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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1960)
MONDAY, DECEMBER 11. 1189 MEDFOIID MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORO, OKI. 10 B to '?,VW h"? :, ' ''V'Mr-'I;M FULL BLOWN CRISIS As a result of his indecision over the issues of the day, Presi dent Buchanan was faced with a full blown cabinet crisis in December, 1960. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, the secretary of the treasury, resigned from the cabinet and went south to aid the forces of secession. Lewis Cass, the secretary of state, was next to go. Buchanan then switched Attorney . General Jeremiah S. Black to Cass' Job, and brought in Edwin M. Stanton to replace Black. Shown is a drawing of the cabinet in session in 1858 before the resignations. They are, from left, Isaac Toucey, navy secretary; President Buchanan, Aaron V. Brown, post master general; Black, Secretary of War John B. Floyd; Jacob Thompson, interior secretary; Cass and Cobb. (UPI Telephoto) Cabinet Crisis for Buchanan , . By MEHTON T. AKERS UPI Correspondent A hundred years ago, the administration . of President James Buchanan was in des perate trouble. Only a week before, his 'Stale of the Union message to Congress, in which he strad dled the flaming issue of se cession, had pleased neither the Northerners nor the Southerners and alienated both. And as a result, the inde cisive President had a full- fletlRcd cabinet crisis on his . hands, between the "Black" Repub licans and the people of the South, he said in the docu ment, was one of bittedness loo deep to be overcome. Aft er March 4, 1861 (when Lin coln was to be inaugurated) the federal government would have no claim on the South's confidence or loyalty. Then he went South to Georgia and plunged into the fight to take his state out ol the Union. . Cobb had already a distin guished career. He was a for mer governor of Georgia. As a Whig congressman he had Only a teeble ray of com-1 advocated preservation of the promise dimly shone- in. this I Union by compromise on slav Vense week. The Committee I ery, but by 1860, atter nearly ot 33, a House group appoint-1 four years in the cabinet, he ed to find a way out ol the had gone over to the seces- North-South crisis, held Us first meeting and did nothing but squabble, The cabinet crisis was on everyone's tongue. A tangled maneuver, it was, of pollti . cians trying to use the Presl- dent lo push the country to the extreme position of either secession or to a hard preser vation of the Union stand. The Northerners seemed to have the edge, loo. Cobb Resigns Howell Cobb of Georgia, secretary of the treasury, was the first lo desert Buchanan. Publishing a red hot seces sion "manifesto" on Dec. 6, 1860, Cobb followed it up two days later by resigning from the administration. Cobb held that secession now was Inevitable. The only feeling slonists. A distinguished bat tlefield career was ahead. Cass Exits Next in Hit cabinet lo go was Lewis Cass, secrelary of stale. Cass was 78, a Demo crat and a firm Union man. He had fought In the War of 1812, a brigadier general In (he . regular army. He was President Jackson's secretary of war and later was minister lo France. He ran for presi dent in 1848 against Zachary Taylor and was a senator from Michigan for two terms. He was one of the strong men in the cabinet. But he broke with the. Pres ident over the issue of rein forcing the forts at Charles ton, S. C. Buchanan then had before him a series of requests I for Inforccments from Maj. Robert, Anderson, who ; was struggling to restore the forts. "Old Buck" , vacillated. . On Dec 13 Cass made one more effort to compel Buchanan to act. "These forts must be strengthened, I demand it," Cass told the President. "The interests of the coun try do not demand a reinforce ment of the forces in Charles ton." Buchanan replied. , "I cannot do it and I take the responsibility on myself. Cass quit in disgust. Bu chanan switched Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black to Cass' job as secretary of state. A Pennsylvanian, Black was a strong Union man. It was his opinion that Buchan an had cited In his message to Congress that secession - was unconstitutional. , Stanton Eniars Cabinet As attorney general Bu chanan chose Edwin M. Stan Ion. Born in Steubenville, Ohio, and educated at Kenyon College at Gambler, Ohio, Stanton had worked himself up to a lop-posilion lawyer by 1860, practicing in Steuben ville, Pittsburgh, and finally in Washington when his cases In the Supreme Court began to take most of his time. . Stanton was a pugnacious little man, as rabid an anti slavery advocate as the fieri est of the Southerners was pro-slavedy. He learned his abolitionism at the knee of his father, a Yankee Quaker, He absorbed more at college and here was converted to Plus Personal Attention 1 W :. h ma m i u I Oregon - i I i t Cash from Finance Company A HOME-OWNED INDEPENDENT COMPANY 32 year in time location, Central & 8th GENE THOMAS, Mgr. OPEN SATURDAY MORNINGS DECEMBER 3, 10 and 17 ALWAYS MONDAY THRU FRIDAY TIL 5:30 Christmas Train Taking Gifts to Chile Children Santiago, Chile - IUPD - A special ten-car Christmas train with a full dress Santa Claus at the controls is en route from Santiago for the south to distribute holiday gifti to a half million children. They are survivors of last spring's earthquakes and tidal wave which ravaged ten provinces of southern Chile. Santa Claus will guide the train on a 1,000 milt tour through 72 villages. M s g r. Emllio Tagle, the apostolic administrator in San' tiago, blessed the train that will bring cheer to the young victims of Chile's greatest nat ural disaster. A bottle of champagne was broken against the gaily decorated lo comotive for good luck. Children See Dapartur 'Among the officials who saw the train leave was Min ister of the Interior Sotero del Rio. His wife was one of the women who conceived the idea of the Christmas train Also at the station were 200 Santiago school children. School children throughout Chile contributed to the half million toy cargo. Many of the toy were con tributed by patients in hos pitals for the physically dis abled as well as the blind. Their gifts include wooden horses, refinished by hand, books and tricycles. The wife of Mexican Presi dent Adolfo Lopez Mateos was the largest single contributor. The Junior Red Cross in the United States and Canada col lected some 125 thousand toys from North American chil dren. The American Re d Cross provided bags for the toys; carrying greetings in Spanish from U. S. children. Chilean and foreign business men contributed cash. While the train dispenses its Christmas cheer on land a Chilean warship will carry toys to offshore islands. 4 H Club News Central Point Swin Club The Central Point 4-H Swine club meeting was call ed to order by President Judy Frink at the home of Eldred Charley. We planned a skating party. We also set our goals for the year. Refreshments were serv ed by Mrs. Charley. Donald Herrog, ' Reporter AVOID THE LAST MINUTE t - -V H M ?flm; 4 1 I f M A I ii "ft MEDFORD'S Compact SHOPPING Over 45,000 square ftt . . . complete shopping under one roof. There Is no other store between Portland and San Francisco that can so completely satisfy the needs and wishes of your entire family!! ' FLOUR GOLD MEDAL DINS .CAKE MM the Episcopal church, embrac ing a faith that at times bor dered on the morbid. In Cin- cinnati trying a case, Stanton snubbed one of his co-counsel, Abraham Lincoln, but would be Lincoln's able secretary of war later. He was intense, and industrious, excitable, suspi cious and a prophet of doom. His remembered words, spok en at Lincoln s death bed, would be: "Now he belongs to the ages." In place of Cobb at the treasury Buchanan appointed Philip F. Thomas of Mary land, who would last only a month. Committee Hit Snag The one hope of compro mise at the moment seemed to be ' the Committee of 33, one House member from each state.- Appointed Dec. 6 it met first on Dec. 11. At the start all seemed conciliatory enough, but on the 12th when Reuben Davis of Mississippi made a long speech attacking tne Republicans, who con trolled the committee, bad blood began to appear. A resolution, designed by the Northerners to smooth over the ruffled feelings of the Southerners, was adopt ed but it ran into a denuncia tory manifesto of Dec. 14 signed by 30 Southern con gressmen which said that the time for argument had passed and that the Republicans had nothing to offer. On Dec. 14 chairman Tom Corwin of Ohio made a long speech again cal culated to smooth over the fighting and suggested a mode of operation for the commit tee. He wanted to take up pending proposal to ask North ern states to repeal all laws against the Fugitive Slave Act. The committee wrangled on, and in a few days the Republicans voted down a res olution to extend the Mis souri Compromise line to the west coast, with slavery per mitted on the south and free soil on the north whenever the territories became large enough to warrant admission to he Union. . I'hore the Issue rested. It would be Feb. 28, 1861. be fore any tangible results from this committee would b laid before the House. (Ntxt Week -South Carolina Stcedes.) 218 EAST MAIN BOOK KH lo-ib. J ' 25-,b' Bag "j-.- "b&J Bag ja jg MAXWELL e-or. W .S IS HOUSE Jar H & Wk 3i $100 : SWANSDOWN . '. ,-; ' C ALL KINDS Pkg. 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