Mr.
Buchanan was an older man than Mr.Polk, was superior to him intellectually, had seen a longer and more varied public service, and enjoyed a higher personal standing throughout the country.
The timidity of Mr.Buchanan's nature made him the servant of the administration when, with boldness, he might have been its master.
Had he chosen to tender his resignation in resentment of his treatment by Mr.Polk, the administration would have been seriously embarrassed.

There was, at the time, no Northern Democrat of the same rank to succeed him, except General Cass, and he was ineligible by reason of his uncompromising attitude on the Oregon question.
Mr.Polk could not call a Southern man to the State Department so long as Robert J.Walker was at the head of the Treasury.

He could not promote Mr.Marcy from the War Department without increasing the discontent already dangerously developed in the ranks of the New-York Democracy.

Mr.Buchanan, therefore, held absolute control of the situation had he chosen to assert himself.

This he failed to do, and continued to lend his aid to an administration whose policy was destroying him in his own State, and whose patronage was persistently used to promote the fortunes of his rivals and his enemies.
Mr.Polk was by singular fortune placed at the head of one of the most vigorous and important administrations in the history of the government.