The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-15
The Uaion-Abontion-Mr. Fillmore.

Union Meeting at Wesfchssfer.
The Observation-Disclosures. Fillmore.
1t was question among the old writers on
the law of nations whether or not it was right
10 poison springs, or to use poisoned weapons In
war; and the better opinion was IN the mega
tive of the discussion. We would ask our con-
Temporary of the Union to consider cognate
question. and that is, to what extent in po-
litical controversy it can be held right to resort
to Misrepresentation, perversion of the truth,
and obvious libel?
Hardly day passes that the Union does not
denounce President FILLMORE as an Abolition
list. The Union KNOWS perfectly well that
President FILLMORE is as little of an Adolf
zionist as the Nashville delegate to the Nash
Vile Convention This is within the positive,
certain, absolute knowledge of the Union and
of every one connected with it who has the ca
pacity to Judge ola mans sentiments by his acts.
President FILLMORE signed the Fugitive Slave
bill, after having satisfied himself of its con-
stitutionality. General CAss and Senator
DOUGLAS, though members of the Senate at the
time Of its passage, did not even rote for the
law; and yet the Union represents those gen.
tlemen as being perfectly sound on the slavery
question, and has the hardwood in the same
breath to arraiea Mr.. FILLMORE as an Adolf
zionist.
The Union says that we have been laboring
for months to show that Mr.. FILLMORE was
perfectly sound on the Compromise, and above
all suspicion on the point. This was quite I'M
necessary labor. lis not unreasonable to sup
pose that Mr.. FILLMORE is perfectly sound on
all the acts of his own Administration! Be
sides, it is only of late that the Union has pre-
tended to believe the contrary. 1t thought Mr..
FmLMoRE's expression of his opinions on the
measures of adjustment, in his annual message,
deserved to be written in letters of gold" 1t
was only when our contemporary began to think
that his candor and truth on this subject
would damage him irreparably with the DEMO
CRATIC party that he changed his policy. So
strenuously did the Union vouch at one time for
the entire reliability, nationality, and good faith
of President FILLMORE on this point, that its
DEMocRATIc contemporaries at the South de-
clared it was no better than the Republic, and
had done infinite wrong and injury to the De-
MocRArIc party. Then, for the first time, the
admit that white is white, if party leaders pro-
nounce it black.
The Union says that Mr.. WEBB, of the
Courier and Enquirer, declares that Mr.. FILL
MORE is not ''sound" on the Compromise.
BY what ingenious perversion of language and
L
with due regard for veracity, we will not now
inquire. We do not imagine that Mr.. WEBB
has ever made any such declaration, for Mr..
WEBB is a person of altogether too much good
sense and self-respect to indulge in the loose
and reckless aspersions which are the staple of
the Unions discussions.
The Union says that Mr.. FILLMORE did not
''vote' for the Fugitive Slave bill, and that he
could not have voted for it without Cunning
his back upon every vote he ever did give on
the slavery questions" Well, we suppose
that it will be admitted that Mr.. FILLMORE,
in signing the bill, did quite as much towards
making it a law as if he had voted for it in one
Of the Houses of Congress. Certain it is, that
he did quite as much for the bill, in signing it,
as if he had been (like General CAss and Judge
DoUGLAs) member of the Senate, and had
omitted to vote for it. This we assume to be
demonstfable. If, then, by voting for the bill
he would have "turned his back upon" all his
votes on the slavery question, which way did
he turn his back when he signed IT.
This charge of "abolitonism" against Mr.
FILLMORE has been once passed upon by the
American people 1t has been dsproved by
all his acts since he entered the Presidency
as by his disavowals and positive averments
during the canvass. 1t was sometime in lS4S,
we believe, that Governor GAYLE, of Alabama,
published, in the Mobile Advertiser, a letter,
in which he said that though this charge was
made boldly at the South, he would venture
to affirm that no respectable man Of either
party, in the North, would endorse it. Upon
this subject no man is sounder than Mr. FILL
MORE: and, as between him and General
sCAss, an advantageous comparison could be
made.v If it could be made in lS46, with
how much greater advantage to Mr.. FILLMORE
could such comparison be made in 1851!
And what did Mr.. FILLMORE himself say
in his letter to Governor GAYLE, in referenc,
to this very charge? He said that he regarded
slavery as matter with which the Nationa
Government had nothing to do. He said "tha
by the Constitution Of the United States thu
whole power over that question was vested
in the several States where the institution