Arkansas Intelligencer

BUCHANAN'S LETTER.

To the Democrats of Pennsylvania:

Citizens--After long and serious reflection I have resolved to withdraw my name from among the presidential candidates, to be presented by our Democratic National Convention.

This has been dictated by an anxious desire to prevent discord from the ranks of the party and secure the ascendancy of Democratic principles in our State and throughout the Union.

This conclusion I have consulted no one. It is entirely my own spontaneous act, resulting from the clearest and strongest convictions of duty.

In taking my leave; as your candidate for the presidential office; I am animated by profound gratitude for the unanimity with which you have urged my claims to the highest office on earth. This feeling is engraven on my heart until time no longer.

In January last, the Democratic members of the Legislature, in their letter addressed to me, presented my name to the Union as their favorite candidate for the Presidency. In some observations in my answer to recall your attention, I then assured the Democracy of Pennsylvania that I should feel it my duty to offer my name to the National Convention as a candidate for the Presidency. Regardless of the unanimity which could alone support their recommendation, I ought to act according to their wishes.

This, I am convinced, they would do with unexampled generosity; every unprejudiced man who has watched the current of political events since that time must be convinced that even the great State of Pennsylvania, with her sister States, has exerted in vain to secure my nomination. Under such circumstances, ought I, for personal considerations, to suffer the great State which has bestowed so many honors upon me for the first time in her history, for a President of her own, with a certain conviction on my part, that the request would not be granted, and should I be the means of placing her in a false position; which yet, their high sense of duty and the noble perseverance of her character, might forbid them to abandon?

To ask these questions, my heart tells me is unnecessary, and I answer them in the negative. Every feeling of gratitude and of duty dictates, that I should leave them to decide, in the National Convention, among the candidates whose prospects are more promising.

But a still higher obligation rests upon me. In my letter, to which I have already referred, I declared that "the principles and the success of the Democratic party so immeasurably transcend in importance the elevation of any individual, that they ought not to be jeoparded, in the slightest degree, by personal partiality for either of the candidates." And again: "If I know my own heart, I should most freely resign any pretensions which the partiality of friends has set up for me, if by this I could purchase harmony and unanimity in the selection of a Democratic candidate."

The time has now arrived when I feel myself constrained to apply these principles to my own practice. It is true that I may not be able to secure entire unanimity in the party by withdrawing my name from the list of candidates; but yet I shall reduce their number, and thus diminish the elements of discord. The great moral and numerical strength of Pennsylvania, to which her uniform self-sacrificing patriotism adds a double force, will then be felt in all its power, and may decide the contest in a manner satisfactory to the entire Democracy of the Union.

I can proudly say that since I have occupied the position of your candidate before the country, to which I was assigned by your unsolicited kindness, I have done nothing to tarnish your fair fame. Entertaining the conviction that the glory and perpetuity of our institutions require, that the highest office under Heaven should be the voluntary gift of the only free people upon earth, I have totally abstained from all personal efforts to promote my own success.

After what I have already said, I need scarcely again repeat the pledge I have so often given, that I shall firmly support the nominee of the Democratic National Convention.

To my friends in other States who have deemed me worthy of their support, I tender my most grateful thanks; believing that I shall best promote their wishes for the union and strength of the Democratic party, by withdrawing what they must now be satisfied would be a hopeless contest for the nomination.

In conclusion, I can solemnly declare that the only solicitude which I personally feel upon the subject of this letter is, that you shall be satisfied with my conduct; for next to the approbation of my God, I value your continued favor far above all other considerations.

JAMES BUCHANAN.
Washington, 14th Dec. 1843.