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 DELAW\N 
 
 Speech 
 
 AT A MeETlM& 
 
 OP me Friends 
 
 OF Mr. (TLlmore 
 
 Ballston, Aufr. 9. 1856 
 
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 DATE DUE 
 
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 Cornell University Library 
 E435 .034 
 
 Speech of Edward C. Delavan, Es( 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 030 972 792 
 
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 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 EDWARD C. DELAYAN, ESQ., 
 
 AT A MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF 
 
 MR. FIXiLMORE, 
 
 At BaUston, Aug. 9, 1856. 
 
 Friends and Neighbors: In a letter received a few days since froin 
 the honorable and venerable Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, noTv in 
 the eighty -fourth year of his age, he uses the following language: 
 
 " I think, talk, and interest myself in nothing but the eventis and prpspects of oar 
 timeB, which, if my fancies do not mislead me, are pregnant with ominous changes in 
 the fote of this country; with rsvolution, if not dissolution." 
 
 I am aware that Mr. Quincy differs with me as to the means to be 
 used to avert anticipated calamities, but I have come to you this eve- 
 ning with these words of the sage of Quincy deeply engraven on my 
 mind ; and I trust with some consciousness of their mighty and moment- 
 ous import. For almost twenty years I have resided among you, and 
 during that period, except when the present Governor of the state was 
 a candidate for office, I have given my silent, but well considered vote; 
 and for forty-five years it has been my rule to select from the various 
 parties those candidates who, upon the whole, would, in my opinioQ, 
 discharge their duties with the greatest ability and fidelity, and I shall 
 continue to follow this rule while I continue to vote. 
 
 I have voted in some cases for men, and they have been elected, who 
 have entirely disregarded the principles to which they stood pledged. 
 But there is no guarantee against such disappointments, and they hare 
 their uses in teaching us to select with great caution for high official 
 position tried men of high character, of pure morals, and whose past 
 lives inspire a just confidence for the future. 
 
 With Mr. Quincy, I believe that a crisis has arrived in the history of 
 our beloved country, and that no good man should seek to evade the in- 
 dividual responsibility which attaches to every elector, and I am here 
 this evening in answer to your urgent solicitation, to define my position, 
 and in a spirit of kindness to assign my reasons, for giving my vote, if 
 God shall spare my life, to Millard Fillmore for the next President of 
 the United States. 
 
 I attach no value to my vote, beyond that of any one of the millions 
 soon to be deposited in the ballot box; but so far as I am personally 
 
9.<^4,A.V- *^ 
 
 A- .IW*-"- 
 
 concerned, I feel a responsibility as entire as if the whole issue depend- 
 ed upon it. 
 
 The stability of this Union depends upon the ballots cast by the mid- 
 dling and industrial classes, who are in a vast majority, and who have 
 no interest aside from good government. 
 
 Since the formation of this government, there has probably never been 
 a period when party claims were so lightly estimated by the great body 
 of the people. An " intense individualism " seems to be the leading 
 characteristic of the voters in this campaign, and they seem determined 
 to act for themselves, regardless of the flatteriae or frowns of partgr 
 leaders. 
 
 Rum and money will doubtless be freely used as heretofore ; let it be 
 the glory of at least one party, that it is influenced alone by principle 
 and sound patriotism. 
 
 The Presidential question is now the absorbing question of the coun- 
 try, and I have declal-ed my preference, not as a partisan, but as an 
 individual, claiming for myself a right guaranteed to all, and conceding 
 to those who differ from me, the same honesty of intention and purity 
 of purpose, which I here avow has governed me in the decision which I 
 have made. My feelings for a time were inclined to Col. Fremont; but 
 I have been forced to the conclusion that he is not a candidate for the 
 whole country, but for a section of it ; that he is not the true candidate 
 for Americans, while his Protestantism is more than doubtful; and that 
 he is not, by his antecedents, the true representative of a free-soil party, 
 while his long list of pro-slavery votes remains recorded in the Senate 
 Journal. It is not for me to dispute Mr. Fremont's claims to eminence 
 as a man of refinement and education. I judge him only by the record 
 of his acts, and politically they seem to me most unsatisfactory. The 
 candidate of the Democratic party has antecedents and a history which, 
 by the admission of all parties, are highly respectable, so far as States- 
 manship, intellectual ability, and being an amiable diplomatist, are con- 
 cerned. The platform on whiqh he stands I can not approve of; but I 
 have long, with many others, ceased to attach much importance to paper 
 platforms or resolutions. Like all combination of words, they may be 
 distorted and perverted, and so construed by the men who profess to 
 ^tand upon them as to entirely subvert the intention of their framers. 
 The Democratic party is a great and powerful one. There has been 
 much that is objectionable in the administration of the National Gov- 
 ernment by tha,t party for the last four years, but there has also been 
 much to commend; and though now so maligned and traduced, its poli- 
 cy, so far at least as foreign diplomacy is concerned, will, I think, in 
 the future, be always regarded as most brilliant and successful. 
 
 For myself, I have been looking for the MAN, and not for platforms, 
 and I think I have found him in Millard Fillmore. 
 
 First, the industrious and successful mechanic, then by his own de- 
 termined eflForts, the accomplished lawyer, then the upright and efficient 
 Comptroller of this great State, and then the distinguished Chief Mag- 
 istrate of the Nation. 
 
 I am not aware that Millard Fillmore as a Legislator, ever yet gave a 
 pro-slavery vote (although he may have done so.) As the executive 
 officer of the nation, he signed what I have always disapproved of— the 
 Fugitive Slave Law, I doubt not that in its present shape and by itself. 
 It would be disapproved by him ; but it was one of a series of give and 
 
take bills on the slavery question, which together were regarded as the 
 best that could be done under the circumstances, both by the North 
 and the South. The Attorney General pronounced it to be constitu- 
 tional ; and Mr. Fillmore I presume felt bound under his oath to sign it. 
 
 I have known Mr. Fillmore long and well. I believe him to be pure, 
 honest and capable. He has been formerly, and while "moral suasion" 
 was the distinguished feature of the Temperance cause, a most efficient 
 and friendly ally. Wha,t are his present' views on the Temperance 
 question, I know not; but whatever they may be, I shall never forget 
 his encouragement and support in years now passed away. I remember 
 his wife, as a gentle, pious, and devoted mother, constant in every good 
 work. I remember his daughter as an amiable, lovely and accomplished 
 teacher in the common and Sabbath school, and exemplifying in public 
 and in private, the virtues and the activities of a Protestant Christian- 
 ity. They have passed away; but the memory of their beautiful and 
 well spent lives will ever be cherished in the hearts of those who best 
 knew him. 
 
 I have been a mechanic, a merchant, a manufacturer and farmer, and 
 know that our country at large needs repose. I believe that with Mil- 
 lard Fillmore at its head, it would have it. I believe that with all the 
 force necessary, he would protect an honest ballot box and open a road 
 to it, and all honest voters in the exercise of their right; and that while 
 justice, firmness and equity would distinguish his policy towards foreign 
 governments, civil war and border ruffianism, either by the North or the 
 South would be rebuked and crushed. 
 
 I am no friend of slavery. I have seen it in many of the Southern 
 States, and in Havana, and I sympathize not only with the slave, but with 
 the slave owner. But England fastened slavery on this country. Well 
 do I recollect, when slavery existed in this State, as it now exists in our 
 sister States, and when the slave was regarded as a burthen upon his 
 owner. . It was only after the slave trade became in a measure valueless, 
 that steps were taken to emancipate slaves, and then emancipation was 
 gradual and prospective. 
 
 It is my deep conviction that slavery is to terminate in this nation. 
 It is my belief that it would terminate the sooner by the immediate ces- 
 sation of all bitterness of language^ all denunciation, and an honest 
 holding out of hands on the part of the North to the South, and with 
 them words of kindness and honest proffers of brotherly love, and ex- 
 pressions of sympathy and an earnest desire to cooperate with them as 
 brothers of the same great American nation, in any plan having for its 
 object the amelioration of slavery and its final overthrow. 
 
 While*I have been thus free and unreserved in obedience to my con- 
 scientious convictions in expressing my sentimfents on the Presidential 
 issue, I must not be regarded as going beyond'that issue in my commit- 
 ment. For nearly thirty years my life has been devoted to an honest 
 effi3rt to enlighten, persuade, and convince the public mind on the great 
 evils resulting from the use of intoxicating drinks, and the manifold so- 
 cial, pecuniary, moral, and political injuries flowing from the drinking 
 usages of society, and one of the last bonds which holds the South to the 
 North now is a communion of interest and efibrt ori this important sub- 
 ject. Attempts have been made to sectioUalize even this labor of phi- 
 lanthropic love, and by connecting it with Slavery at the South, and 
 with anti-slavery at the North to divide and distract if not destroy^ 
 
It is a work for the nation and the world, and can not be united with 
 one sectional or partisan issue without being damaged. It follows the 
 man and not party. At the coming State election, so far as candidates 
 for State officers are concerned, I shall endeavor to be true to my ante- 
 cedents, and to the noble and mighty host of Temperance Reformers, 
 who have so long and bo ardently labored together to advance the tem- 
 perance cause ; and I can only be true to them and to myself by sustain- 
 ing to the extent of my ability, its true and tried friends in whatever 
 party they may be found. 
 
 What I have said may have more weight with some minds if I deny, 
 as I do in all sincerity, any political aspirations, or any desires beyond 
 the real dignity of private citizenship. In the course of my labors as a 
 Temperance Reformer, I have necessarily excited opposition, and drawn 
 from professed friends as well as avowed opponents, attacks which I have 
 ceased to remember, and which have been forgotten in the onward sweep 
 of the great cause itself. Standing in this position, I think I may claim 
 the immunities of age, and my exemption from partisan politics, hereto- 
 fore, to speak a word or two of counsel on the manner of conducting 
 such a political oadlpaign as the one in which we have now entered. I 
 believe in free speech and a free press. They are the privileges of free- 
 men, and the palladium of our rights; but I am opposed to Ruffianism, 
 either of the tongue, the pen or the bludgeon; and when free speech de- 
 generates into licentiousness, and the issues of the press are freighted 
 with scurrility, often gross and stupid, oftener false and malignant, then 
 both cease to be either a privilege or a blessing. Such instrumentalities 
 are unworthy and unnecessary. Every party should disown them, and 
 in a spirit of courtesy and candor attack supposed error and defend what 
 is believed to be true. 
 
 There are politicians who are so shocked at the use of physical force 
 between political opponents, as to denounce it in terms the most un- 
 measured, who will themselves immolate private character, stir up the 
 worst passions of our nature, invade the sanctity of private and social 
 life, and by the use of the lowest and most degrading agencies, scatter 
 fire-brands, arrows, and death- Such partisans should be taught in the 
 future, as to some extent they have been taught in the past, that de- 
 cency and duty may go hand in hand, and that the surest road, to the 
 American heart, and American voters, of whatever party, is over the 
 great highway of justice, fairness and truth. 
 
 The wild waves of passion are dashing all around us; the gales of 
 fanaticism fanned by partisan politicians, are threatening to destroy a 
 fabric reared in prayers, and tears, and blood; the value of the Union is 
 being calculated, and by some it is already pronounced to be vft>rthle8s. 
 
 At this crisis let us be true to our country by being true to ourselves. 
 Let us cultivate charity instead of hatred, concord instead of discord, 
 good will instead of anger and malice. Let us seek for points of affilia- 
 tion and agreement, instead of reasons for separation and disagreement, 
 and all will yet be well. 
 
 Political, moral and social evils always have existed, and probably 
 will continue to exist ; they are to be overcome with good. Let us, both 
 by precept and example, do all we can to dissipate the dark oloud now 
 hovering over us, and for myself, I shall feel that in voting for Millard 
 Fillmore as the head of the nation, I shall embody in my ballot the sen- 
 timers I have this evening expressed. 
 
The original of tiiis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030972792 
 
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