Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1856-07-24

Elkton (IMa.) Democrat
COL. FREMoNT's LETTER OF
ACCEPTANCE.
COL John G. Fremont has written the
following letter to the committee of the Re-
publican Convention appointed to inform
him of his nomination for the Presidency:
New York, July 8, 1856.
Gentlemen: You call me to a high re-
sponsibility by placing me in the van of a
great movement of the people Of the United
States, who, without regard to past differ
ences, are uniting in common effort to bring
back the action of the Federal Government
to the principles of Washington and Jeffer-
son. Comprehcnding the magnitude of the
trust which they have declared themselves
willing to place in my hands, and deeply
sensible of the honor which their unreserved
confidence, in this threatening position of
the public affairs, implies, I feel that can
not better respond than by sincere declara-
tion that, in the event of my election to the
Presidency, I should enter upon the execu-
ton of its duties with single hearted deter
mination 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 declaration of principles embodied in
the resolves of your convention expresses
the sentiments in which [ have educated,
and which have been ripened into convictions
by personal observation and experience
With this declaration and avowal I think it
necessary to revert to only two of the sub
jects embraced in those resolutions, and to
these only because events have surrounded
them with grave and critical Importance.
concur in the views of the convention
deprecating the foreign policy to which it
adverts. The assumption that we have the
right to take from another nation its do
mains because we want them is an abandon
ment of the honest character which our coun-
try has acquired. To provoke hostiIties by
unjust assumptions, would be to sacrifice the
peace and character of the country, when
all its interests might be more certainly Sc
cured and its objects attained by just and
healing counsels, involving no loss of repu-
tation. International embarrassments are
mainly the results of secret diplomacy,
which aims to keep from the knowledge of
the people the operations of the government.
This system is inconsistent with the charac-
ter of our institutions, and is itself yielding
uually to more enlightened public opin-
ion, and to the power of free press, which,
by It's broad dissemination of political intel
ligence, secures in advance to the side Of
justice the judgment of the civilized world
An honest, firm and opsn policy in our foreign
relations would command the united support
of the nation, whose deliberate opinions it
would necessarily reflect
Nothing is clearer III the history of our
institutions than the design of the nation, in.
asserting its own independence and freedom,
to avoid giving counteDance to the extension
of slavery. The influence of the small but
compact and powerful class Of men interest
ed in slavery, who command one section of
the country and WELD vast political con-
troll as consequence in the other, is now
directed to turn back this impulse of the
Revolution and reverse its principles, The
extension of slavery across the continent is
the object Of thu power which now rules the
government; and from this spirit has sprung
those kindred wrongs in Kansas, so truly
portrayed in one of your resolutions, which
prove that the elements of the most arbitrary
governments have not been vanquished by
the just theory of our own.
1t would be out of plaeo here to pledge
myselfto any particular policy that has been
suggested to terminate the sectional contro-
versy endangered by political apimosities,
operating on powerful class banded togeth-
er by common interest. A practical remc-
dy is the admission of Kansas into the In
ion as free State The South should, in
my Judgment, earnestly desire such consum-
nation. 1t would vindicate its good faith.
1t would correct the mistake of the repeal;
and the North, having practically the bene-
fit of the agreement between the two Sec
tions, would be satisfied and good feeling be
restored, The measure is perfectly consis-
tent with the honor of the South and vital
to its interests. That fatal act which gave
birth to this purely sectional strife, originat-
ing in the scheme to take from free labor
the country secured to it by solemn coven-
ant, cannot be too soon disarmed of its perni-
cious force. The only genial region of the
middle latitudes left to the Northern States
for homes cannot be conquered from the
free laborers who have long considered it as
set apart for them In our inheritance, with
out provoking desperate struggle.
Whatever may be the persistence of the
particular class which seems ready to hazard
everything for the unjust scheme it has par
TALLY effected, I firmly believe that the great
heart Of the nation, which throbs with the
patriotism ofthe freemep 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 safe