AT ALBION.

At Albion, in response to a speech of welcome by John H. White, Mr. Fillmore returned his acknowledgments, and said that there were peculiar relations existing between him and his friends in that beautiful village.

It was they, more than ten years ago, who first coupled his name with the highest office in the land. He never had, and never should cease to remember the fact with peculiar gratification and pride. In reference to the confidence which they had been pleased to express in him now, as well as the satisfaction with which they regarded his acts while administering the affairs of the Government, he would say that when he entered upon the discharge of the high duties of President, he found the country convulsed on the exciting topic of slavery. A series of measures calculated to restore peace-yet not in all respects what he would have been glad to have seen passed by Congress-were enacted, and he felt it his solemn duty to give them his sanction. It was not by the influence of any one man, or of any one party, that those healing measures were carried through; it was by the aid of national men and conservatives of all parties-of Whigs and Democrats-that the country was again restored to peace, and to them equally belonged the credit. He then fully hoped that peace would not be disturbed. But on his return to his country, he found it convulsed again, and threatened with the direst consequences, through the repeal of those measures, and the breaking down of a compromise that had cost so much labor and anxiety.

Mr. Fillmore said it had been truly remarked that while abroad, he had had the opportunity to compare other countries with his own; and he could say that nowhere did he find a country that could compare with Western New York, with your own Orleans County. Nowhere else is there so much intelligence, so much virtue, so much industry, so much solid prosperity as here. He had seen much of Italy, where a priesthood denied the people Liberty and the Bible

-where they were lowered and crushed beneath a despotism that was strongest where the people were least educated. "Be thankful, therefore, my friends," said Mr. Fillmore, "that you are permitted to live in this happy land; and be vigilant-ever watch ful-that internal dissensions, or misgovernments, do not divide you into fragments and destroy your prosperity."

AT LOCKPORT.

At Lockport, in answer to an address by ex-Governor Washington Hunt, Mr. Fillmore spoke at length.

He said that he received this tender of the congratulations of the citizens of Niagara County on his return to his native land, through the distinguished citizen acting as their organ, with feelings of gratitude and pride. If anything could add to the pleasure he experienced in treading once again his native soil, it was the universal expression of friendship with which his countrymen had received him back again to their midst. His chief source of gratification, however, lay in meeting those whom he could regard as neighbors as well as friends; with whom his life had been spent; who had known him from his boyhood, and had watched his career since his earliest days.

Their distinguished fellow-citizen had been pleased to refer in flattering terms to certain acts of his Administration, and he should therefore be excused for alluding to those acts himself. It had been his earnest hope, as it certainly was his expectation, that the measures which had been passed during his term of office with the design of allaying the agitation then existing on the exciting subject of slavery, would have been received as a finality by all, and have proved effectual in the accomplishment of that object. He regretted extremely that those who succeeded him in the Administration had thought proper, by disturbing existing compromises, to reopen the wounds so recently healed, and again to shake the country from the center to the circumference with the same deplorable agitation. The disturb

ance of a compromise that had existed for more than thirty years, he deeply deplored. The evils it had entailed upon the country were known to all, and he could only hope that the authors of those evils had not foreseen the consequences of their policy.

He deprecated any interference on the part of a State with the affairs of any other State or Territory. He believed that the States and Territories of the Union, like the Union itself, require no foreign influence in their government from any source whatever. He looked upon the people of this Republic as being able to govern themselves; and there was sound sense in the saying that they were best governed when least governed. He deplored the sectional policy that had been adopted by important political parties at the present time, and could only place his trust in the sterling patriotism and sound sense of the people, to avert the calamities which sectional agitation must always entail upon a country. Every reasoning man must see that the success of parties having their origin in avowed hostility to either section of the Union, can tend only to the destruction of those institutions, of which all are so proud, and of that Union so dear to every American heart.

AT TONAWANDA.

At Tonawanda, in response to an enthusiastic greeting, Mr. Fillmore said:

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I am very happy to see you. I am very happy to be received on my return from abroad, by such a kindly greeting on the part of the citizens of Tonawanda. I know not and care not what are your political sentiments; but one thing I do know that you are all Americans, and that as such I may address you. I am confident that, living on the borders as you do here, you are all true and staunch friends of your country. I trust that no such calamity will befall us as a war with England; but if, in the course of events, we should be driven to hostility with the country of our neighbor, we shall, I know, always find

the borderers ready to defend the territory and the honor of America. I did not expect this kind greeting from the citizens of Tonawanda, or I should probably have been prepared with some more fitting words of thanks. As it is, I can but assure you of my gratitude for your kindness. If I cannot call you all neighbors, yet we live so near to each other that I recognize among you faces that I have known for many years. I wish you all prosperity and happiness, and for the present I wish you, also, farewell.

ON ARRIVING IN BUFFALO

JUNE 28, 1856

Mr. Fillmore's arrival in Buffalo was, naturally, the occasion of a tremendous demonstration. The municipality had long been preparing for it. A great parade was held, with military and civic features, with "fairies" and flowers, music and salutes of cannon. Mr. Fillmore was conducted to a stand that had been erected in Niagara Square, and there he was welcomed home in a stirring speech by the Hon. Henry W. Rogers. Mr. Fillmore said in reply:

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: I receive this eloquent congratulation upon my return, from your appointed organ, with no ordinary sentiment of gratitude, and I return you my heartfelt thanks for this beautiful and gratifying welcome to my home. No man, unless he has been separated from those he loves most dearly and from a country that he values above price, can tell how sweet it is to revisit his home and friends, after a long absence in a strange land and among strange people. While wandering, sir, over the various countries of Europe, looking at the fertile fields in some parts, and at those which are blighted and deserted in others; witnessing here the pomp and splendor of the regal courts, and there the squalid poverty and the bitter sufferings of too many of the people, my mind has often turned with fond yearning to my home in Western New York; and I have longed for the opportunity of once more beholding this beautiful Queen City of the Empire State and of breathing again the fresh and invigorating air which blows from her lake.