An Uncertain Future Game Thread

[KaiserDave]

From the Desk of the 8th President of these United States, Martin Van Buren

[1]

The discourse in the American political sphere today is centered on the question of the territories acquired in the Mexican Cession. The nation asks itself whether these lands should be settled by honest, God-fearing white men, or by a greedy slaveocracy which increasingly displays its contempt for the Republic and the constitution. This nefarious conspiracy of slave owners have employed a variety of lies and mistruths to advance their duplicitous agenda of turning the entirety of the west into slave country. It is of the highest importance that the Democratic Party rejects these lies, and continues to be the party of working white men in this country. It must nominate a candidate for the chief magistracy that does so.

The first of these lies is that Congress lacks the authority to regulate the institution of slavery in the newly acquired territories. This without any basis in the law, and is merely an attempt to redistribute power from the people's representatives to a small group of landowners entirely detached from this land and its people. It would be a callous betrayal of ideals of the late President Jackson to place the party in servitude to these American monarchs. The Democratic Party must resolve simply that we must have no more slave States and no more slave territory. We must revolve that the soil of our extensive domains be kept free for the hardy pioneers of our own land, and the oppressed and banished of other lands, seeking homes of comfort and fields of enterprise in the New World. 

The second of these lies is a blatant attack on the constitution and the framers. The Slave Power has waged a relentless war of lies, claiming that somehow, the constitution is a document that guarantees their rights as slaveowners to export their practices to the Pacific Ocean and beyond. This is the most nefarious of lies, constructed entirely by falsifications of the worst sort. Presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson all resolved that slavery should be localized and contained, President Washington went so far as to declare "I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery." President Jefferson wrote that "the day is not distant when we must bear and adopt [the abolition of slavery], or worse will follow." It was undeniably the belief of the framers that the institution of slavery ought to be gradually contained and extinguished, not to spread rapidly to the west and beyond.

The Democratic Party in the state of New York and beyond must reject the hydra of lies being presented by the ruthless slaveocracy in these lands, and stand for the principles of free men, free speech, free labor, free soil, and free democracy. If not, the nation will be left to the mercy of two parties in service to a small clique of landowners, and the people will suffer for it.



Published April 1848, Edited by Samuel J. Tilden and John Van Buren, to be known as the Barnburner Manifesto



1. How do you believe the issue of slavery should be handled in the territories carved out of the Mexican Cession?

There must be no new slave territories, nor any new slave states. This is line with the intents of the framers of the constitution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The western territories must be settled by free white men and women, not gobbled up by the all consuming slaveocracy. Let me make clear I am far from an abolitionist in this debate, but to allow slavery to consume the entirety of the west would destroy the Republic.

2. What are your views on the Independent Treasury?

I have supported the Independent Treasury from the beginning, and have supported it in all my campaigns for the Chief Magistracy. It is the greatest accomplishment of President Polk that he established such a system and I congratulate him for it. The next President should maintain this system to organize the country's finances.

3. What are your views on our current tariff rates?

I have always supported the Democratic ideal that tariffs should only be as high as those necessary to provide revenues for the Federal Government, this has not changed. I support a low tariff, and oppose sectional divisiveness on this issue.

4. What is your stance on further expansion of the United States?

The United States should not pursue further expansion, given that this will provide only greater opportunities for the slave power to assault the liberties of the people. It would be entirely irresponsible and unwise to push for further expansion when the nation is at a breaking point with the current new territories.

5. What is your overall view of the Polk Administration and what do you view as his biggest success?

President Polk has had a great many successes as Chief Executive, and I hold the opinion he has left the economy of the Republic in a robust state. The Walker Tariff was a great legislative success, and as I have stated previously, the Independent Treasury is a great triumph, and one I have worked for for a great many years. It was a good thing for the Republic that Polk was elected and that the devious Henry Clay was prevented from becoming Chief Magistrate. However, the Mexican Cession has opened up an opportunity for the sectionalist slave power to force a vicious debate among the American people, one that if they are victorious could doom the Republic. The next President of these United States must act to enforce a policy of free soil in these territories.






[1] Wikimedia Commons, Cropped by Me