F^i^ 
 
LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 SENATOR PEARCE, OF MARYLAND, 
 
 y 
 
 THE POLITICS OF THE DAY.,^ 
 
 Washington, July 31, 1856. 
 
 My Dear Sir : You ask what part I mean to take in the coming 
 preeidential election, and what I think shoiikl be done by ohl whigs 
 who have never been attached any other party, and who do not de- 
 sire to enter into new political connexions. 
 
 I am well aware of the embarrassments to such persons which 
 attend a choice among the candidates for the Presidency now before 
 the country. In my own case this embarrassment is sensibly felt. 
 My inclinations point one way, a sense of the duty arising from the 
 present dangerous condition of domestic politics leads me another way. 
 
 My past relations, political and personal, with Mr. Fillmore, the 
 confidence I have always reposed in his integrity and ability, the 
 wisdom of his administration, and the conviction I entertain that he 
 Is a just national man and free from sectional prejudice, would induce 
 me to prefer him to his competitors. Neither do I object to the senti- 
 ment of American nationality, properly limited and restrained. In- 
 deed I think that our present system has made American citizenship 
 too cheap. But I did not approve the mysterious system under which 
 the American party, of which he is now the representative, was or- 
 ganized; the oaths administered to members upon initiation, and the 
 discipline of the order, by which secresy and obedience were secured. 
 How far all this has been dispensed with I do not know. The original 
 plan of their organization I could not but condemn, as I do the adop- 
 tion of any principle which founds a rule of political exclusion upon 
 a diversity of religious faith. However modified in these respects 
 their plan may now be, it is not necessary for me to inquire. The 
 northern wing of the party came into it, as I think, with purposes 
 very difierent from those entertained by the rest. They adopted it as 
 a cloak to schemes which all of us in Maryland condemn and detest. 
 The necessary affiliatioi^' of that wing of the party were with the 
 anti-slavery men ; and accordingly we find the mask now thrown off 
 by the most of them, and see the development of their plans in such 
 a measure as the personal liberty bill of Massachusetts, Avhich nullifies 
 a law of Congress, violates the constitutional guarantee for the re- 
 covery of fugitive slaves^ and creates the fiercest and most dangerous 
 discord between the north and the south. Their members of Congress 
 
liave for the most part been consolidated with the pernicious party 
 miscalled republican, and many of the delegates to their presidential 
 convention have deserted to that motley alliance, Avhose triumph would 
 be the saddest calamity that ever befel our Union. The com]>aratively 
 small portion of the American party which remained after this transfer 
 to_ the anti-slavery men, and which has nominated Mr. Fillmore, is 
 without power to elect liim, even with the assistance of southern whigs 
 or national northern whigs. These, however great their personal 
 respect for and confidence in Mr. Fillmore, are under no party obliga- 
 tions now to give him their supj^ort, seeing that he has become a 
 member and accejited the nomination of a party which repudiates the 
 whigs; and, while they would be willing in a contest with their old 
 opponents to stand by all their political opinions to the last, "they find 
 ample reason in the present condition of parties, in the political 
 anarchy which prevails, and in the fear of a sectional and anti-slavery 
 triumph, leading to ulterior consequences of .the worst sort, to con- 
 sider whether it is not their duty to sacrifice all personal feeling and 
 party prejudice for the sake of the Union, and to sustain the nomina- 
 tions of the democrats as the only means of defeating the schemes of 
 the mad agitators who rule the republican party. 
 
 The contest, it seems to me, lies between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. 
 Fremont. Mr. Fillmore's friends, indeed, claim a great reaction in 
 his favor ; but I have taken much pains to ascertain what his strength 
 is in the free States, and so far I have not been able to satisfy myself 
 that he can carry a single one of them. His wise and patriotic con- 
 duct while President, which recommended him so strongly to the 
 whigs of the south, is regarded by the majority at the north as a 
 ftital objection to him. ' It is not moderation and conciliation they 
 desire; they think, as one of their leaders said, that the time for com- 
 promises has passed. They want, in the President, an instrument to 
 punish the south for what they fancy or pretend to be the aggressions 
 of the 'Sslave power" upon the north. Mr. Fillmore is too national 
 for this purpose, and he must, indeed, be credulous or sanguine in the 
 extreme who supposes that the politicians who have misguided and 
 inflamed the northern majority will abandon their designs, and re- 
 nounce the spoils for which they hunger and thirst, just at the moment 
 when, for the first time, they are confident of the success of the one 
 and the enjoyment of the other. Mr. Fillmore's strength lies in the 
 whig States of the south. If all the southern States should give him 
 their votes, ho Avould fail in the election without such assistance from 
 the free States as it would be vain to look for. The .clioice, tlien, is 
 between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Fremont, and what Maryland whig, 
 believing as I do, can hesitate? 
 
 I am not so unjust as to charge all the northern men who join in 
 the support of LIr. Fremont wi^li being abolitionists. Ther^^. are men 
 among them whom I hold in much respect, while deploring the error 
 of judgment into which they have fallen; but the most active and 
 influential of their leaders are men who, from perverted judgment or 
 inflamed passion, or, what is worse, from deliberate calculation, have 
 determined to build up a sectional party, reckless of its peril to the 
 Union, once so justly valued, but now estimated far less at the north 
 
of other nations, and destructive of our own peace, honor, and con- 
 cord. I know that many of the leading men of his own party are 
 sound and reliable in this respect, and I believe that their conservative 
 influence would harmonize with his own disposition. I am the more 
 assured of this, because I observe that in his letter of acceptance there 
 is no recognition of the resolutions, (which were not considered by 
 the convention as forming a part of the platform,) but, on the con- 
 trary, a prudent and conservative tone, which met with the approba- 
 tion of even the judicious and experienced editors of the National 
 Intelligencer — themselves, par excellence, the foes of all fillibustering. 
 In an additional article noticing Mr. Buchanan's letter of acceptance, 
 they said: 
 
 " We may say, however, that Mr. Buchanan's otncia] letter of acceptance, while not 
 expressly repudiating- the extreme and exceptionable doctrines foisted into the democratic 
 confessions of faith by the Cincinnati convention, does yet, by its spirit and tenor, incline us 
 to hope that he means, if elected, so to construe those doctrines as to disarm them of their 
 mischievous significance and evil tendency. Indeed we can give no other meaning than this 
 to Mr. Buchanan's declaration v/hen he says that he accepts the ' resolutions constituting the 
 platform of principles erected by the convention ' in the same spirit as that which prompts 
 his acceptance of the nomination tendered to him by his party, namely, a desire so to dis- 
 charge the duties of the high office to which he aspires as ' to allay domestic strife, preserve 
 peace and friendship icith foreign nations, and promote the best interests of the republic' " 
 
 At present the prospect is that the conservative whig vote will be 
 so divided as to defeat a popular election and throw the decision upon 
 the House of Representatives — at all times an event to be deprecated, 
 but at this period peculiarly pernicious and dangerous, and threat- 
 ening the rudest shock to our system. What the result will be I will 
 not venture to predict, but I will say that I do not see the least prob- ' 
 ability of Mr. Fillmore's election by the House of Representatives. 
 I think, therefore, it would be the part of wisdom and patriotism in 
 the whigs (by which I mean those who have affiliated with no (fther 
 party) to throw their votes for Mr. Buchanan as the strongest of the 
 candidates opposed to the northern sectional party. This they may 
 do without renouncing their old political faith, without stain of honor 
 or suspicion of apostacy. The motive being the integrity of the 
 Union, the defeat of a party which is founded on geographical dis- 
 criminations and bound together by dangerous sectional schemes, the 
 act will be vindicated by disinterested patriotism. 
 
 For my part, I shall not abjure my political creed, and, having in 
 view but the one object which I have stated, I shall hold myself ready 
 to take any other course which may be necessary to effect that object. 
 Should the hopes of Mr. Fillmore's friends be realized; should it ap- 
 pear that he is more likely to carry the great body of the patriotic, but 
 quiet people, who generally come to tlie rescue in times of public 
 peril ; that he is, in short_, the best able to subdue this storm of sec- 
 tional passion and prejudice, I shall rejoice to see him again filling 
 the chair of state, ^ut I will not aftect an unalloyed gratification ; 
 for I cannot forget that he is the candidate of a party which has pro- 
 scribed whigs who were not members of "'the order" — of a party 
 which boasted that it had risen on the ruins of the whig and demo- 
 cratic parties, and vvdiich has pronounced both of them corrupt. 
 
 Whatever the result, I shall be content if the dangerous excitement 
 which threatens our peace and Union can be calmed down, so that the 
 
g LiBRflRV OF CONGRESS 
 
 extreme opinions whicli have their roots ii 
 
 wither away. Then a liberal forbearanc 
 
 different sentiments may resume their in 
 
 done, if the south and the north are to regara one another as enemies, 
 
 then sooner or later our "house, divided against itself," must fall. 
 
 Then we shall have to say, with Pantheus, 
 
 Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus 
 Dardaniffi. 
 
 But ours will be a sadder fate than that of Priam's empire ; for it 
 was not the Dardanian people by whom the inevitable doom of Troy 
 was fixed. A foreign foe beat down her lofty walls and destroyed the 
 high renown of Teucer's race ; but we shall fall by our own suicidal 
 hands ; we will kindle the flames which shall destroy the edifice of 
 our constitutional Union ; ourselves will break the bonds of harmoni- 
 ous interest and fraternal concord which have held us together as one 
 " people. May Heaven inspire us with wisdom to avert so sad a catas- 
 trophe ! 
 
 Very truly, my dear sir, your friend, 
 
 JAS. ALFRED PEARCE, 
 Hon. J, R. Franklin, 
 
 Snoiu Hill, Mainland. 
 
 P. S. I add a letter of Mr. Clay to Rev. Mr. Colton, which shows 
 his opinion, in 1843, of the eiiect of the abolition movements of that - 
 day: 
 
 Ashland, Stplember 2, 1843. 
 
 My Dear Sir : Allow me to suggest a subject for one of your tracts, wiiicli, treated in 
 youBf popular and condensed way, I think would be attended with great and good effect. I 
 mean abolition. 
 
 It is manifest that thy ultras of tliat party are extremely mischievous, and are hurrying on 
 liie country to fearful consetjuences. They are not to be conciliated by the whigs. En- 
 grossed with a single idea, they care for nothing else. They would see the administration of 
 the government precipitate the nation into absolute ruin before they would lend a helping 
 hand to arrest its career. They treat worst and denounce most those who treat them best, 
 who so far agree vvith them as to admit slavery to be an evil. Witness their conduct towards 
 Mr. Briggs and Mr. Adams, in Massachusetts, and tov/ards me. 
 
 I will give you an outline of the manner in which 1 would handle it : Show the origin of 
 slavery ; trace its introduction to the British government. Show how it is disposed of by the 
 federal Constitution ; that it is left exclusively to the States, except in regard to fugitives,, 
 direct taxes, and representation. Show that tlie agitation of the question in the free States 
 will first destroy all harmon)', and finally lead to disunion, perpetual war, the extinction of 
 the African race, ultimate military despotism. 
 
 But the great aim and object ot your tract should be to arpuse the laboring classes in the 
 free States against abolition. Depict the consequences to them of immediate abolition- 
 The slaves, being free, would be dispersed throughout the Union ; they would enter into 
 competition with the free laborer — with the American, the Irish, tlie German — reduce his 
 "wages, be confounded with him, and affect his moral and social standing. And, as the ultras 
 go both for abolition and amalgamation, show that their object is to unite in marriage the 
 laboring white man and the laboring black woman ; to reduce the white laboring man to the 
 despised and degraded condition of the black man. 
 
 I would show their opposition to colonization : show its humane, religious, and patriotic 
 aims; that they are to separate those whom Gcd has separated Why do the abolitionists 
 oppose colonization? To keep and amalgamate together the two races, in violation of God's 
 will, and to keep the blacks here, that they may interfere with, degrade, and debase the 
 laboring whites. Show that the British government is co-operating with the abolitionists for 
 the purpose of dissolving the Union, &:c. You can make a powerful article that will be felt 
 fti every extremity of the Union. I am perfectly satisfied it will do great good. Let me 
 hear from you on this subject. 
 
 HENRY CLAY. 
 

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