Washington telegraph., 1856-07-02
MR. FILLMoREs ACCEPTANCE.

oIc cHdDAcu 10 present our Ied0eIS with
Mr.. FLLMoRE's letter of Acceptance
1t is a document which has been looked
for with the most intense interest, and
received with the warmest manifestations
of satisfaction. The calm and dignifed
manner in which he announces his accep-
tance of the trust reposed in him by the
American Party,-the cordiality with
which he endorses the principles whose
standard-bearer he has been chosen to be-,
by the people themselves-the unfaltering
reliance in his own unimpeachable in
tegrity, with which he refers to his past
course as guarantee for his future con-
duet-will serve still more closely to en-
dear him to his supporters more
completely, if possible, than aught beside
in the past, to vindicate his name and
his character from calumny and reproach.
Mr.. Fillmore's letter deserves the care
full consideration of all candid men. 1t
is free from bombast, prejudice, dema-
gogueism; it emanates from reflective,
well balanced, thoroughly informed mind !;
it is the production of a patriot and
statesman, who, on his retiring from
the Presidential chair, carried with him
the profound respected all men, whether
in public or private life. In every line
it bears the impress of the loftiest and
purest sentiments of patriotism; it is
the perfect reflex of noble spirit, hold
ing pride of birth to be an honorable
emotion, and a love for his own, his ma
tive land, an impulse, an Unborn prompt
ing of his nature, to whose generous in
fuences all minor considerations, such as
aspirations for political power, or longings
for elevation to the high station of the
land, should yield at once In this he
has set an example to America worthy of
his great name Coming generations
viii point proudly to his character as the
exemplar of all that is digni6ed in the
man, all that is pure in the patriot
Against him the elements of opposition
may "rage furiously-" They will rage
in vain Let the demagogue rant as he
may-let a mistaken philanthropy con-
ceive its dreams of universal system,
whereby all differences of opinion may
be merged into politico-religious faith
it is not the less true, that when people
forget the soil upon which they received
the breath of their lives-when they turn
away from the careful guardianship of
the distinctive features of their own So
cial and political condition, to listen to
the teachings of those who, coming from
distant shores, with crude ideas of the
nature of their institutions and settled
policy of their own, subversive of the
forms under whose benignant provisions
they are offered homes just then do that
people take the first downward step in
the path of their own degradation
then do they begin, with their own hands,
to strip off the crown of nationality with
which the Great Founder of nations had
invested them; and, turning from the
practical development of the resources
placed at their disposal, they lose them
selves in labyrinth of theories and spec
ulations, each one fairer than the first,
and all as false as they are fair; and
wrapped in contemplation of the idle pro-
jects fashioned by the cunning of their
intestine enemies, for them to daily with,
they find themselves at the very hour
when the plausibility of some dream would
tempt them to cry out Eureka, bound hand
and foot in the meshes of cunning foe.
the slaves of their barbarous will, or be-
hold the land of their birth, the inheri-
tance of their forefathers, their own heri-
tage from glorious race, the theatre of
the remorseless tyrannies of a despot, or
the blood-stained stage where Anarchy
mocks at all Right save that which Might
gives to the strong; where Liberty weeps
to see farce enacted in her name. while
she wanders friendless throgh land once
sacred to her holy attributes, the power
less prisoner of an unthinking and fero
cious mob.
The pages of all history are eloquent
with these truths; and, passing strange
from the tombs of the immortal men, to
whose travails and sorrows in the hour
our nations darkness, We are indebted,
under the mercy of God, for the blessings
which We now enjoy, come up with every
wind that floats through Heaven-the new
er-dying echoes of the words with which,
long years ago, they warned Americans of
the evils against which, Millard Fillmore,
as the chosen leader of millions of his
eountrymen, stands forth as the opponent
yet there are to be found men who do not
hesitate to set up the puny battlements of
their opinions, against these resistless
xroa,,oDc f-o,l Il