Washington, April 29, 1859.
Dear Weed, —
The southern and western politicians have habits and usages different from
ours. They come upon me with a directness which confounds me. I have two or
three subjects submitted by them which I propose to you now, because in the
hurry of preparing my business for departure for Europe I must save time. You
can keep this letter at hand and refer to it at leisure.
Many southern gentlemen express to me a wish that the
national convention may be held somewhere on the border. Without expressing any
opinion about it as an abstract question, I think our friends ought to know
that it was understood at Washington that Humphrey Marshall intends to go over
to the Democrats. If Louisville should be suggested as the place, the committee
would of course consider Mr. Marshall's position in connection with the
subject. It might have a bearing against such a selection.
The Baltimore “———” is in trouble. Mayor Swayne, Judge Lee, Mr.
Cole, and others there want to have the paper reorganized and brought into the
position of an organ in that State and for the country south of the Potomac, of
the Republican party. They had Simon Cameron over there a week or two ago to
confer. They think they will need some funds from the North, but I am satisfied
that if they only had the benefit of your advice and Cameron's, they would be
able to subscribe all the funds they want, and would promptly do so. Cameron
and I promised them that we would ask you to meet him there. Cameron knows them
all, and he will go at any time.
Speaking of Cameron, I promised him when he left Washington
to spend a day or so with him on my way home. He took me to his house, told me
all was right. He was for me, and Pennsylvania would be. It might happen that
they would cast the first ballot for him, but he was not in, etc. He brought
the whole legislature of both parties to see me, feasted them gloriously, and
they were in the main so generous as to embarrass me.
I have Stetson's letter to you. Corwin is uneasy and
fidgety; but persons who live in Ohio have excuses. They are inheritors of a
noble reversion, and they would like to extinguish the present estate without
being able or willing to pay its cost. He wrote me a month ago, inclosing a
pitiful piece of twaddle from a correspondent of the “Express,” saying that he
was against me as everybody else was. He contradicted the allegation, and said
that the Cincinnati “Gazette” would contain an authorized denial. . . .
You will find John S. Pendleton, of Virginia, bold enough
and well disposed for anything. The man in the District of Columbia is Henry
Addison, now Mayor of Georgetown. He is wise, honest, indomitable and
unreserved. You may send him safely anywhere.
Yours faithfully,
William H. Seward.
SOURCE: Harriet A. Weed, Editor, Life of Thurlow Weed Including His Autobiography and a Memoir,
Volume 2, p. 256-7
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