The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-04-29
From the Bu6tlo Commercial advertiser.
Letter from Governor seward.


Letter from Governor Seward.
We publish in another part Of this paper
letter written by Governor Seward in reply TO
an invitation to attend an anti Fugitive Slave
law convention in Massachusetts,. This letter, ex-
traordnary a. it is in many respects, docs not call
Tor very extended comment. Its characterized
by assuming, in a cool, easy manner, a. If they
were indisputable, the very matters in dispute
rhetorical artihco, BY the way that Governor Sew
ard il accustomed TO use with much effsct-but
lacks the writer's usual adroit argument and fell
city Of illustration Indeed there no attempt At
argument All Is assumption. and the revival Of
agitation is evidently the whole aim and scope of
the letter. In this view and in this only its publ
cation is important Governor Seward il An able
man, holding very prominent station, and exerts
a wide influence He has placed himself at the
head of movement that at one tilno threatened
the most serious disasters to tho Republic, and, by
assuming that position, has subjected himself to
the necessity of advancing still farther, retreat
ing and abandoning his enterprise altogether. II
may excite surprise that Senator of the United
States, after keeping silence in his official place
throughout whole session of Congress, should,
in the quiet retirement of home, rekindle the
fires OF agitation and fan the flames, as he has
done in his recent letter. That this has not been
readily BIO conceded. Governor Seward il a cool,
wary, bold man, as little influenced by hasty
impulse or enthusiasm of any kind as any man
now in public life. He secs clearly-none more
so-that he has gone too far to recede. The
movement with which he has identified his politi-
cal fortunes must 60 on, or he sinks with it, Pub
lie opinion, once so easily inhsmed, and needing
but slight indications to give It direction in tho
way he wished, has become moro sober. Rehec-
ton has succeeded impulse, and the fervid zeal
that impelled great masses to follow in blind obs-
dience to idea, has at last 90 far cooled that
thousands calmly thinking whittier they
have been tending. They SEQ the perils before
them. and though mono the less opposed to the ex-
tension of slavery now than before, they appreciate
the danger of further agitation when necessity
for it exists, when no good can come of it, and
when the condition of the country imperatively
quires that attention should be turned to other
things, and especially the restoration Of fraternal
harmony and peace.
With quick sense of this change in public sen
timent, Governor Seward has applied himself to
the work of rcagitation. and proclaims that "agi.
tation, whether benefcent or otherwise, is as in
separable from political organization az the
winds and clouds are from the atmosphere that on
circles the earth' Vice and crime are inseparable
from our moral organization. Shall we, therefore,
do all in power to aggravnte these Of our
fallen state? The argument is good in one case
as another. We will not disparage the acuteness
of Governor Stewards intellect by believing him the
dupe of his own sophistry. He is the victim Of .
political necessity, and hence has written his let
ter That he has written it, is of the most aus
picious signs of the times for nothing but the over
mastering need Of doing something to check the
great popular reaction going on, could have
induced him to take the course he has.
The laborec effort to cast odium upon the Com
promise Of the last Congress will aignally
fail, and is the more unworthy because made in
bad spirit, and the assertions he makes not
only unsustaincd by proof but in defiance of
proof. He starts by endeavoring to make even
the word compromise odous-for he says it i'm
plies mingling of truth and error, right and
wrong" photographers define compromise 90
an amcable agreement; and do We not every day
witness compromises without any sacrifice of truth
or right on either side? If small rights are some
times waived in these amicable agreements, it is
done for the sake of far greater good. Is not
this the part of wisdom What great vital prin.
ciplc of truth or right was sacrificed in the adop
ton of the Compromise measures? 1t is too much
insist that civil broils and contentious desruc-
tive of the proper business of legislation, iniam.
ing the public mind and threatening the stability
of the Union, should be continued to advance
the political fortunes and ambitious aspirations of
any man.
What Governor Seward says respecting the set
Element of the Texas boundary has already been
sufficiently answered by the letter of Senator Rusk,
published in yesterdays paper; but what evidence
has Governor 8. to sustain his assertions that New
Mexico was refused admission State because
she had determined to come in free, and that it
distinctly intimatcd to the Mormons that they
might come in if they would plant slave State in
the recesses of the continent? Give the proof.
Who made this "distinct intimation,' and by what
authority? Assertions like these may do in stump
speech, in times of high excitement, but they are
sadly out of place in letter calmly written by a
grave Senator.