I have not language to express the feelings which swell in
my heart on this occasion: but I do most cordially thank you for this
demonstration of your personal kindness to an old man, who comes back to you
ere long to go to his final rest. And here let me say that, having visited many
foreign climes, my heart has ever turned to Lancaster as the spot where I would
wish to live and die. When yet a young man, in far remote Russia, my heart was
still with friends and neighbors in good old Lancaster. [Applause.] Although I
have always been true to you, I have not been half so true to you as you have
been to me. Your fathers took me up when a young man, fostered and cherished me
through many long years. All of them have passed away, and I stand before you
to-day in the midst of a new generation. [A voice in the crowd — “I saw you
mount your horse when you marched to Baltimore in the war of 1812.”] The
friendship of the fathers for myself has descended on their children.
Generations of mortal men rise, and sink, and are forgotten, but the kindness
of the past generation to me, now so conspicuous in the present, can never be forgotten.
I have come to lay my bones among you, and during the brief, intermediate
period which Heaven may allot me, I shall endeavor to perform the duties of a
good citizen, and a kind friend and neighbor. My advice shall be cheerfully
extended to all who may seek it, and my sympathy and support shall never be
withheld from the widow and the orphan. [Loud applause.] All political
aspirations have departed. What I have done, during a somewhat protracted
public life, has passed into history. If, at any time, I have done aught to
offend a single citizen, I now sincerely ask his pardon, while from my heart I
declare that I have no feeling but that of kindness to any individual in this
county. I came to this city in 1809, more than half a century ago, and am, therefore,
I may say, among your oldest citizens. When I parted from President Lincoln, on
introducing him to the Executive Mansion, according to custom, I said to him:
“If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it
and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country!” I was then
thinking of the comforts and tranquillity of home, as contrasted with the
troubles, perplexities, and difficulties inseparable from the Presidential
office. Since leaving Washington, I have briefly addressed my friends on two or
three occasions, but have purposely avoided all allusions to party politics,
and I shall do so here.
There is one aspiration, however, which is never absent from
my mind for a single moment, and which will meet with a unanimous response from
every individual here present, and that is, may God preserve the Constitution
and the Union, and in His good providence dispel the shadows, clouds, and
darkness which have now cast a gloom over the land Under that benign influence
we have advanced more rapidly in prosperity, greatness and glory than any other
nation in the tide of time. Indeed, we had become either the envy or admiration
of the whole world. May all our troubles end in a peaceful solution, and may
the good old times return to bless us and our posterity [Loud and prolonged
applause.]
SOURCE: John Bassett Moore, The Works of James Buchanan: Comprising His Speeches, State Papers and
Private Correspondence, Volume 11, p. 161-2
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