Busy Man - presaging Carter, Clinton, et. al.?
From The New-York Times December 13, 1860:
MILLARD FILLMORE INVITED TO PROCEED TO SOUTH CAROLINA.
BUFFALO, Wednesday, Dec. 12.
A spontaneous meeting of some three hundred of the most substantial citizens of Buffalo was held last evening, at the United States Court Room, for the purpose of requesting Hon. MILLARD FILLMORE to proceed to the State of South Carolina as a messenger of peace. A Committee was appointed, who waited upon Mr. FILLMORE for this purpose. He expressed the warmest sympathy with the object of the meeting, but said that he had been invited to attend a meeting upon national subjects of prominent considerate men, soon to be held in this State, and that he should feel bound to await the action of that meeting.
Millard Fillmore was president when the Compromise of 1850 was passed. The Compromise included the infamous Fugitive Slave Act.
The Wikipedia article on Fillmore quotes Fillmore on slavery: “God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil … and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution.”
This issue has been sticking in my craw. I know slavery is wrong, but the Constitution does not prohibit it. Even if there were the votes to amend the Constitution, that would definitely make the southern states secede.
For a good piece on States’ Rights and slavery check out Seven Score and Ten
It’s definitely true that the Constitution protected slavery. Personal liberty laws were, if not strictly unconstitutional, treading a very fine line. Lincoln was willing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law fully, but the South was not satisfied with that promise. The extension of slavery into the territories was the sticking point.
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