Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1856-08-05
From the Montgomery Advertiser.
Mr.. Fillmore on SInxarx

From the Montgomery Advertiser.
MIR. Fillmore Slavery.
We resume the consideration Of Mr.. Fill
more's anti-slavery votes, promising that we
omit, Tor the present, one in relation to Ieras,
as we neglected, in looking over the Congress
sioadt Globe, to mark the date of it. Indeed,
we might well omit all Of them, and merely
declare that there is not one for the South ever
given by him during his Congressional career
but it affords some degree of pleasure to con-
trast the ability Of the Democracy to furnish
evidence of his past unsOundness with the utter
absence of any testimony against Mr.. Buch-
anan on the part of our opponents. They have
been challenged to produce any vote he ever
gave which would indicate any unfriendliness
to us or our institutions at any period Of his
long public services, and it is only by garbling
facts that they can raise even an inference
against him. They opened on the scent with a
tremendous cry, but the quarry stood at bay,
and they returned to their kennel to howl over
their discontinue. We produce votes which
cannot be denied; proof which cannot be con-
troyerted, OF Mr.. Fillmore's anti-slavery senti-
ments, and we ask all men who are sensible of
the danger that threatens us, to hold him
responsible for the consequences of his acts.n
The votes which we have culled and pre-.
sented to our readers already, his friends will
contend, were given under misapprehension
as to the right 81 petiton- that, misied by that,
or contending only for that, he did not in reality
vote against the South, or Indicate any dspo-
sition to interfere with the question OF slavery.
Noscitur sociis--a man is known by the
company he keeps, is a safe rule to guide us in
determining his position, certainly it is a safe
one by which we should be governed in our
e0pIunt foworIo hin, L. 4.
votes to elevate him to position lf honor and
influence.
We are not left, however, to a construction
of his motives in voting, or an inference from
his associations; he saves US that trouble, and
distinctly shows. by his Erie letter that, how
ever much he may have been influenced by his
regard for the right of petition, he was decid-
eddy in favor of the object Of the petitioners,
and had the petitions been received and con-
sdered would have voted for them as substan-
tive propositions. 1t must be borne in mind,
too, that this Erie letter was written after the
questions alluded to in it had been the subject
of angry and heightened discussions in the
House of Representatives 1t was written
pending an election in New York. A similar
one was addressed to other candidates. IF it
do not contain Mr.. Fillmore's opinions, it is
evidence that, to secure success he is willing
to stultify his conscience and pander to fanati-
cism. We republish it. There is a portion of
it omitted we are told. 1t would be we'll if his
friends would publish it entire in their papers.
We requested one of them to obtain it for US,
that we might do so it has never been handed
to us yet:
Letter Of Mr.. Fillmore to the Abolitionists.
BUFFALO, October II, 1853.
SIR: Your communication of the 18th inst.
as chairman of committee appointed by the
"Anti-Slavery Society Of the county of Erie"
has just come to hand. You solicit my answers
to the following interrogatories
First. Do you believe that petitions to Con-
gress on the subject of slavery or the slave
trade ought to be received, read and respect
fully considered by the Representatives of the
people2
Second. Are you opposed to the annexation
of Texas to the Union, under any circum-
stances, SO long as slaves are held therein?
Third. Are you in favor Of Congress exert
ing all the constitutional power it possesses to
abolish the internal slave trade between the
States?
Fourth. Are you in favor Of immediate le-
gislation for the abolition Of slavery in the
District Of Columbia?
/ am much engaged, and have no time to
enter into an argument, or to explain at length
my reasons for my opinion. / shall therefore
content myself for the present, by answering
all your interrogatories in the affirmative and
leave for some future occasion more extended
discussion of the subject
/ am, respectfully your obedent servant,
WILLARD FILLMORE.
W. Mills, esq, Chairman.
In the votes we have published, and the
above letter, are found the germs of the present
agitation, and not in that repeal of The Missouri
Compromise, or the Kansas-N ebraska bill.
Here was the origin Of that fire, kindled by
incendiaries, which no efforts have been able
to extingush, and which now threatens to
destroy the fabric of our government And
most strange it is to find that Southern men are
aiding in the elevation Of one Of the chief in
cendiaries, who applied the torch and fed the
flames with a reckless disregard Of the rights of
his countrymen, but cool, discerning calcula-
ton of the benefit he was to reap from it, Is
it to such a man as that we must 90 for our
policy of insurance?
In less than two months after this Erie Letter.
Mr.. Fillmore had another opportunity Of dis.
playing his hostility to slavery, and did not
shrink from it:
TUESDAY, December IL, 1898.
Mr.. Anterior rose and asked leave to submit
the following resolutions:
Resoloed, That this Government is a Govern
ment Of limited powers, and that, by the Con-
stitution Of the United States Congress has no
jurisdiction whatever over the institution of
slavery in the several States Of the Confsde-
racy.
Resoloed, That petitions for the abolition Of
slavery in the District Of Columbia and the
Territories Of the United States, and against
the removal Of slaves from one State to another,
are part of plan of operations set on foot
to affect the institution of slavery in the seve-
raj States, and thus indirectly to destroy that
institution within their limits
ResolDed, That Congress has no right to do |
that indirectly which it cannot do directly
and that the agitation Of the subject Of slavery
in the District Of Columbia, or the Territories,
as means, and with the view OF disturbing or
overwhelming that institution in the several |
States, is against the true spirit and meaning |
Of the Constitution, an infringement of the |
rights Of the States affected, and breach Of |
the public faith upon which they entered into |