the 32nd Congress, the act known
as The Fugitive Slave Law included, are received and acquiesced in
by the Whig party of the United States as a settlement in principle
and substance of the dangerous and exciting questions which they
embrace, and so far as they are concerned, we will maintain them,
and insist upon their strict enforcement_, until time and experience
shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard
against the evasion of the laws on the one hand, and the abuse of
their powers on the other--not impairing their present efficiency;
and we _deprecate all further agitation of the question thus settled
as dangerous to our peace, and will discountenance all efforts to
continue or renew such agitation whenever, wherever or however the
attempt may be made_, and we will maintain the system as essential
to the nationality of the Whig party and the integrity of the
Union."

It will be noticed that these platforms do not essentialy differ
from each other. Both declare in favor of acquiescence in the
compromise measures of 1850. The Democratic party more emphatically
denounces any renewal in Congress, or out of it, of the agitation
of the slavery question under whatever name, shape or color, the
attempt may be made. The Whig platform, equally positive in its
acquiescence in the settlement made, known as the compromise
measures, declared its purpose to: "Maintain them, and to insist
upon their strict enforcement until time and experience shall
demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against
the evasion of the laws."

It would seem that under these platforms both parties were committed
to acquiescence in existing laws upon the subject of slavery, and
to a resistance of all measures to change or modify them.

I took quite an active part in this canvass and wrote to Mr. Seward,
then the great leader of the Whig party, inviting him to attend a
mass meeting in Richland county, to which I received the following
reply:

"Auburn, Sept. 20, 1852.
"John Sherman, Esq., Mansfield, Ohio.

"Dear Sir:--I have the honor of receiving your letter urging me to
accept the invitation of the Whig central committee to address a
mass meeting in Richland county, Ohio, on the second of October.
I appreciate fully the importance of the canvass in which we are
engaged, and I have some conception of the responsibilities of the
Whigs of Ohio. I wish, therefore, that it was in my power to comply
with t