The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1850-11-30
First rate Notices of President Fill
moIe's Letter

Giheh ol Dy the resistance party OF ueorSla,
who resent it as an interference in the pending
election on the part of the President, and de-
nounce IT as really meaning nothing.
The especial organ of Senator SEWARD in
the State of New York, the Albany Evening
Journal, heartily com,mends that letter. This
ever has been the policy of the subtle Sewardites,
VINO care not secretly how many braue cords
may be administered as sleeping potions to the
Seuth-so long as their promise is kept to the
ear and broken to the hope.
Thus speaks the especial organ of the Higher
law party. We give it entire:
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAw.-The letter of
the President to the gentleman claiming Crafts
as fugitive slave, will be found in another
column. 1t Is a sound exposition of the duty of
the Executive in regard to the execution of the
laws. The constitutional obligation to sur
render fHgitives is clear, positive and undeni-
able. Ii Is part OF the "atrocious bargain"
made by our fathers. 1t is nominated in the
bond which the master presents when he claims
service and labor" from the fugitive
But wkile we admit that it is the imperative
duty Of the President to see this law executed,
We cannot but regret that law with details so
hostile to the spirit of our institutions, and so
repugnant to the sentiments of our nature, was
permitted to pass. Divested of some Of its mani
testify dangerous and vicious features, the senti-
ments against it would not be so universal and
so strong Persons claimed as fugitives ought
not to be deprived of any of the rights and pri-
vileges which all our laws extend to persons
arragned as ermoas. The protection of law
should not be wholly Withdrawn from the man
whQSp SiSte in hay
his own freedom. Even slaves may be excused
for thinking Mat they were born free and
equal, and that "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" is among their inalienable rights"
because these great principles are asserted in
our Declaration Of Independence. All this is
untrue, so far as the colored man is concerned,
we know, but it stands there to mislead slaves
and confound freemea.
The great error was in allowing such law to
pass. Its execution, by process 80 summary
and memorable, violently conyulses the founda-
tons of society. Fugitives who have lived
among us for ten, fifteen, twenty and five and
twenty years, cannot be seized and driven off MS
if they belonged to the brute creation. For
have not fugitives, like Jews, "organs, dmen-
sions, senses, affections, passions fed with the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same Diseases healed by the same MEANS
warmed and cooled by the same winter and
summer, as a Christian is? if you prick us, do
we not bleed if you tickle US, do we not laugh /;
if you poison us, do we not die land if you wrong
us, shall we not revenge? if we are like you in
the rest, we will resemble you in that
The retroactive character of this law covers
more ground than can be depended The at
tempt, under this law, to recover, at swoop,
the fugitives whose numbers have been aug
menting for a quarter Of century, will prove
inevitably abortive, In cases appealing strongly
to popular sympathies, individuals will, as they
have, voluntarily purchase the freedom of fugi-
tives. And the free States would, we doubt
not, far more readily consent to pay reasonably
for fugtives claimed and identified, from the
National Treasury, than to permit this law to re-
main in our statute book.
The error of the Administration therefore, is,
not in its determination to see this law executed
but in allowing bill so dangerous to the public
tranquility to become Il law. The present en-
barrassment is that the law can neither be exc
cuted nor repealed. But it may, possibly, be so
amended as to obviate some objections, and to
avert impeding dangers-dangers from the
South if it is not enforced, and danger from the
North if its enforcement should require the use
of powder and ball
That conservative" journal, the New York
Commercial Advertiser, is very hard on DR..
COLLINS, Of whom it speaks contemptuously
though the remarkable forbearance and calmness
him from insult from such source. Its "only
surprise is" that &C The President could muster
grarity and patience enough 10 reply TO the COM
munication p
Il t,.k d. J
pertiser be it understood, claims to be national
print"
Listen men Of Georgia, and then know what
you have to expect from your " national"
brethren of tbe North, so long as they believe
that submission Is your creed.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE CRAFrs-LETrER FROM
THE PREsIDENT-The owner of the fugitive
slaves, Crafts and his wife, having written to the
President respec Ing the difficulties his agents
experienced at Boston in their attempts to re-
cover the fugtives, the President instructed the
acting secretary Of the proper department to an
swer the communication in the form given below
Two or three points deservebrief mention Mr.
Collins, of Macon, Georgia, must have been
somewhat forgetful or ignorant of what was
proper In the premises, if he really supposed
that his own general statements, himself so far
from the scene of action, and collection of
newspaper paragraphs would be deemed by the
President sufficient authority for Executive in
reference with the judiciary of the city OF Dos-
ton, the :cc:liova CT marshal, or the parade of
the military, horse, foot and dragons, before
the people of the city of notions. If the owner
of Crafts really supposed that such authorities"
as he enclosed in his letter would be deemed
sufficient to Justify the Executive interference,
he must either have supposed that President
Fillmore had not cut his wise teeth, or his own
gums have never ingled with the pain of SINH
lar operation.
Our only surprise is that the President could
muster gravity and patience enough to reply to
the communication That his courtesy prevailed,
however, is matter of congratulation to every
good citizen, for it has afforded to all exposi-
ton of the Presidents views and intentions that
cannot fail to be highly beneficial at the present
juncture. We honor Mr.. Fillmore for the calm,
dgnifed, dispassionate treatment Of the subject.
We honor him equally for the confidence he re-
poses in the North, AID for the just counsel he
gives TO the South, with respect to their mutual
relations to the Fugitive slave law, We cannot
he, oil P,iI 70 n Ji,1