GREAT POLITICAL AND A GREAT MORAL EVIL. I THANK GOD, MY LOT HAS
BEEN CAST IN A STATE WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST.... IT HAS BEEN A
CURSE ENTAILED UPON US BY THAT NATION WHICH MAKES IT A SUBJECT
OF REPROACH TO OUR INSTITUTIONS." (See Gales and Seaton's
Register of Debates, page 2180, vol. ii., part 2.)

MORE BUCHANAN ANTECEDENTS.

When a "_Uniform Bankrupt Law_" was enacted by Congress, after the
election of General Harrison, there were on the files of the Judiciary
Committee of the Senate _fifty-one petitions_, praying for the passage
of such a law. Twenty-nine of these were from New York, five from New
Jersey, three from Ohio, two from Indiana, two from Massachusetts, and
_one_ from each of the States of Tennessee and Mississippi. There were
_twenty-five_ other petitions praying for "_A General Bankrupt Law_;"
_fifteen_ of which were from New York, and eight from Pennsylvania; and
how will the Democracy like to see it hereafter proven that BUCHANAN
presented these petitions, and voted for the law? If it shall turn out
that "Old Buck" did really go for the "odious Bankrupt Law," let his
friends defend him on the ground that his _State_ desired it, and had
always favored the measure!

In the House of Representatives, in Congress, January 3, 1815, _Mr.
Ingersoll_, a notorious Democrat from Pennsylvania, and a _Boy Tory_ of
the war of the Revolution, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported
a bill to establish _a uniform law of Bankruptcy throughout the United
States_! If these facts should not turn out to be a sufficient
justification of _Mr. Buchanan's course_, provided he went for this
Bankrupt Law, let his friends present these facts, and show that he was
in good old Federal Democratic _company_:

NUMBER 1. On the 5th of September, 1837, Mr. Van Buren's _Democratic_
Secretary of the Treasury made a report to Congress, praying the passage
of a _uniform Bankrupt Law_, which was referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.

NUMBER 2. On the 13th day of January, 1840, _Mr. Norvell_, a Democratic
Senator from Michigan, moved that the Judiciary be instructed to inquire
into the expediency of reporting a bill for the establishment of a
_General Bankrupt Law_.

NUMBER 3. On the 22d of April, 1840, _Garret D. Wall_, a flaming
Democratic Senator in Congress, reported certain amendments to a
Bankrupt Law, from a minority of the Committee; which were referred to
the Senate's select Committee, and