Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1859 — MR. FILLMORE'S LETTER. [ARTICLE]

MR. FILLMORE'S LETTER.

lie Pitches into the Douglas men, The letter of ex-President Fillmore came up with a manliness quite unexpected in the New York Union meeting. While almost all the other speeches and letters were entirely one-sided, the ex-President boldly put the responsibility of the present agitation where it belongs, by avowing that it arose from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. We commend the epistle to the reflection of those Union savers who participated in that nefarious transaction: “Buffalo, Dec. 16, 1859. “ Gentlemen: Your letter of the 1 3th reached !me yesterday, enclosing a call for a public j meeting in New York city, headed: “The | North and the South—Justice and Fraternity,” inviting me to be present on the occasion. As no time is specified, I hasten to respond by saying that the object of the meeting have my most hearty approval, but | 1 have long since withdrawn from any pari ticipation in politics beyond that of giving ; my vote for those whom I deem the best and : safest men to govern the country; and I have | uniformly, since I was at the head of the [government, declined all invitations to at- ! tend political meetings; yet, in view of the | present stormy aspect and threatening teni dency of public events, did I feel that, my I presence at your meeting could, in the least, , tend to allay the growing jealousy between [ the North and the South, I should, at some j personal inconvenience, accept your invita- | lion, and cordially join you in admonishing the country, North and South, to mutual forbearance toward each other, and to cease crimination and recrimination on both sides, and endeavor to restore again that fraternal leeling and confidence which have made us a great and happy people. “But it seems to me that if my opinions are of any importance to my countrymen, they now have them in a much more responsible and satisfactory form than I could ! give them by participating in the proceedings of any meeting. My sentiments-on this unfortunate question of slavery, and the constitutional rights of the South in regard to it, have not changed since they were made manifest to the whole country by the performance of a painful duty in approving and enforcing the fugitive slave law. What the Constitution gives I would concede at every sacrifice. I would not seek to enjoy its benefits without sharing its burthens and responsibilities. I know of no other rule of political rights and expediency. These were my sentiments then—they are my sentiments now. I stand by the Constitution of my country at erery hazard, and I am prepared to maintain it at every sacrifice. “Here I might stop; butjsince I have yielded to the impulse to write, I would not hesitate to express Very ufleiiy, my views on one or two events which have occurred since j j. retired from office, and which, in all probability, have given rise to your meeting. This I cannot do intelligibly, without a brief reference to some events which occurred during my administration. “All must remember that in 1849 and 1850 the country was severely agitated on this disturbing question of slavery. The contest grew out of the acquisition of new territory from Mexico, and a contest between the North and the South as to whether slaves should be tolerated in any part of that territory. Mixed up with ? this was a claim on the part of the slaveholding States, that the provision of the Constitution for the rendition as fugitives from service should be made available, as the laws of 1793 on the subject, which depended chiefly on State officers for its execution, had become inoperative because State officers were not obliged to perform that duty. “After a severe struggle, which threatened the integrity of the Union, Congress finally passed laws settling these questions; and the government and the people for a time seemed to acquiesce in that compromise as a final settlement of this exciting question; and it is exceedingly to be regretted that mistaken ambition or the hope of promoting a party triumph should have tempted any one to raise this question again. But in an evil hour this Pandora’s box of slavery was again opened by what I conceive to be an Unjustifiable attempt to force slavery into Kansas by a repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the flood of evil now swelling and threatening to overthrow the Constitution, and sweep away the foundation of the government itself, and deluge this land with fraternal blood, may all be traced to tiiis unfortunate act. Whatever might have been the motive, few acts have ever been so barren of good and so fruitful of evil. The contest has exasperated the public mind, North and South, and engendered feelings of distrust, and I may say, hate, that I fear it will take years to wear away. The lamented tragedy at Harper's Ferry is clearly traceable to this unfortunate controversy about slavery in Kansas, and while the chief actor in this criminal invasion has exhibited some traits of character that challenge our admiration, yet hia fanatical zeal seems to have blinded his moral perceptions, and hurried him into an unlawful attack upon the lives of a peaceful and unoffending community in a sister State, with the evident intention of raising a servile insurrection, which no one can contemplate without horror; and few, I believe very few, can be found so indifferent to the consequences of his acts, or so blinded by fanatical zeal, as not to believe that lie justly suffered the penalty of the law which lie had violated. I cannot but hope that tho fate of John Brown and his associates will deter all others from any unlawful aUe-napt to interfere in the domestic affhirs of a sister Stato. But this tragedy lias now closed, and shown that she is quite competent to manage her own affairs and protect her own rights. And, thanks to an overruling Providence, this question of slavery in lyaiisas is now also settled, and settled in favor of freedom. The North has triumphed, and, having triumphed, let her, by her magnanimity and generosity to her Southern brethren, show that the contest on her part was one of principle and nut one of personal hatred or the low ambition of a sectional triumph. “Finally, if I had the power to speak, and there were any disposed to listen to my counsel. I would say to my brethren of the South: t lit not alarmed, for there are few, very few, at tii- N i r tv- V would just! :y in any m.-n nor an attack »i|V-u the institutions ot the . South, which are guaranteed by the Consti-

tution. We are all Anti-Slavery in sentiment, but we know we have nothing to do with it in the several States, and we do not intend to interfere with it. And I would say to my brethren of the North: Respect the rights of the South; assure them by your acts that you regard them as friends and brethren. And I would conjure all, in the name of all that is sacred, to let this agitation cease with the causes which have pro-, duced it. Let harmony be restored between the North and the South, and let every patriot rally around our National flag, and swear upon the altar of his country to sustain and defend it. lam with great respect, your: obedient servant.” Millard Fillmore.