In the subsequent Congress, Mr. Buchanan spoke twice on the subject of the tariff, namely, March 23d and April 9th, 1824. But the foregoing extract from his speech in February, 1823, is sufficient to show how moderate and just his views were on the subject of protection.
When Mr. Buchanan entered Congress in December, 1821, his professional income was the largest that he ever received. He had then been eight years at the bar, and his emoluments from his profession, which were less than $1,000 for the first year, had become more than $11,000 for the year 1821–2. They then fell off somewhat rapidly, and in the year 1828 they amounted to only a little more than $2,000.
Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the Navy, was appointed to the Bench of the Supreme Court in December, 1823, and Mr. Southard, of New Jersey, took his place.
These notes were written by Mr. Buchanan in 1867.
Benton’s Thirty Years in the Senate, Vol. I, p. 19.
In the debate on Chilton’s Resolutions, in 1825, Mr. Sergeant said:
“At the head of the Committee of Ways and Means in 1816, was one who could not be remembered without feelings of deep regret at the public loss occasioned by his early death. He possessed, in an uncommon degree, the confidence of this House, and he well deserved it. With so much accurate knowledge, and with powers which enabled him to delight and instruct the House, there was united so much gentleness and kindness, and such real, unaffected modesty, that you were prepared to be subdued before he exerted his commanding powers of argument. I mean William Lowndes of South Carolina.”—_Benton’s Debates_, Vol. IX, 730.
Art. I., § 8.—“To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”
Mr. Gorham’s speech has not been preserved.
ELECTION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS—THE “BARGAIN AND CORRUPTION”—UNFOUNDED CHARGE—GENERAL JACKSON’S ERRONEOUS IMPRESSION—HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. BUCHANAN.
I now approach one of those periods of intense political excitement which it becomes every one who has to write of them to treat in an entirely impartial and judicial spirit. The subject of this chapter is the Presidential election of 1824,[14] and Mr. Buchanan’s connection with it. The famous “coalition” between Mr. John Quincy Adams and Mr. Clay, is a topic that involves so much that is personal, that one must needs divest one’s self of all preconceived opinions, and must regard the whole matter with that indifference which the present age already feels, and which is solicitous only to do no injustice to individual reputations. At the same time, the whole case should be plainly stated; for it touches a provision of the Constitution, by which its framers supplied a means for filling the office of President, in the event of there being no choice through the electoral colleges.