this
radical change in the structure and purpose of the National Democratic
organization; and, although party lines were so tensely drawn that to go
against 'the Administration' was political treason, and secured
irrevocable banishment from power, the close of Polk's administration
found many old Democrats of the Jackson era ready for the sacrifice. The
firm resolve of these men was manifested when, after the nomination of
Gen. Cass, in 1848, in the usual form, at Baltimore, by the Democratic
National Convention, they assembled at Buffalo and presented a counter
ticket, headed by the name of Martin Van Buren, who had been thrust
aside four years previously by the Southern oligarchs to make way for
James K. Polk. The entire artillery of the Democratic party opened on
the Buffalo schismatics. They were stigmatized by such opprobrious
nicknames and epithets as 'Barnburners, 'Free Soilers,'
'Abolitionists,' and instantly and forever ex-communicated from the
Democratic party. In Missouri alone, of all the Slave States, was any
stand made in behalf of the Buffalo ticket. Benton's sympathies had been
with Van Buren, his old friend of the Jackson times; and Francis P.
Blair, Sr., of the _Globe_, had two sons, Montgomery Blair and Francis
P. Blair, Jr., resident in St. Louis. These two, with about a hundred
other young men of equal enthusiasm, organized themselves together,
accepted the 'Buffalo platform' as their future rule of faith, issued an
address to the people of Missouri, openly espousing and advocating free
soil-principles; and, by subscription among themselves, published a
campaign paper, styled the _Barnburner_, during the canvass. The result
at the polls was signal only for its insignificance; and the authors of
the movement hardly had credit for a respectable escapade. But the event
has proved that neither ridicule nor raillery, nor, in later years,
persecutions and the intolerable pressure of federal power, could turn
back the revolution thus feebly begun. In that campaign issue of the
_Barnburner_ were sown the seeds of what became, in later nomenclature,
the Free Democracy, and, later still, the 'Republican' party of
Missouri. The German population of St. Louis sympathized from the start
with the free principles enunciated. Frank Blair, Jr., became from that
year their political leader; right honestly did he earn the position;
and right well, even his political foes have always admitted, did he
maintain it.

Fra