"BUFFALO, August 17, 1864.

"MY DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the 13th came to hand during my absence, but I was greatly surprised to see by the papers that you had so large and enthusiastic a meeting for McClellan. I sincerely hope that he will receive the nomination of the Chicago Convention.

"I see my name occasionally alluded to in connection with that convention, but I can not think there is anything of it; for I believe that all know that I do not desire the nomination, and I can not think any great number desire me to have it.

"Truly yours,

"H. KETCHUM, Esq."

MILLARD FILLMORE.

At the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion a company called the "Union Continentals " was formed at Buffalo, composed of old citizens. Mr. Fillmore was chosen the captain of this company, and N. K. Hall, his old law partner, a lieutenant. When Buffalo sent out her first installment of soldiers, this company of old men, headed by Fillmore, escorted them to the railroad, where they were to embark for the scene of conflict. The very force and spirit of the people surrounding him threw him for a time into a support of, or at least acquiescence in, the war preparations of the North; but from this passive state he soon settled down to an undemonstrative opposition to the Administration of Mr. Lincoln. Some feeling was for a time manifested against him in Buffalo, and no matter how well or ill founded, it was not always restrained from offensive expression. Some zealous patriots even called on him during one of the trying campaigns of

the War, and not being satisfied with his style of loyalty, pelted his house with mud balls, and otherwise treated the quiet old man in an indignant way. But it was a mistake then to suppose Mr. Fillmore disloyal to the Union, or that his sympathies with the South destroyed his sympathy and respect for the people of his own section. Nor would a historian at this day vindicate his claim to respect by assuming that intelligent men in the North were disloyal or traitorous who held to a different policy from that on which the War was conducted. It is no more impossible for those to be honest and sincere on the wrong side than it is probable that all who are on the right side are honest and sincere. Mr. Fillmore sincerely believed that war was not the way to maintain the Union. He believed the question of slavery forever settled during his Administration by the "Compromise Measures," and thought the North should have been faithful in their execution. His conduct as President had been based purely upon the belief that it was his duty to obey and execute all national laws, and that the spirit of compromise, though distasteful in some respects, was the only certain guide to peace. Slavery was doubtlessly always repugnant to Mr. Fillmore, yet after all it was a national calamity more than a Southern crime. On this subject, however, Mr. Fillmore had not, in common parlance, been consistent always. Consistency may not always be a jewel. It is certain at all events that the wisdom of experience and progress justifies, if it does not imply, change.

At the beginning and the end of Mr. Fillmore's Congressional career he was very decidedly antislavery. Nor does it appear that he was more inclined than the average among his class to palliate or make any possible allowance for slavery in the Southern States. His anti-slavery views were well known, and even after the Presidential election of 1848 the South distrusted him, and under the vague impression that Southern electors contemplated making an effort to substitute General Wm. O. Butler for him in the "Electoral Colleges," he wrote a letter, which was first published in "The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser" soon after the election, in which he lavished praises on the Southern Whigs, and spoke enthusiastically of his national principles and the purely national character of the Whig party. This letter was designed to put him on better terms with the South, and it had the desired effect. It was claimed at the time that the letter was published by a little slip of friendly confidence, but it really was not. It was prepared by Mr. Fillmore to take the exact course it did. The fact of his first letter to the Whig Nominating Convention in 1848 being a spirited anti-slavery document, and of its giving way for the more politic one, which became a part of the ostensible history of the man and the times, has been mentioned. That Mr. Fillmore ever became a friend of slavery it would be ridiculous to assert; and the accusation that he had "sold out" to Southern politicians was, of course, equally absurd. That his earlier opinions of the rights of the

Southern people, and the best and most just method of dealing with the institution of slavery under the Constitution underwent some change, there is no doubt. His views became more enlarged and statesman-like; his patriotism became national, and not sectional. His opposition to the Republican Administration of public affairs, and of the conduct of the war, was not founded on mere caprice, nor was it affection for Southern manners and institutions. His Administration had restored the country to comparative peace and quiet, and he believed the principles on which that quiet was based were just and reasonable, and that these principles should be perpetuated until in the progress of time some more amicable or wise and noble solution might be found for the great source of national contention. Whatever doubts may be entertained of the wisdom, intellectual ability, and statesmanship of Millard Fillmore, his virtue and honesty perhaps stand unblemished to-day on the pages of his country's history.

CHAPTER XXI.

MR. FILLMORE AND SOCIETY-THE MAN-THE END

FOREST LAWN.

TRICTLY speaking, Mr. Fillmore could not be

STR

called a public-spirited man, although he took a general interest in the affairs of his community, and sometimes an active part, and especially when invited to do so he gave a ready hand to matters connected with the immediate prosperity of Buffalo. On the organization of the Historical Society of that city in the summer of 1862 he was elected its first president, and continued to fill the position until 1867. On the first day of July, in taking the presidency of the society, he delivered an address of some historic worth on the origin of the name Buffalo, as applied to the city and creek, and the early settlement and growth of the town. He was concerned in the organization of the "Buffalo Fine Arts Academy," and was to the end of his life one of its officers, and generally favored movements looking to the cultivation and refinement of the community. Although his early education had been defective, Mr. Fillmore was decidedly scholarly in his habits, while he avoided all pretensions to scholarship. His good sense and judgment in this matter clearly appear in