"Buffalo, Nov. 14, 1844.
"My Dear Sir:—I have thought for three or four days that I would write to you, but really I am unmanned. I have no courage or resolution. All is gone. The last hope, which hung first upon the city of New York, and then upon Virginia, is finally dissipated, and I see nothing but despair depicted upon every countenance.
"For myself, I have no regrets. I was nominated for Governor much against my will, and though not insensible to the pride of success, yet I feel a kind of relief at being defeated. But not so for you or the nation. Every consideration of justice, every feeling of gratitude conspired in the minds of honest men to insure your election, and though always doubtful of my own success, I could never doubt yours, till the painful conviction was forced upon me.
"The Abolitionists and Foreign Catholics have defeated us in this State. I will not trust myself to speak of the vile hypocrisy of the leading Abolitionists now. Doubtless many acted honestly and ignorantly in what they did. But it is clear that Birney and his associates sold themselves to Locofocoism, and they will doubtless receive their reward.
"Our opponents, by pointing to the Native Americans and to Mr. Frelinghuysen, drove the Foreign Catholics from us and defeated us in this State.
"But it is vain to look at the causes by which this infamous result has been produced. It is enough to say that all is gone. I must confess that nothing has happened to shake my confidence in our ability to sustain a free government so much as this.
"Millard Fillmore."
But here is one other letter, written to Isaac Newton, just before Mr. Fillmore left the United States for Europe. A more patriotic letter, breathing more of the genuine American spirit, we have never met with:
"Buffalo, N. Y., Jan. 3, 1855.
"Respected Friend Isaac Newton:—It would give me great pleasure to accept your kind invitation to visit Philadelphia, if it were possible to make my visit private, and limit it to a few personal friends whom I should be most happy to see; but I know that this would be out of my power, and I am therefore reluctantly compelled to decline your invitation, as I have done others to New York and Boston, for the same reason.