THE MAKING OF A NATION 85 - James Buchanan, Part 1

THE MAKING OF A NATION #85 - James Buchanan, Part 1
By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: Thursday, October 21, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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As we reported in our last program, the national election of eighteen fifty-six put a new man into the White House: James Buchanan of Pennsylvania. He defeated John Fremont, the candidate of the new Republican Party, which was opposed to slavery.

Most of the new president's closest friends were southerners. Buchanan had often supported the south in the dispute over slavery. He wrote that the north was too aggressive toward the south and should stop interfering¹ with slavery in the slave states.

Buchanan said that the south had good reason to leave the Union if Abolitionists kept up their attacks against slavery.

VOICE TWO:

 
President James Buchanan
As the new president, Buchanan believed he could solve the slave question by keeping the Abolitionists quiet. Success would mean the end of the anti-slavery Republican Party.

In choosing his cabinet, Buchanan wanted men who shared the same ideas and interests. President Pierce had tried to unite the different groups in the party by giving each a representative in his cabinet. This had not worked. It had driven the different party groups farther apart.

Buchanan had served in President Polk's cabinet. He remembered how well its members worked together. He said it was the unity² of this cabinet that made Polk's administration so successful.

VOICE ONE:

Buchanan gave the job of Secretary of State to Lewis Cass of Michigan. Cass was seventy-five years old. His mind had lost its sharpness. This did not worry Buchanan, because he had planned to be his own foreign minister.

The job of Treasury³ Secretary went to Howell Cobb, a southern moderate from Georgia. Southerners also were named as Secretary of War, Interior Secretary, and Postmaster General.

Isaac Toucey of Connecticut was given the job of Navy Secretary. Toucey was a northerner. But he supported many policies of the south. Another northerner -- Jeremiah Black of Pennsylvania -- became Attorney General.

In forming his cabinet, Buchanan did not ask for advice from Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Douglas was the party's leader in the Senate and the most powerful Democrat⁴ in the northwest.

Douglas believed that the northwest should have two representatives in the cabinet. He said Cass could be one of them. But Douglas wanted one of his own supporters to be the other. Buchanan refused what Douglas wanted. And he gave the administration's support to a political enemy of Douglas.

VOICE TWO:

James Buchanan was sworn-in as president on March fourth, eighteen fifty-seven. In his inaugural⁵ speech, the new president denounced the long dispute over slavery. He said he hoped it would end soon.

Buchanan said the dispute could be settled easily by doing two things: by ending interference with slavery in states where it was legal. And by letting the people of a territory decide if they wanted slavery.

Buchanan said he expected the Supreme⁶ Court to rule soon on the right of the people of a territory to decide this. He said he was sure that all good citizens -- north and south -- would accept the high court's ruling.

VOICE ONE:

At the time he said this, Buchanan already knew what the court's decision would be. He had even used his influence to help one member of the court to decide. The decision was made in the case of Dred Scott, a negro slave.

Scott was sold in Missouri to an army doctor who took him to Illinois and then went into the Wisconsin territory. Scott lived in these two places for almost four years before he was returned to Missouri.

Scott asked a court in Missouri to give him his freedom. He claimed that living in Illinois and Wisconsin -- where slavery was illegal -- had made him a free man.

VOICE TWO:

The court agreed with Scott and gave him his freedom. But the decision was appealed, and the Supreme Court of Missouri ruled against him. Scott then took his case to a federal court. Finally, he asked the United States Supreme Court to decide if he was a slave or a free man.

The Supreme Court took up the case in December, eighteen-fifty-six. The judges studied it carefully because it raised serious constitutional questions.

Scott claimed he was free because he had lived in free territory. It was free because Congress -- in the Missouri compromise of eighteen twenty made slavery illegal in that area. Scott's owner raised the questions: Did Congress have the Constitutional power to close a territory to slavery? Was the Missouri Compromise legal?

VOICE ONE:

At first, most of the nine Supreme Court judges had planned to give a decision without answering this question. They did not want to involve the court in this bitter dispute. The majority decided⁷ that a negro was not a citizen. Therefore, they said, Dred Scott had no right to ask the court to hear his case.

In this way, the case could be settled without deciding on the power of Congress to act on slavery in the territories.

But two of the nine Supreme Court judges opposed this ruling. Both were from the north. They had said they would write a minority decision. They said their decision would include a statement that Congress did have power over slavery in the territories.

VOICE TWO:

Since two members of the court had planned to offer views on this question, the other seven decided the majority also should do so.

Of the seven, five were from the south. They did not believe Congress had any power over territorial⁸ slavery. The remaining two judges -- both from the north -- did not want to make what they felt would be a political decision.

One southern member of the Supreme Court was James Catron, a good friend of James Buchanan. Buchanan had written to him asking when the court would act on the Dred Scott case.

VOICE ONE:

Catron had answered that the court would rule soon. Then he asked for Buchanan's help in getting one of the northern members of the court to vote with the five from the south. He told the president that the country would more easily accept the court's ruling if one of the northern judges gave his support. Catron proposed that Buchanan write to Justice Robert Grier of Pennsylvania.

So Buchanan wrote to Grier. He told him that a strong decision in the Dred Scott case might do much to bring peace to the country. Grier agreed. He said he would vote with the five southerners. They would rule that the Constitution did not give Congress power over slavery in the territories.

All this had happened in the few weeks before Buchanan became president.

VOICE TWO:

The Supreme Court finally announced its decision just two days after Buchanan moved into the White House. Chief Justice Roger Taney read the decision in the small courtroom in the Capitol building.

The room was crowded with congressmen, senators, government officials, and newspapermen. Chief Justice Taney began reading the decision at eleven o'clock. He read for more than two and a half hours.

He said the high court rejected Scott's claim of freedom for three reasons. First, Scott was not a citizen. Taney said the Constitution gave the right of citizenship⁹ only to members of the white race. Because he was not a citizen, he had no right to ask the court to hear his case.

Secondly¹⁰, Taney said Scott was ruled by the laws of Missouri, the state in which he lived. Missouri laws did not give freedom to slaves who lived temporarily in free territory. Therefore, said Taney, Scott was still a slave.

VOICE ONE:

Then the Chief Justice took up the question of the free territory in which Scott had lived. It had become free territory under the Missouri Compromise. This was the law that Congress passed in eighteen twenty. This law kept slavery out of the northern part of the territory which the United States bought from France.

Justice Taney said Congress did not have the constitutional power to pass such a law. He said when new territory was won, it belonged to all citizens. He said Congress had the right to govern such territory until it became a state. But he said Congress did not have power to close new territory to any American citizen. He said the citizen from Georgia had as much right to settle in this territory with his slaves as a citizen of Maine with his horse.

Taney said there was no word in the Constitution that gave Congress greater power over slave property than over any other kind of property. The only such power Congress held was the power to guard and protect the rights of the property owner.

To close territory to slaves, Taney said, violated the constitutional rights of slaveholding citizens. Therefore, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Congress did not have power to act on slavery in the territories.

The Supreme Court's decision was cheered by the south. But in the north, it raised a great fury.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stan Busby and Jack¹¹ Moyles. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays.

1 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

2 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

3 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

4 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

5 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

6 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

9 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

10 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。