The republic., 1851-08-16
Welcome OF the President 40 Augusta Coun-
", Virginia.

The following is the eloquent address de-
livered by Judge l.. p. THOMPSON at Staun-
ton, Va, rendering the hOspitalities of the town
and county to President FILLMORE, and pay
ing deserved tribute to his private worth and
public abilities:
Ma. PRESIDENT: In the name and on behalf of
the citizens of Augusta and town of Staunton, with
out distinction of party, have the honor to bid you
Welcomes cordial welcome-and to tender you
the hosptalities of our town and county.
We hail your arrival with delight, and gladly
embrace appropriate an occasion for the express
sion of our high and just appreciation of the
virtues, private and public, which adorn your
character as a and magistrate, by public
manifestation of our Difference and respect.
We tender you the homage of our profound re-
specific spontaneous tribute due from grateful
freemen TO meritorious and faithful public SER
want, as meet for us to tender for you to receive
We acknowledge no true title Of honor dis
tinction but that which merit confers We recog-
Mise patent of nobility but that bestowed by God
and Nature upon the wise and good and virtuous
beneiactors of their country and mankind. We
are ever ready to render honor to whom honor is
due With no purpose to do more on this occasion,
and least of all to indulge in the language of fiat
terry or exaggerated eulogy, but utter the un-
feigned sentiments Of my own heart, and those in
whose name speak, when | assure you, in all
sincerity and truth, that we delight to honor the
man who, without the accidents, the adventi-
tious aids of wealth, fortune, or patronage,
has been the unasssted architect of his own
fortune; whose rise, progress, and present ele-
vation and proud distinction strikingly
illustrate the beauty and benefcence Of our
free and noble institutions, and whose bright
example teaches American youth the instructive
lesson that merit makes the man, and speaks to
them in the cheering and inspiring words of pro-
mise and of hope, "Quis quis fortune faba;"
that every one, subject only to the overruling
providence of God, must be the artifcer of his own
fortune and fashioner of his destiny. Wedesire
to honor you the Chief Magistrate of more than
twenty millions OF freemen, who has borne his
honors 80 meekly, and demeaned himself so wor-
thily and so blamelessly in his high office as to
challenge our love, admiration and respect for the
man, not less than our veneration for the upright
magistrate-the President who has surpassed the
most sanguine anticipations of his most ardent
friends, and whose Administration has extorted
the praise and almost slenced the cavils and cen
serious criticisms of political adversares.
We honor you for your foreign policy-the as
siduous cultivation of peace, amity and good will
with all nations, by the exemplary practice of JUS
tice and good faith, and the Scrupulous observance
Of treaty obligations which has marked your for
egn intercourse, and which has redoundcd SO
much to our peace, welfare, and happiness at home,
and our honor, true glory, and elevated national
character abroad.
We honor you still more for the attributes Of
your domestic pohcy-among which, and not the
least conspicuous and worthy OF special commen-
dation, for that moderation and forbearance so i'm
portant TO the character OF republican magis-
trate, the ruler of free people, President Of the
United States, which has SO scrupulously abstained
from the assumption or exercise of all powers le-
ultimately appertaning to the coordinate depart
Inents of the Government reserved to the peoples
and for that fearless independence and self-sacri
fcing spirit which has shrunk from the perform
ance Of no duty enjoined, however disagreeable
delicate, or invidious.
But, above all, we most honor you for your un-
shaken loyalty and unwaverng devotion to the
Constitution and the Union, and for that broad and
expansive patriotism which, rising above the petty
and ephemeral strfes of section and of party knows
no North, South, no East, no West but en-
braces the whole Union, and regards with just SO
licitude the rights, the interest, the welfare and
happiness of the whole Confederacy; which is ever
ready to stand up for the preservation and perpe.
hazards and against all opposers, whether in the
shape of a foreign enemy, northern fanatics, or
southern ultraists.
You find here, like your fellow citizens every.
where, divided ntoparties and distinguished by the
appellations of Wing and Democrat. Wediffer, and
doubt not, honestly and patriotically differ, about
the administrative policy Of the Government. We
all claim to be loyal and devoted partisans, true to
our party faith and party standards-but parti5ans
who, whilst we love not our party less love our
country more. We know that party spirit is in
separable from, and if not unalloycd good, a
necessary evil inherent in the very nature of free
institutions Like the libe rty of the press, whose
abuses must be tolerated, lest, by attempting to
circumscribe and regulate, we destroy; growth
indigenous to the soil of freedom, whose redundant
Shoots if removed at all, must be pruned with eau
ton and circumspection; lest by too rudely hand
ling we endanger the vitality of the parent stem;
SO, even the excesses of party must be looked on
with indulgence, in Difference to the spirit of lib
erty. But when the landmarks transcribed
which separate faction from party and party from
patriotism, instead of conservative principle
vital spark imparting light, genial heat and en-
ergy to the body polite, it becomes consuming
fire, a devouring conflagration
With US allegiance to country is paramount to
its integrity threatened, and its very existence i'm
peried, as it has recently been, by faction,
reckless fanaticism and mad ambition, we forth.
with, and for the occasion, disband the cohorts of
party, and call out the national militia, composed
of the whole people. We merge the partisan in
the patriot, and forget our party struggles and
party Issues, and remember only the Constitution,
the country, and the Union. We unfurl the flag
of the Union, and rally in solid phalanx under the
standard inscribed with the notices, "Unted we
stand, divided we fall - "The Union it must be pre-.
served" "Liberty and Union, now and forever,
enc and inseparabe."
This s time, this no occasion, for any allusion
to topics of merely party character; purpose is
to welcome and to honor you, not the chief of a
party-a Whig President-but as the Chief Magis.
trate of the nation, who has signalized his love
and devotion to the Union, and successfully en-
poyed his high powers in its defence and prcser-
vaton, to have won for himself the respect good
will, and gratitude of the wise, the good, and pa
trotc Of all parties.
Persevere in a course 30 auspiciously begun