John Sherman

The people, alarmed, excited, yet true to the Union and the constitution, are watching with eager fear, lest the noble government, baptized in the blood of the Revolution, shall be broken into fragments, before the President elect shall…

The constitution provided against every probable vacancy in the office of President, but did not provide for utter imbecility.

He admits that the states have surrendered the power to make treaties, coin money, and regulate commerce, and yet we will probably have the novel and ridiculous farce of a negotiation between the President and a state, for the surrender of…

He theorizes about coercing a state when he should be enforcing the laws against rebellious citizens.

Treason sits in the councils, and timidity controls the executive power.

The American people are now trembling with apprehension lest the President allow our officers and soldiers to be slaughtered at their posts, for want of the aid which he has refused, or, what is far more disgraceful, shall order the flag…

He has transferred to southern states more than one hundred thousand arms, of the newest pattern and most effective calibre, to be turned against the government.

He admits that the constitution is the supreme law; that neither a state nor the citizens of a state can disregard it; and yet, armed as he is with all the executive power, he refuses even to protect the property of the United States…

Stranger still, we see the President of the United States acknowledging his duty to execute the laws, but refusing to execute them.

We see other high officers receiving pay for services to the government, and yet, at the same moment, plotting its destruction.

They kill the government they have sworn to maintain and defend, because the people, whose agents they are, have condemned them.

Such would be the voice of the whole country, if the government was not now administered by those who not only threaten treason, but actually commit it, by turning the powers of the government against itself.

The question is not whether this or that policy should prevail; but whether we shall allow the government to be broken into fragments, by disappointed partisans, condemned by four-fifths of the people.

Fidelity to principle is demanded by the highest patriotism.

And now, since the victory is won, let us not lose the fruits of it.

Let us, my friends, unite in electing him President of the United States.

Is it for this that you would continue in power a party that, by a long enjoyment of the patronage of the government, has become reckless and corrupt?

Is it to defeat this noble policy that you would longer trust a broken-down, corrupt and demoralized administration?

Is it to defeat these ideas that you would risk scenes of violence in the House, or the subversion of the constitution by the Senate of the United States?

Is this the party which you would combine and conspire against, and to defeat which you would unite hostile elements?

Buchanan was surrounded by men who had already made up their minds to destroy the Union, one of whom had already committed acts of treachery in the distribution of arms and military supplies, and all of whom avowed the legality and…

Buchanan's administration may seem to be partisan and unjust, but the general opinion now is that his fault was feebleness of will, not intentional wrong.

I recently read this speech, and, in view of the events that followed I can say that every prophecy made, and every argument stated, has been verified and sustained by the march of events.

The three millions of people of Pennsylvania will have only the same political power as the one hundred thousand people of Delaware.

Owing to the division of the Democratic party, the Republican party is the only one that can hope to succeed by a direct vote of the people.