We remember a pillar of Western New York's heritage and philanthropic community.

Early in his career, future governor William H. Seward had to institute a regime of palliative measures in order to quell the axe-wielding settlers' riot against the Holland Land Company when their farms were threatened with imminent foreclosure.

Ignoring the cries for human rights and basic human decency, President Millard Fillmore opted to support the Fugitive Slave Act in an attempt to prevent civil war and preserve the Union.