The true Democrat., 1856-04-22
From the Richmond Enquirer. Gov. Wise on Fillmore. Gen Scott, the Whig Party and the Know Nothings.
Richmond, Ka., March IA, 1856.

Richmond Va., March IA, 1856
 GENTLEMEN: l, at once, express my ac- Acknowledgements to the Hon. Alex. H. H. Stuart for his very "proper explanation" in his letter of the 1lth instant, to the editors of the Rich- mond Whig of the remarks made by him in the national convention of the American party at Philadelphia. was sure that his remarks, as he states, were "misrepreseuted;'' that he could not have professed "to have any person. sl knowledge on the subject'' of my imputed saying that "Mr. Fillmore's administration was Washington-like throughout" or at all; that he spoke from the common report of the country; that the time laid for this decara- ton would bc more remote than the year 1855; that the place would be as indefinite as Gin Winchester, and probably in other counties in the lower end of the valey;' that he did not make the remark about the seventeen thousand whig votes, at all; and that he did not hear me on the stump in 1852. I was, in a word
 sure that the whole report was "a cock and bull'' story, which a gentleman so respectable as Mir. Stuart could not and would not endorse
 And l thank Mir. Stuart for taking the pains to give the clue to the originaton of the story that had ever thought and ever said that the administration of his own cabinet chief was "Washington-ike throughout" He does not go to Winchester nor down the valley to the lower end, but he cites what seems like proof of something similar to the fact charged at another place, to wit: at Staumton, in 1852. It matters not for what was said at Staunton was very much in substance, 1 admit, the same, as that which was said at Winchester, and probably in other co unties at the lower end of the valley" And 1 will explain to Mir. Stuart the true and correct interpretation of the " edi
 tOrial poticn which ba ovtrocta1 frnp, tb,, Staunton Spectator of September, 1852 was then canvassing the valley as democratic elector. l appealed to whigs, and tried, not unsuccessfully, to show them that they were absolved from all allegiance to the party which had put Mr. Fillmore aside and had taken up General Scott as an available canddate.- The report in the Spectator is neither full nor accurate, but 1t will subStantiate the state ment that 1 placed what said of Mir. Fillmore, not upon my own estimate of him or his ad
 ministration, but upon the estimate which the whigs themselves had placed upon him, both as man and President. They-not I--had panegyrized him paregon of political per lection; they-not I-hal exalted him on d level with the Father of his Country, and had praised his policy as "Washngton-like through out" Gf you pleaS.;) they-not I-alowed of no defect i'll his administration, and had exulted i'll the south especially in his execution of the fugitive slave act. passed all their encom- ums, not mine, on his mind, his motives and his measures put him on their own pedestal for him, and then asked why he had been set aside for another and one not known to be a better candidate? Why had they not said to Fillmore, "Well done, good and faithful ser vant," you shall be made ruler over many things yet another four years? They agreed with him
 I f.l,r,1 ,,oliox- ba, l., claimed that none Was purcr, as public man, than he was. Why was he rejected by lis par ty? 1 did not pretend to give the answer, but 1 called up Willard Fillmore himself to answer why. 1 read his celebrated letter to Mir Bab- cock, in which he expressly intimatcs beforc- hand the reasons why he would be rejected by his party. He--not I--sad that as d true pa trlot, he had faithfully executed the laW''- he pleaded that he had done his duty, according to his oath of office; he said that he had executed the fugitive slave act and that would cost him the nominatou--that would make him the una va.lable--that would disatfect the amti-slayerv faction with his alministraioll--tha would cause his rejection by the whig couvention,-- They had said all this of Mir. Fillmore and he had predicted all this of his own fate and fall :; and put to Virginia whigS, if what they and he said was true, whether they were not ab- solved from all allegiance to party convention which had punished President, whom they deemed so worthy for the crime of obeying the law of the constitution against the higher law'' of abolitonism? Such was the course of my argument and appeal and such was the course of the whole democratic press. Now, Mr. Stuarl may well see how easy and natural It was for a listener even to have mistaken eulogies which 1 was quoting from whig pres '
 reasons which 1 was quoting from Mr. Fill mores own letter to MT. Babcock, for encomi- ums and arguments of my yown. Myown argu- ment was to grant their own premises, to take them on their own grounds for argument salle and thereby prove that they were bound not to support the nomination of General Scott. If it was natural then for Mr. Stuart to give credit to the report, " that Mir. Wise had commended Mir. Fillmore's administration as Washington like" he and every air-minded man will see how easy and natural 1t was for such a mistake and the report of it to have originated. l re- peat 1 never thought or uttered such senti- ment as my own in my life
 remember that, during the canvass of 1852, " in the lower end of the valley" at Berkeley l made the same appeal to whigs and asked them: Where, to suit their own estimate of a man, their own faith and policy, they could have found better candidate than Mr. Fill more, whom they themselves had so much praised? Why was he rejected? There, too, l read his own account of the reason whv- Baltimore had sent up champion of General Scott, a personal friend of mine, who attemp pted to give the reason why. He said the truth was, that the whig party was like the gallant who went hymen hunting; he met blushlug maiden of sweet eighteen, beautiful, modest, graceful, intellectual, soft and attractive, bat without the availablities;'' and widow, fat and forty" with wealth instead of vii. The gay Lothario gave his hand to the widow, with his eyes and heart fixed upon the maiden. 1 re- piled by saying that Mir. Fillmore was rather like poor deserted wife, for the whig party had been joined to him for four long years, but 1 took the illustration as 1t was: Mir. Fillmore wa, the maiden of sweet eighteen, and the fiat and forty widow" was Gen. Scott. Icontrasted the two--the latter dressed in furbelows and founces until he Haunted fnery like a very ho- lyhock of the garden of love; but l couldn't forbear to comment upon the immortality of marrying for money--of marrying with the hand one way and the eyes and heart averted the other way. But there something worse in this matrimonial desertion. Why was wife Fillmore deserted for widow Scott? It was be- cause the former was not so available Why not so available? Because, as he said in his Babcock letter--not I--that he had faithfully executed the laws-the fugitive slave act es- pecially. Were southern whigs, conservative whigs constitution-ovng whigs, to support the nomination of Gen. Scott for that reason- a reason which assailed the most sensitive nerve of the whole south, which shocked the moral sense, and outraged all justice? A rea- son which the whgs had professed to repudi- ate" availabiltyn' Now, this course of req sonng would as well justify the report that I had said Mr. Fillmore was "blushng maid en' or a a"deserted wife," at Berkeley, as the same course would have justified the report, 1 had said his administration twas Washington like" at Staunton or Winchester. But, mean not by all this to detract in the least from what did say in praise to MT. Fillmore; and what said then take pleasure in repeating now- I was then capable of generous trbuteo to