The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-08-21
KEEP IT BEFORE THE PEOPLE.

ing WORLDWIDE notice, tor Its statesmanllke
views, and for the calm dignity of its tone.
Compare it with the abject spirit of low parti.
sanship which distinguishes the letter of Mr..
Buchanan, in which he accepts the Cincinnati
nomination In the letter of Colonel Fremont
there is a tone of elevated patriotism worthy
of the Father of this Country; in that of Mr.
Buchanan, character of meek and submissive
demagogseism, which owes allegiance, not to
the honor and welfare of the country, but to
the behests of party. Colonel Fremont, while
in fall sympathy with the party of Freedom,
declares that, if elected President, he will enter
| upon the duties of the station "with a single
hearted determination to promote the good Of
the whole country, and to direct solely to this
end all the power of the Government, prospect
i've of party issues, and regardless of sectional
strifes." This is the language of elevated
manhood. Now, contrast it with the humili
ating position assumed by Mr.. Buchanan, who
declares that " In accepting the, nomination
l need scarcely say that 1 accept in the same
spirit the resolutions constituting the plat
form of principles erected by the Convention
TO this platform intend to confne myselj
throughout the canuass, believing that haze
no right, as the candidate of the Democratic
party, by answering interrogatories, to present
new and different issues before the people,
Mr.. Buchanan, it will be seen, sinks the man
beneath the platform, and, with the facility Of
practiced demagogue, is ready to be the mere
tool of the partisan Convention which placed
him in nomination.
1t is not surprising that Europeans, looking
at American politics from the impartial stand
point of three thousand miles distance, should
be impressed with the superior elevation of
tone and sentiment assumed by Colonel Ere
mont and his party, over that of his opponents.
We again present the letter of acceptance Of
each of the leading candidates, in order that
the people may at all times be able to lay hands
on them. They have appeared before in our
columns, but their importance demands their
repeated publication during the campaign.
Fremonts Letter Of Acceptance.
NEW YORK, July 8, 1856.
GENTLEMEN: You call me to high respon.
sibility by placing me in the van of great
| movement of the people of the United States,
who, without regard to past differences, are
uniting in a common effort to bring back the
| action of the Federal Government to the prin.
ciples of Washington and Jefferson. Compre.
bending the magnitude of the trust which thew
have declared themselves willing to place in nv
hands, and deeply sensible of the honor which
| their unreserved confidence in this threatening
position of the public affairs implies, feel that
/ cannot better respond than by a sincere dec.
laration, that, in the event of my election to
the Presidency, l should enter upon the execu-
ton of its duties with single hearted determi.
nation to promote the good of the whole country,
and to direct solely to this end all the power OF
the Government, irrespective of party issues,
and regardless of sectional strifes. The decla.
ration of principles embodied in the resolves OF
your Convention expresses the sentiments in
which have been educated, and which have
been ripened into convictions by personal OBJ.
servation and experience. With this declara
ton and avowal, think it necessary to revert
to only two of the subjects embraced in those
resolutions, and to these only, because events
have surrounded them with grave and critical
circumstances, and given to them especial i'm.
portance
concur in the views of the Convention, dep.
recating the foreign policy to which it adverts
The assumption that we have q right to take
from another nation its domains, because we
want them, is an abandonment of the honest
character which our country has acquired. To
provoke hostilities by Just assumption, would
be to sacrifice the peace and character of the
country, when all its interests might be more
certainly secured, and its objects attained, by
just and healing counsels, involving no loss OF
reputation. International embarrassments are
mainly the result of a secret diplomacy, which
aims to keep from the knowledge of the people
the operations of the Government. This system
is inconsistent with the character of our insti.
buttons, and is itself yielding gradually to more
enlightened public opinion, and to the power of
free press, which, by its broad dissemination
OF political intelligence, secures in advance to
the side of justice the judgment of the civilized
world. An honest, firm, and open policy, in
our foreign relations, would command the united
support of the nation, whose deliberate opin-
ions it would necessarily reflect.
Nothing is clearer in the history of our insti-
tutions than the design of the nation, in assert.
ing its own independence and freedom, to avoid
giving countenance to the extension of Slavery
The influence of the small but compact and
powerful class of men interested in Slavery who
command one section of the country, and WELD
e vast political control, as q consequence, in
the other, is now directed to turn back this i'm
pulse ofthe Revolution, and reverseits principles
The extension of Slavery across the continent
is the object of the power which now rules the
Government; and from this spirit has sprung
these kindred wrongs in Kansas, 30 truly por-
trayed in one of your resolutions, which prove
that the elements of the most arbitrary Govern
ments have not been vanquished by the just
theory of our own.
1t would be out of place here to pledge my
self to any particular policy that has been sug-
gested to terminate the sectional controversy
engendered by political animosities, operating
on a powerful class, banded together by COM
mon interest. A practical remedy is the ad.
mission of Kansas into the Union as a free
State The South should, in my judgment,
earnestly desire such consummation. 1t would
vindicate its good faith. 1t would correct the
mistake of the repeal; and the North, having
practically the benefit of the agreement between
the two sections, would be satisfied, and good
feeling restored. The measure is perfectly con-
sistent with the honor of the South, and vital to
its interests. That fatal act which gave birth
to this purely sectional Strife originating in the
scheme to take from Free Labor the country
secured to 1t by solemn covenant, cannot be
too soon disarmed of its perncious force. The
only genial region of the middle ATTITUDES left
to the emigrants of the Northern States for
homes, cannot be conquered from the free la.
borers who have long considered it as set apart
for them in our inheritance, without provoking
Q desperate struggle. Whatever may be the
persistence of the particular class which seems
ready to hazard everything for the success of
the unjust scheme it has partially effected, /
firmly believe that the great heart of the nation,
which throbs with the patriotism of the freemen
of both sections, will have power to overcome
it. They will look to the rights secured to them
by the Constitution of the Union as the best
safeguard from the oppression of the class which,