The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-10-20
Letter from mr.. Clay.

the city of New York. Emanating from a source
80 highly respectable and imposing. from friends
and fellow-citiZens SO numerous and intelligent,
and to whom am under such great obligations,
have perused it with profound attention and defer
ence After adverting to the present state of pub.
lie affairs to the spirit adverse to the measures of
Compromise adopted during the last Congress,
which prevails in certain quarters to the necessity
of unremitted exertions to preserve our glorious
Union, and to what has been so seasonably and
well done, with much ability, eoquence and
patriotism, by some of our eminent countrymen,
you invite me TO leave for time my quiet abode
here, to appear in your great city and TO address
my fellow citizens on the actual condition and
menacing danger OF our country.
l feel. gentlemen, with the greatest interest and
the deepest socitude, the full force of all that you
have expressed; and | would gladly comply with
your wishes, and even dedicate the remnant of a
life, the largest and best part of which has been
spent in the public service, to the cause of the
Union, if the state of my health would allow me,
and if believed that any fresh exertions of mine
would be useful. But ever since the long session
of the last Congress, during which my arduous
duties were greater than was well able to encoun
ter, my health has been delicate, and il has re-
NAMED 80 throughout the pact summer. ! hope
that it is improving but il still requires the most
assiduous care; and / entertain serious apprehen-
sions that if were to accept your invitation, and
throw myself into the scenes OF excitement Incl
dent to it, my strength might fail me, and my pre-
sent debility might be much increased There is
no place, am fully aware, where / should find
more ardent and enthusiastic friends in partyi
and more courtesy and respect in the other, than
in the commercial metropolis of the Union Whilst
| am constrained, with much regret, respectfully
to decline the meeting you propose, avail myself
of the occasion to present some views which have
taken of public affairs and which / trust may be
received a substitute for any oral exhibition of
them which could make before large concourse
of my fellow citizens in New York
1t not suppos ed by the authors and support
ers of the Compromise, in the last Congress, that
the adoption of the series of measures which COM
posed it would secure the unanimous concurrence
of all. Their reasonable hopes confined to
the great majority of the people OF the United
States, and their hopes have not been dsappoin ted
Everywhere, North, South, East, and West,
immense majority of the people satisfied with,
or acquiesce in, the Compromise. This may be
confidently asserted in regard to thirteen of the
savehoding States, and to thirteen if not fourteen,
of the free States In few of both classes of the
States, and in particular localities, dissatis
words of great violence and ntemperance; but this
feeling is, trust. where it has most prevailed,
gradually yielding to enlightened sense of pub
lie duty. will present a rapid survey of the &C
tua state of things, it appears to me, both at the
North and the South, beginning at the former.
In all that region there is but one of the various
Compromise measures that is seriously assailed,
and that ID the law, made in strict conformity with
the Constitution, for the surrender of fugitives
from lawful service or labor. But the law itself,
with two exceptions, has been everywhere
forced opposition to it is constantly abating, and
the patriotic obligations of obeying the Constitu
ton and the laws, made directly or indirectly by
the people themselves, ID now almost universally
recognised and admitted If, in the execution Of
the law by the public authority, popular discomfort
is sometimes manifested, it has, with the exceptions
mentioned, been invariably repressed, prevent
ed from obstructing the officers of justice in the
performance of their duties. If am correctly in
formed, great and salutary change has been
made, and is yet in progress, at the North, which
authorizes the confident anticipation that reason
and law will finally achieve noble triumph
The necessity OF maintaining and enforcing that
law unrepealed, and without any modification
that would seriously impair its efficiency must be
admitted by the impartial judgment of all candid
men. Many of the slaveholding States, and many
public meetings of the people in them, have de-
liberatey declared that their adherence to the
Union depended upon the preservation of that law
and that its abandonment would be the signal of
the dissolution of the Union. / know that the abo-
ItOnlBt5 (soIne OF WnOln openly aVOW desire 10
produce that calamitous evenly and their parti-
deny and derde the existence of any such
danger; but men who will not perceive and own
it must be blind to the signs of the times, to the
sectional strife which has unhappily arisen, the
embittered feelings which have been excited, as
well es the solemn resolutions of deiberative as.
semblies, unanimously adopted. Their disregard
OF the danger, am apprehensive, proceeds more
from their desire to continue agitation, which aug
ments it, than from their love of the Union itself.
You refer, gentlemen, to "resoutions and ad-
dresses adopted at conventions lately assembled
around us, In which we have seen with regret, as
well as alarm, that the question of adherence to the
Compromise is avoided or evaded,' and you Justly
deprecate the tendency of these resolutions. have
not been an inattentive or Indifferent observer Of
them, and with you deeply regret their adoption.
wish that these respectable bodies could have been
less ambiguous, and more explicit, in declaring
their determination to acquiesce in, and abide by
great measure of peace and compromise, which
forming an epoch in the progress of our country,
was intended TO reconcile and restore concord and
fraternal feelings among our divided countrynen.
There was no necessity to a right to dis.
cuss, to modify, and to repeal the obnoxious law.
Such right existed without any express reserva-
ton, not only as to that law, but to all laws, and
as to the Constitution ITSELF which has incorporated
in il the right of amendment, and consequently
that of dsc ussion But there are occasions when
u spirit of moderation should prompt forbearance
to exercise that right. If more intended than
meets the eye, more than to proclaim the theoretc
right OF discussion if it were designed announce
the right of unremtted agitation, to continue the
distractions of the country, and, finally, if possi-
BILE, to repeal the Fugitive Slave law, patriotism
and harmony must condemn the unwise course as
iraught with the most mischievous and perlous
consequences.
But we must make some allowances for human
frailty and inordnate pride of opinion. Many per-
sons at the North had avowcd an nvincible hostil-
ity to the Fugitive law; and even declared their in
tenion forcibly to obstruct its execution and had
appealed to higher law, which, as they contended
was paramount to all human legislation. These
ostensible positions wholly rreconcilable with
patriotism, with the existence of regular
government itself. Obcying the dictates, it is to
be hoped, of wiser and purer and more social coun-
sells, the parties who under the impulses of passion
and fanaticism had assumed have now abandoned
them, and acknowledged their unquestionabe duty
to submit to the law, untilit is modified or repealed
by competent authority. In descending from the
high and perilous ground, which they could not
safely occupy, to that Of conceding the obligation
OF submission to the law, discern, hope, lust
homage to the dictates of civilization and TO the
duties OF established government If they have
coupled with this proper concession the useless re-
servation of right OF discussion, and Of insisting
upon repeal or the amendment of law TO which
they had taken exception, may we not hope that
their purpose was only to secure decent retreat,
with secret and patriotic determination TO forbcar