Boston, April 15, 1850.
My Dear Sir: I am quite as fully persuaded as yourself
that political matters are in a most critical state. It's more the pity that
honest men like you and me have not the power to make everybody obey us in
marching straight ahead out of these troubles. I, for one, cannot have
my own way in the matter, as you will see by what follows. You know the Courier
has taken the side of Webster in the California and Proviso question. I
have not space to tell the whole story, but the thing is done and we must stand
upon it. You have spoken very freely upon all political subjects through our
columns, and I wish to God things were so that nothing would lie in the way of
your exertions in the same career. But what can we do? The matter has got
beyond the limit of speculative opinions and assumed a practical shape. We have
now a real job to do in sustaining Dan, and it is impossible to get ahead if we
pull down with one hand what we build up with the other. People are quoting
your letters against us, and making capital out of them for t'other side. Just
look at the newspapers. Small causes we don't mind, but this is cutting our own
throat.
I feel this embarrassment the more sensibly when I reflect on the
obligation we are under to you for your long-continued and valuable labor in
the service of the Courier. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than
the ability to make you some recompense for the same, but Heaven knows I am as
void of the pecuniary as of the political appliances and means to do such
things. In short, there are such influences gathered round me that I must crave
a very liberal forbearance from you in explaining how much I cannot do just
now. I heartily wish all party politics at the devil.
In plain English, the political train of the Courier must run
for the present on a single track. Don't think hard of me for saying I cannot
publish your letters against old Dan. The truth is, a negotiation is now on
foot for the transfer of the proprietorship of the Courier, which will
place it under new management, and in this conjuncture I am restricted by
business obligations from printing political matters of a certain character.
This is confidential between ourselves; no one knows it but the parties
concerned.
When I am free to fight on my own hook, I hope you and I may go
shoulder to shoulder. Till then I must trust to your candor and good sense to
put the right construction on my behavior, and, with a thousand thanks for your
past services, I remain,
Yours truly,
S. Kettell.
J. S. Pike, Esq.
_______________
*Editor of The Boston Courier.
SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The
Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860,
p. 26
No comments:
Post a Comment