June 19, [1849.]
My Dear Sir — On
my return from Frankfort, Kentucky, day before yesterday, I found your note of
the 7th inst. on my table. I shall not think it worth while to respond to the
editorials of the Bee; but when a true & devoted friend to the sacred cause
of Freedom asks my attention to any particular matter of accusation against me,
I cannot hesitate about giving him all the satisfaction in my power. You write
as if you feared some bad results to the cause of Free Democracy from the
imputation of the Bee, implied rather than stated, that I changed or modified
my opinions in regard to the Mexican war, for the sake of securing my election
to the Senate. Neither this nor any other imputation alarms me. I have neither
time nor inclination for replies to the attacks made on me by the partizans of
Tay lorism. I
prefer to let the acts of my life speak for me. If these witnesses are not
believed, neither will any statement that I can make obtain credence. I do not
therefore as a general rule take any notice of Newspaper aspersions. To you,
however, a friend, I say distinctly that I neither retracted nor modified
any old opinion, or adopted or expressed any new one,
for the sake of securing my election. I abandon opinions when convinced
that they are wrong and adopt opinions when satisfied that
they are right, not otherwise. As to my opinions on the Mexican
war I do not believe that a dozen members of the Legislature knew what they
were. Certainly I was not interrogated at all in respect to them, nor can I
recollect that I conversed with any member on that subject, until after my
return from Washington, though it is by no means impossible that I may have
done so. I have however expressed on various occasions my views on the subject
in conversation both with friends and opponents, and these conversations may
have been reported to members, though I have no knowledge of the fact. Of
course there is not the slightest ground for the idea that I “stooped” to any
insincerity or disguise for the sake of being Senator. I can say, I believe
with truth, that the office has very little charm for me, except so far as it
adds to my ability to promote the welfare of my country and advance the
interests of the cause of Freedom.
I never took any active part in the controversy between the
Whigs & Democrats in regard to the Mexican war. I was engaged in a
different contest & on different questions. To me the question of slavery
seemed paramount in importance to the question of the war: and I never thought
it desirable to divide those who agreed in opposition to slavery, by raising
disputes among them on the subject of the war. In fact this seemed to me the
general policy of the Liberty men; and consequently we find no expression of
opinion either in the Resolutions of the National Convention of 1847, or of any
Convention in our own State on this matter. The Liberty men, generally,
condemned the war, but some in one degree & some in another; and very few,
to that degree, that they could not unite cordially with the Free Soil
Democracy of New York, who generally sanctioned the war, in the support of the
same national candidates; one of whom it is remarkable enough, sustained while
the others opposed the Government in the prosecution of it. Holding the view
which was thus acted on by the Liberty men generally I seldom referred to the
war at all in any public addresses and, when I did, thought it best to abstain
from any line of remark calculated to introduce division among ourselves. I
had, however, my individual views on the subject, which I freely expressed,
whenever the occasion seemed proper for it, in private talk. These views I have
not held or expressed dogmatically, or with any absolute certainty that
they were right exclusively, and that everybody who dissented from them was
wrong. They were in substance the same as those expressed by Wilberforce in
relation to the war of England against France in 1803 — a war in my judgment,
the commencement of which was quite as indefensible as that of our war against
Mexico “I strongly opposed this war” he remarked “differing from those with
whom 1 commonly agreed, at a great cost of private feeling; but when once it
had begun, I did not persist — in declaiming against its impolicy
& mischiefs, because I knew that by so doing I should only injure my
country.”
I was not in any position to make my views of any
consequence; and in this respect my circumstances were very unlike those of
Wilberforce, who was a prominent and influential member of Parliament. As a
private citizen, however, though I did not approve the commencement of the war
but on the contrary always regarded the pretension of Texas to the boundary of
the Rio Grande as groundless, and the order of the President, that the troops
should advance to that river as therefore unwarranted, I did not on the other
hand, after the war was actually begun & had received the sanction of the
Congress, think it my duty to oppose its vigorous prosecution, on the contrary
it seemed to me, reasoning on actual facts & not on facts as I could have
wished them to be, that this course was the only practicable road to a sure
& permanent peace. In this I may have been wrong, and when convinced that I
was, I shall fully admit it. I rejoice certainly that I was in no public
position, which would constrain me, holding these views and unconvinced by
argument against them to differ in action from those who felt themselves
constrained by honest convictions of imperative duty uninfluenced by the spirit
of opposition to the existing administration, to oppose all measures for the
prosecution as well as the commencement of the war. Nor do I expect that any
future circumstances will arise, the war being now terminated, in which I shall
be compelled to differ from them. I might go farther in this subject, but I
have said enough to shew you my exact position. In one thing we shall probably
all agree that the result of the war has signally disappointed the anticipation
of those who supported it as some doubtless did with a view to the extension of
slavery. The acquisition of New Mexico & California, free from slavery, by
their own laws, and the bold demand of the slaveholders that they shall be
surrendered to its blight, has aroused a spirit of inquiry upon the whole
subject of that terrible curse and the relations of the National Government to
it, which can hardly fail to precipitate the downfall of the slave power &
hasten the era of emancipation. Let me assure you, my dear sir, that I shall
always receive the “reproofs of instruction” with respectful consideration. I
am far from believing that I have attained correct views of every subject. I
dare not say that I am exempt from even more than the ordinary bias of human
nature in forming my judgments. But I can say that I desire to be right &
pray that I may be kept from all error, & especially all error harmful to
our beloved country or to the cause of Human Freedom & progress — Join me
in these prayers & when you believe me wrong tell me so. If after all, in
any particular, my course shall not meet your approbation, before you go beyond
a simple condemnation of that particular action or line of action and think of
withdrawing your confidence from me or inducing others to do so, consider
whether you are warranted in so doing by the whole tenor of my life and the
general character & scope of all my conduct. Having thus considered act as
your sense of duty prompts you. I ask no more.
P. S. I shall be pleased to hear from you in answer to this.
_______________
* From letter-book 6, p. 91 (continued on 107).
SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 174-7
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