because events have surrounded them with grave and critical circumstances, and given to them especial importance.

"I concur in the views of the convention deprecating the foreign policy to which it adverts. The assumption that we have the right to take from another nation its domains because we want them, is an abandonment of the honest character which our country has acquired. To provoke hostilities by unjust assumptions would be to sacrifice the peace and prosperity of the country, when all its interests might be more certainly secured and its objects attained by just and healing counsels, involving no loss of reputation.

"International embarrassments are mainly the results of a secret diplomacy, which aims to keep from the knowledge of the people the operations of the Government. This system is inconsistent with the character of our institutions, and is itself yielding gradually to a more enlightened public opinion, and to the power of a free press, which, by its broad dissemination of political intelligence, secures in advance to the side of justice the judgment of the civilized world. An honest, firm, and open policy in our foreign relations would command the united support of the Nation, whose deliberate opinions it would necessarily reflect.

"Nothing is clearer in the history of our institutions than the design of the Nation, in asserting its own independence and freedom, to avoid giving countenance to the extension of slavery. The influence of the small but compact and powerful class of men interested in slavery, who command one section of the country, and wield a vast political control as a consequence in the other, is now directed to turn this impulse of the Revolution and reverse its principles. The extension of slavery across the continent is the object of the power which now rules the Government; and from this spirit has sprung those kindred wrongs in Kansas so truly portrayed, in one of your resolutions, which prove that the elements of the most arbitrary governments have not been vanquished by the just theory of our own.

"It would be out of place here to pledge myself to any particular policy that may be suggested to terminate the sectional controversy engendered by political animosities, operating on a powerful class banded together by a common interest. A

practical remedy is the admission of Kansas into the Union as a Free State. The South should, in my judgment, earnestly desire such consummation. It would vindicate the good faith, it would correct the mistake of the repeal; and the North, having practically the benefit of the agreement between the two sections, would be satisfied, and good feeling be restored. The measure is perfectly consistent with the honor of the South, and vital to its interests.

"That fatal act which gave birth to this purely sectional strife, originating in the scheme to take from free labor the country secured to it by a solemn covenant, can not be too soon disarmed of its pernicious force. The only genial region of the middle latitudes left to the emigrants of the Northern States for homes can not be conquered from the free laborers, who have long considered it as set apart for them in our inheritance, without provoking a desperate struggle. Whatever may be the persistence of the particular class which seems ready to hazard everything for the success of the unjust scheme it has partially effected, I firmly believe that the great heart of the Nation, which throbs with the patriotism of the freemen of both sections, will have power to overcome it. They will look to the rights secured to them by the Constitution of the Union as their best safeguard from the opposition of the class which, by a monopoly of the soil and of the slave-labor to till it, might in time reduce them to the extremity of laboring on the same terms with the slaves. The great body of non-slaveholding freemen, including those of the South, upon whose welfare slavery is an oppression, will discover that the power of the General Government over the public lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their interests and secure their independence. Knowing this, their suffrages will not be wanting to maintain that authority in the Union which is absolutely essential to the maintenance of their own liberties, and which has more than once indicated the purpose of disposing of the public lands in such a way as would make every settler upon them a freeholder.

"If the people intrust to me the administration of the Government, the laws of Congress in relation to the territories will be faithfully executed. All its authority will be exerted in aid of the national will to re-establish the peace of the country on

the just principles which have heretofore received the sauction of the Federal Government, of the States, and of the people of both sections. Such a policy would leave no aliment to that sectional party which seeks its aggrandizement by appropriating the new territories to capital in the form of slavery; but would inevitably result in the triumph of free labor, the natural capital which constitutes the real wealth of this great country, and creates that intelligent power in the masses alone to be relied on as the bulwark of free institutions.

"Trusting that I have a heart capable of comprehending our whole country, with its varied interests, and confident that patriotism exists in all parts of the Union, I accept the nomination of your convention in the hope that I may be enabled to serve usefully its cause, which I consider the cause of Constitutional freedom.

"Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"J. C. FREMONT.

"H. S. LANE, President of the Convention; JAMES M. ASHLEY, ANTHONY J. BLEECKER, JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER, E. R. HOAR, THADDEUS Stevens, etc., Committee."

CHAPTER XX.

CAMPAIGN OF 1856—MR. FILLMORE AND THE KNOWNOTHINGS-IN RETIREMENT-HIS SYMPATHIES

IN THE REBELLION-HIS ADMINISTRA

TION AND PRINCIPLES.

HE result of the Know-Nothing Convention

TH was made known to Mr. Fillmore by a letter

which reached him in Venice. Soon after receiving this information he started for home, and from Paris, under date of May 21, 1856, sent his reply signifying his acceptance of the nomination.

On the 22d of June he arrived in New York, where he was received with demonstrations suited to the occasion and the first Presidential candidate of the Native Americans. His journey to Buffalo was turned to the best possible advantage by his political friends. At several points on the route he made short impromptu addresses, some of which are really models in the way of plain, sensible, off-hand speaking.

In July, 1856, Mr. Fillmore delivered the following speech at Albany:

"MR. MAYOR AND FELLOW-CITIZENS,-This overwhelming demonstration of congratulation and welcome almost deprives me of the power of speech. Here, nearly thirty years ago, I commenced my political career. In this building I first saw a

legislative body in session; but at that time it never entered into the aspirations of my heart that I ever should receive such a welcome as this in the capital of my native State.

"You have been pleased, sir, to allude to my former services and my probable course if I should again be called to the position of Chief Magistrate of the Nation. It is not pleasant to speak of one's self, yet I trust that the occasion will justify me in briefly alluding to one or two events connected with my Administration. You all know that when I was called to the Executive chair by a bereavement which shrouded a nation in mourning, that the country was unfortunately agitated from one end to the other upon the all-exciting subject of slavery. It was then, sir, that I felt it my duty to rise above every sectional prejudice and look to the welfare of the whole Nation. I was compelled to a certain extent to overcome long-cherished prejudices and disregard party claims. But in doing this, sir, I did no more than was done by many abler and better men than myself. I was by no means the sole instrument, under Providence, in harmonizing these difficulties. There were at that time noble, independent, high-souled men in both Houses of Congress, belonging to both the great political parties of the country, Whigs and Democrats, who spurned the dictation of selfish party leaders, and rallied around my Administration in support of the great measures which restored peace to an agitated and distracted conntry. Some of these have gone to their eternal rest, with the blessings of their country on their heads; but others yet survive, deserving the benediction and honors of a grateful people. By the blessings of Divine Providence our efforts were crowned with signal success, and when I left the Presidential chair the whole Nation was prosperous and contented, and our relations with all foreign nations were of the most amicable kind. The cloud that hung upon the horizon was dissipated. But where are we now? Alas! threatened at home with civil war, and from abroad with a rupture of our peaceful relations. I shall not seek to trace the causes of this change. These are the facts, and it is for you to ponder upon them. Of the present Administration I have nothing to say, for I know and can appreciate the difficulties of administering this Government; and if the present