every conflict, has led that standard often to victory, and has tempered the ardor of triumph by a clemency as rare as it was undeserved. As a legislator, he has proposed and carried through only such measures as protected the interests of individual labor and industry, in opposition to the grasping aims of great capitalists, demanding exclusive franchises. As the governor of a new and unsettled territory, he displayed rare energy, sagacity and impartiality, and won the praises of thousands of brave men whom he governed, and aroused the well-merited fears of the turbulent and dissolute. Though still a young man, comparatively, he has made himself, by his own indomitable qualities, one of the foremost heroes of the present generation. Few living men have voluntarily braved as great hardships, or made as great sacrifices in pursuit of useful, benevolent and patriotic purposes as he. The incidents of his life surpass in strange contrasts and striking vicissitudes the most visionary dreams of romance. His triumphs heretofore have been achieved over the domains of nature, over unpropitious and opposing circumstances and influences, and over the enemies of his country's glory and power. The future may reveal to him still greater and more remarkable experiences. He may yet happily realize the glowing anticipa tions of the poet, as uttered in the following graceful stanzas, which would do no discredit even to bards and minstrels of immortal name: "Columbus of the golden West! Of myrtle boughs and laurel leaves. "Young Alexander of the age! Lay thou aside the sword and shield, The Canaan of the human race Made by the revolution's toil True Freedom's only dwelling-place." COL. FREMONT'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. THE following letter, accepting the nomination tendered him by the Philadelphia convention, is a concise, yet full and frank avowal of the political opinions and purposes of its author. It will be seen that he cordially adopts the declaration of principles contained in the noble resolutions of the convention that nominated him, deprecates, specially, the fillibustering propensities of those who are determined to extend the area of slavery, pays an eloquent compliment to the dignity of "Free labor-the natural capital wnich constitutes the real wealth of this great country, and creates that intelligent power in the masses, alone to be relied on as the bulwark of free institutions ;" and declares himself decidedly in favor of admitting Kansas as a free state. Thus, while he adopts the entire PLATFORM OF FREEDOM as his own, he does not deem it necessary to discuss in detail each of its separate principles; but contents himself with a particular exposition of two of the more important-that which concerns the harmony of our foreign relations, and that which has already involved us in the hor rors of civil strife. NEW-YORK, July 8, 1856. GENTLEMEN: You call me to a high responsibility by placing me in the van of a 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 principles of Washington and Jefferson. Comprehending 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 I cannot better respond, than by a sincere declaration that, in the event of my election to the Presidency, I should enter upon the execution of its duties 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, 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 I have been 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 subjects embraced in those resolutions, and to these only because events have surrounded them with grave and critical circumstances, and given to them especial importance. I 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 domains because we want them, is an abandonment of the honest character which our Country has acquired. To provoke hostilities by unjust assumptions, 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 results of a secret diplomacy, which aims to keep from the knowledge of the People the operations of the Govern ment. This system is inconsistent with the character of our institutions, and is itself yielding gradually to a more enlightened public opinion, and to the power of a 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 opinions it would necessarily reflect. Nothing is clearer in the history of our institutions than the design of the nation, in asserting 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 wield a vast political control as a 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 the 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. It would be out of place here to pledge myself to any particular policy that has been suggested to terminate the sectional controversy engendered by political animosities, operating on a powerful class banded together by a common interest. A practical remedy is the admission of Kansas into the Union as a Free State. The South should, in my judgment, earnestly desire such consummation. It would vindicate its good faith. It 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 be restored. The measure is perfectly consistent 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 it by a solemn covenant, cannot be too soon disarmed of its pernicious force. The only genial region of the middle latitudes left to the emigrants of 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, without provoking a 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, I 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, by a monopoly of the Soil and of Slave Labor to till it, might in time reduce them to the extremity of laboring upon the same terms with the Slaves. The great body of Non-Slaveholding Freemen, including those of the South, upon whose welfare Slavery is an oppression, will discover that the power of the General Government over the Public Lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their interests and secure their independence: knowing this, their suffrages will not be wanting to maintain that authority in the Union, which is absolutely essential to the maintenance of their own liberties, and which has more than once indicated the purpose of disposing of the Public Lands in such a way as would make every settler upon them a freeholder. If the People intrust to me the administration of the Government, the laws of Congress in relation to the Territories shall be faithfully executed. All its authority shall be exerted in aid of the National will, to reestablish the peace of the country on the just principles which have heretofore received the sanction of the Federal Government, of the States, and of the People of both sections. Such a policy would leave no aliment to that sectional party which seeks its aggrandizement by appropriating the new Territories to capital in the form of Slavery, but would inevitably result in the triumph of Free Labor—the natural capital which constitutes the real wealth of this great country, and creates that intelligent power in the masses, alone to be relied on as the hulwark of free institutions. Trusting that I have a heart capable of comprehending our whole country, with its varied interests, and confident that patriotism exists in all parts of the Union, I accept the nomination of your Convention, in the hope that I may be enabled to serve usefully its cause, which I consider the cause of Constitutional Freedom. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. C. FREMONT. To Messrs. H. S. LANE, and others, Committee, &c. |