Mr. Buchanan rose to explain. What the Senator from Pennsylvania did say was, that at first the clause granting power to Congress to admit new States into the Union had been confined to States arising within the United States; but that after debate and a full discussion, the Constitution was adopted with the clause in its present clear unrestricted form, written as in letters of light.

After some further remarks from other Senators, and some attempts to amend the resolutions, they were passed and engrossed on the same day. President Tyler, on the 3d of March, announced by special message to the Senate, that he had approved and signed them.[[90]]

The electoral college of Pennsylvania, when the votes of that State were given to Mr. Polk, united in a strong recommendation to him to make Mr. Buchanan Secretary of State. Mr. Buchanan took no steps to influence the newly-elected President in regard to this or any other cabinet appointment. He maintained a dignified reserve in his personal relations to Mr. Polk, both during and after the election. Certainly there were very strong reasons of fitness, which should have led Mr. Polk to desire that Mr. Buchanan would accept the Department of State. His qualifications for it were far greater than those of any other public man in the Democratic party; and, if such a consideration could have any weight, he personally deserved at the hands of Mr. Polk all that a President could bestow of opportunity to render further service to the country. In looking back over Mr. Buchanan’s public life, now covering a period of nearly twenty-five years, one can perceive the intellectual growth of an American statesman, who had not been taken suddenly from private pursuits to fill an important public position, but who had been trained by the regular gradations of office for the affairs of government. To have a constituency who can appreciate the value of such a training, and can support a public servant in the devotion of his time and abilities to the public service, is a great advantage. This advantage Mr. Buchanan had enjoyed for twenty-five years, and he had well repaid the devotion of his friends. The people of Pennsylvania had but once in twenty years swerved from the party in which Mr. Buchanan was a distinguished leader, and they had now returned to it. His experience, his aptitude for public life, his solid, though not brilliant abilities, and the weight of the great State which had kept him in the Senate, marked him as the fittest person to be at the head of Mr. Polk’s cabinet. Mr. Polk, however, while conscious of the propriety of offering this position to Mr. Buchanan, and while he felt the need of his services, seems to have had a fear lest his administration might be disturbed by Mr. Buchanan’s ambition to become his successor. He took the somewhat singular step of asking from Mr. Buchanan a promise that he would retire from the cabinet, if he should be a candidate for the Presidency in 1848. There is no good reason for attributing this to personal jealousy of Buchanan, for Mr. Polk did not expect to become a candidate for re-election. He was a sagacious man, who took a just view of his own situation, he knew quite well that he had become President because the conflicting claims of others had rendered it necessary to compromise upon an unexpected and far from conspicuous candidate. But he desired, and wisely desired, to avoid all internal difficulties, by freeing his administration from complications about the succession. Every one will commend the spirit of the following letter, and every one, it should seem, will commend the manner in which it was met by Mr. Buchanan, who could hardly be expected to say that he would renounce all idea of becoming a candidate for the Presidency in 1848, since he could not tell what his public duty might require of him.

[MR. POLK TO MR. BUCHANAN.]

Washington City, February 17, 1845.

Sir:—

The principles and policy which will be observed and maintained during my administration are embodied in the resolutions adopted by the Democratic National Convention of delegates, assembled at Baltimore in Maryland, and in the inaugural address which I propose to deliver to my fellow-citizens on assuming the duties of President of the United States, and which is herewith handed to you for your perusal.

In making up my cabinet, I desire to select gentlemen who will agree with me in opinion, and who will cordially co-operate with me in carrying out these principles and policy.

In my official action I will take no part between gentlemen of the Democratic party who may become aspirants or candidates to succeed me in the Presidential office, and desire that no member of my cabinet shall do so. Individual preferences it is not expected or desired to limit or restrain. It is official interference by the dispensation of public patronage or otherwise that I desire to guard against. Should any member of my cabinet become a candidate for the Presidency or Vice Presidency of the United States, it will be expected upon the happening of such an event, that he will retire from the cabinet.

I disapprove the practice which has sometimes prevailed, of cabinet officers absenting themselves for long periods of time from the seat of Government and leaving the management of their department to chief clerks; or other less responsible persons than themselves. I expect myself to remain constantly at Washington, unless it may be that no public duty requires my presence, when I may be occasionally absent, but then only for a short time. It is by conforming to this rule that the President and his cabinet can have any assurance that absences will be prevented, and that the subordinate executive officers connected with them respectively will faithfully perform their duty.