Fort Hill, 28th March 1847
MY DEAR SIR, I see by the contents of your letter, that you have misunderstood me on a point, where I had supposed my meaning was very obvious. By private relations, I had no allusion to our personal relations, either of confidence, or friendship. It would, indeed, be absurd to make either of them a cause of delicacy in giving a preference to you. I alluded to our family connections through the tie of marriage.
Nor do you seem to understand, what I intended by the expression of my position to the party, who support me. It is not that of a leader aspiring to the presidency, but that of an individual, who, in the discharge of his publick trust, looks only to his duty and only expects their support from their concurrence in opinion with him. Occupying that position towards them, as associates and equals, and not as partisans, or followers, I assume no right to dictate, nor do I admit the right on their part to dictate to me. It is the relation of independence on both sides; and I feel it to be a matter of delicacy, to respect it especially when they stand in the relation of contributors to the support of a cause, which I would advocate without reference to their support, or opposition.
Having explained my meaning, I deem it proper to repeat, that I neither doubt your friendship, or capacity. On the contrary, I place a high estimate on both. I know of no one, who in my opinion, would conduct a paper with more ability, or greater fidelity. I go further. As you lost an honorable and profitable position by your adherence to the cause, I would rejoice to see you again in the same position and in the conduct of a paper of the same name. The triumph would be that of truth and justice; and as far as I can contribute to it, consistently with a due sense of propriety, and the success of the cause, I will do so. Further I cannot go. I cheerfully yield my own claims to such consideration, and no friend can ask me to go further. I ask no sacrifice of any friend, which I would not cheerfully make myself. Indeed, I would much rather make the sacrifice, than ask a friend to make it.
But when the funds are raised, it will, then, be the time to consult as to the editorship of the paper. Whether they will be or not, I fear is doubtful, from the reason I alluded to in my letter. I have not yet heard from my Charleston friends with whom I conversed on the subject. A word as to myself. You seem to think, that I permit other persons to prejudice me against you, and that I have not given you the support I ought. As to the first, you greatly mistake. When I know a man, no one can influence my opinion, and what is more, very few undertake to do so. I take care to check it at once, when attempted, as I know to what unfounded conclusions, the jealousy of the mutual friends of a prominent individual will lead them. In addition, I am of that temper that I would rather be betrayed, than to suspect on light grounds. Besides, I feel, that I may be deserted, but cannot be betrayed: having, as I always have, had truth for my only guide; and no motive for concealment. I entertain not a thought, which I am not willing should be known to the world; and have not ever written a letter, which I am not willing it should be published. It is hard to betray one, who can with truth say as much.
As to my want of giving you due support, I know not when I have had the power of doing so, and abstain[ed] from doing it, when it could be done with propriety. Indeed I might ask when have I ever had the power to wield any portion of the patronage of the Government, since the termination of Mr Monroe's administration! During the short period, I was in Mr Tyler's administration, he engrossed the whole; and I came in under circumstances, which did not permit me to take a stand against it.
The only instance you allude to, is that of 1840, when by uniting with the Whigs, I might have made you in connection with Gales and Seaton the printers, against Blair and Rives.1 I now think as I did then, that standing opposed to the Whigs on all the great questions of the day, as I did, that I could not without loss of character and confounding my position, do other than I did; and had hoped that such would be your own conclusion, when you came coolly to reflect. I deeply regretted to be placed in the position, but thinking as I did, and still think, had you been my brother, I would have acted as I did. I acted on my own conception, uninfluenced by any others. As highly, as I value friendship, and as much disposed, as I am, to support my friends, I cannot yield my conception of what is right, or wrong to either, while I would cheerfully make any personal sacrifice for the purpose. Had I withheld my support on the occasion, from any motive on my part of personal ambition or advancement, I would have been inexcusable; but that I suppose, you can hardly think, although I [am] forced to infer, that as long as you have known me, you have never fully realized how subordinate I hold such considerations, when they come into conflict with what I believe to be right. Even in early manhood, when I felt their impulse far stronger, than I now do, they could never over rule my sense of right. I regret, that one, who ought to know me, as well as you ought, should under estimate my character, as I am forced [to] think you do, on such a point.
Let me add in conclusion, that while I think, there is a great opening for a truly independent and able paper at Washington (never greater in my opinion) and that no one is more able to conduct such an one than yourself, I would be very sorry to see you undertake editing a paper there, unless on calculations founded on the prospect of its ultimate profit. But if you can see your way looking to it, clearly, and can find the means to start one, even a weekly sheet at first, on your own independent hook, avowing your object to be, to restore the principles of the party, which brought Gen' Jackson into power, but which were defeated by the introduction of the spoils principle and the party machinery of the Albany Junto, and the treason of Mr Ritchie and others like him, and assuming the old name of the Telegraph, you would preoccupy the ground, and rally the whole South and a large potion [sic]of the old party everywhere to your support. The prospectus you prepared, would be the proper basis, modified to suit the suggestions made. Place it on the high ground of an independent press, holding principle paramount and never subordinate. In my opinion, it would stir up the South, and hasten its efforts to raise funds to establish on a firm foundation, a press at Washington.
* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard. For General Green's reply of April 6, see Part II, post.
1 See the letters of January 17, 18, 1840, supra,
SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 722-5
