In 1844, as we all know, Mr. Van Buren was a candidate for the Presidency, on the part of the Democratic party, but lost the nomination at Baltimore.  We now learn, from a letter from General Jackson to Mr. Butler, that Mr. Van Buren’s claims were superseded, because, after all, the South thought that the accomplishment of the annexation of Texas might be more safely intrusted to Southern hands.  We all know that the Northern portion of the Democratic party were friendly to Mr. Van Buren.  Our neighbors from New Hampshire, and Maine, and elsewhere, were Van Buren men.  But the moment it was ascertained that Mr. Polk was the favorite of the South, and the favorite of the South upon the ground I have mentioned, as a man more certain to bring about the annexation of Texas than Mr. Van Buren, these friends of Mr. Van Buren in the North all “caved in,”—­not a man of them stood.  Mr. Van Buren himself wrote a letter very complimentary to Mr. Polk and Mr. Dallas, and found no fault with the nomination.

Now, Gentlemen, if they were “dough faces” who voted for the Missouri Compromise, what epithet should describe these men, here in our New England, who were so ready, not only to change or abandon him whom they most cordially wished to support, but did so in order to make more sure the annexation of Texas.  They nominated Mr. Polk at the request of gentlemen from the South, and voted for him, through thick and thin, till the work was accomplished, and Mr. Polk elected.  For my part, I think that “dough faces” is an epithet not sufficiently reproachful.  Such persons are dough faces, with dough heads, and dough hearts, and dough souls; they are all dough; the coarsest potter may mould them to vessels of honor or dishonor,—­most readily to vessels of dishonor.

But what do we now see?  Repentance has gone far.  There are among these very people, these very gentlemen, persons who espouse, with great zeal, the interests of the Free Soil party.  I hope their repentance is as sincere as it appears to be.  I hope it is honest conviction, and not merely a new chance for power, under a new name and a new party.  But, with all their pretensions, and with all their patriotism, I see dough still sticking on the cheeks of some of them.  And therefore I have no confidence in them, not a particle.  I do not mean to say, that the great mass of the people, especially those who went to the Buffalo Convention from this State, have not the highest and purest motives.  I think they act unwisely, but I acquit them of dishonest intentions.  But with respect to others, and those who have been part and parcel in the measures which have brought new slave territory into this Union, I distrust them all.  If they repent, let them, before we trust them, do works worthy of repentance.