principles involved in a measure and a bill which professed to carry them out? And when he [Mr. C.] declared in this House frankly and openly, before the question on the motion to commit was put, that he was against the bill, but in favor of the principles which it professed to enact, how came the gentleman to undertake to declare that he [Mr. C.] had declared himself a friend of the bill, against the record, against the reports that appeared everywhere?

"The gentleman had complained that by the motion to commit he [Mr. C.] had consigned this measure to the tomb of the Capulets. If this were so, and this bill could never again be brought before the House, why did the gentleman submit to an hour's argument to prove that it ought to pass? It was time wasted, time thrown away. No gentleman acquainted with the orders of the calendar could for a moment believe that sending this bill to the committee of the whole would prevent action on it this session. The gentleman had said that there were scores and scores of bills before it on the calendar. Now, what was the fact? There were some eighteen or nineteen bills and resolutions, all told, large and small, of great and little degree, ahead of it on the calendar, including appropriation bills, which were subject to the control of the committee of ways and means. Then why, with this fact staring the gentleman in the face, did the gentleman undertake, for the purpose of making an assault on him, to declare that there were scores upon scores of bills before this measure on the calendar? By what authority did the gentleman, who had a supposed connection with the Administration, complain of him, a friend of the measure, of undertaking to send it to a tomb, where there was a mountain piled upon it, for the purpose of creating a false impression in the public mind?

"For the course he had seen proper to pursue he had been assailed in papers of this city (one of them, the "Union," it was said, conducted by the clerk of this House), and by other presses. How was it that he, a friend of the measure, had been selected as a victim to drive off those who had given the principle their support? Was it to assassinate the friends who had stood with him on this subject?

"Mr. Breckinridge. – Does the gentleman intend to apply that remark to me?

"Mr. Cutting. – Not unless you consider yourself a portion of the Union newspaper.

"Mr. Breckinridge. – I was at that moment taking a note, and heard the word. I would ask whether the gentleman applied the remark to me?

"Mr. Cutting. – I did not. I am the only one charged with being an assassin.

"He had been subject to the continual attacks of New York papers, which, while opposing this measure, were enjoying the patronage of the Administration.

"In the course of his remarks, he said that there was but one single ground upon which the Democracy of the North could stand, and that was the principle of non-intervention. If this was found in the bill, he should vote for it; and the reason why he wished it referred was for the purpose of examining into the matter, that there might be a distinct and plain understanding between the different sections of the country, as to the character of the act, so that there might be no misunderstanding upon the subject of the principles contained in it.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had forborne to interrupt the gentleman; but whilst his remarks were fresh in his mind he wished to reply.

"Mr. Cutting yielded, and no objection was made to Mr. B.'s proceeding.

"Mr. Breckinridge said that he had listened to the gentleman from New York, who had not met a single position which he took the other day. He had been amazed at the manner in which a man of intellectual ingenuity had twisted and distorted words and opinions out of their proper connections.

"He explained that the reason why he permitted two days to elapse before he replied to the gentleman, was because the gentleman himself after making his speech the other day on the motion to commit, put down the hatchway of the previous question, so that he was denied an opportunity of responding to him.

"He had said, and he now repeated, that with the gentleman's motives he had nothing to do; he had made and should make no attack upon them. When he spoke of the movement of the gentleman, he characterized it as one the effect of which would be to kill the bill, and said that after the question was decided, he was surrounded by every abolitionist in the hall, and received their congratulations for the course he had pursued. He did not intend to charge the gentleman with intentionally playing the part of an assassin; but said, and could not take it back, that the act, to all intents, was like throwing one arm around it in friendship, and stabbing it with the other – to kill the bill.

"The gentleman from New York had said that there were but eighteen or nineteen bills before the Nebraska bill on the calendar?

"Mr. English. – There are fifty bills before the Senate bill.

"Mr. Cutting. – Before the House bill?

"Mr. Breckinridge. – I will nail the gentleman to the counter there. 'Before the House bill?' says he. 'Why, I give up that we will never reach the Senate bill, but we will reach the House bill.' But did not the gentleman say that his object in moving to commit the bill was that he might discuss the bill and examine the Badger proviso? And is not the Badger amendment contained in the Senate bill? Thus it would be seen that the bill which the gentleman moved to commit for the purpose of examining into could never be reached.

"The meaning of the gentleman's remarks about the press was, that he (Mr. B.) had acted in concert with papers in this city to drive the gentleman from the support of the bill. Was it not a low ambition for a man to take a course against a measure because another was for it? Did the gentleman suppose that twenty Administrations could ever drive him (Mr. B.) from his position? Even if the Administration were against the bill, he (Mr. B.) would go for it. They should never influence him in this respect. He had no more connection with the Administration than any other gentleman on this floor.

"The gentleman had said that he (Mr. B.) was the last individual whom he supposed would have made an assault on him, because in the hour of his greatest need the Hards came to his assistance. This innuendo was so deep that he could not understand it, and therefore asked for an explanation.

"Mr. Cutting replied, that he had been informed that during the canvass in Kentucky, it having been intimated that the gentleman's friends needed assistance to accomplish his election, his friends in New York made up a subscription of some $1,500, and transmitted it to Kentucky, to be employed for the benefit of the gentleman, who is now the peer of Presidents and Cabinets. [Laughter.]

"Mr. Breckinridge. – And not only the peer of Presidents and Cabinets, but the peer of the gentleman from New York, fully and in every respect.

"Mr. Breckinridge, resuming, said that the gentleman should have known the truth of what he uttered before he pronounced it on this floor. He (Mr. B.) was not aware that any intimations were sent from Kentucky that funds were needed to aid in his election, nor was he aware that they were received. He did not undertake to say what the fact might be in regard to what the gentleman had said, but he had no information whatever on that fact. He (Mr. B.) came here not by the aid of money, but against the use of money. [Applause.] The gentleman could not escape by any subtlety, or by any ingenuity, a thorough and complete exposure of any ingenious device to which he might resort for the purpose of putting gentlemen in a false position, and the sooner he stopped that game, the better.

"Mr. Cutting said that he had given the gentleman an opportunity of indulging in one of the most violent, inflammatory, and personal assaults that had ever been known upon this floor; and he would ask, how could the gentleman disclaim any attack upon him when he followed it up by declaring that his (Mr. C.'s) intention and motive was to destroy a measure for which he professed friendship?

"Mr. Breckinridge asked the gentleman to point to the occasion when he made such a remark.

"Mr. Cutting submitted to the committee that the whole tenor and scope of the speech of the gentleman from Kentucky was an attack upon his motives in moving to commit the bill. It was in vain for the gentleman to attempt to escape by disclaiming it; the fact was before the committee. But he would say to the gentleman that he scorned his imputation. How dare the gentleman undertake to assert that he had professed friendship for the measure, with a view to kill it, to assassinate it by sending it to the bottom of the calendar? And then, when he said that the committee of the whole had under its control the House bill upon this identical subject, which the committee intended to take up, discuss, amend, and report to the House, the gentleman skulked behind the Senate bill, which had been sent to the foot of the calendar!

"Mr. Breckinridge. – I ask the gentleman to withdraw that last word.

"Mr. Cutting. – I withdraw nothing. I have uttered what I have said in answer to one of the most violent and most personal attacks that has ever been witnessed upon this floor.

"Mr. Breckinridge. – Then, when the gentleman says I skulk, he says what is false.

"The Chair. – The gentleman is not in order.

"Mr. Cutting. – I do not intend upon this floor to answer the remark which the gentleman from Kentucky has thought proper to employ. It belongs to a different region. It is not here that I will desecrate my lips with undertaking to retort in that manner.

"Mr. C. then declared that in moving to commit the bill, his object was to get it in such a shape as would be satisfactory to the country, and put at rest the outcries of fanaticism which now prevailed throughout the land.

"He desired peace and harmony, and would suggest to gentlemen who were anxious for the passage of the bill, that it was not the best mode of accomplishing their object by assailing those who proclaimed themselves favorable to its principles and its great cardinal outlines. It seemed to him, if gentlemen desired the success of the bill, it would answer a better purpose if they would turn their batteries upon its enemies, rather than attempt to destroy those who were its friends."

The result was, that the preliminaries of a duel were arranged, but fortunately, by the interposition of friends, an amicable adjustment of the difficulty was arrived at.

When Mr. Pierce was in power, he offered Mr. Breckinridge the Spanish mission, but he refused it. In 1856, he was put upon the Democratic ticket and elected Vice-President of the United States.

The official position of Mr. Breckinridge has been such as to render his position on some of the present political issues somewhat doubtful. He is, of course, a believer in the old Democratic creed, and is a moderate supporter of the South and her institutions. It was generally understood at Washington, during the Lecompton struggle, that he sided with the President against Mr. Douglas – in other words, was in favor of the bill. He was a warm supporter of Mr. Douglas in 1854, and his great measure, the Kansas act. In the last session of Congress, Mr. Breckinridge gave his casting vote to postpone the consideration of the Homestead bill, which gives an indication of his hostility to the measure. He is a very fair politician, of unspotted integrity as a man, and is possessed of talents of high order, such as fit him to occupy with ability any office within the gift of the people.