June 19, 1849.
My Dear Sir. I
have not often recd. a letter which afforded me so much gratification as the
few lines from you which I found on my table last Saturday on my return from
Frankfort. Our limited intercourse last winter had given me, a very pleasing
impression of your Character; but I confess I was not prepared for so generous
an estimate of myself and my motives as your letter expresses. I have been so
much & so perseveringly misconstrued and maligned that the surprise of
justice from an opponent almost equals the pleasure. Your opposition to my
election never awakened in my breast the slightest dissatisfaction. You did not
agree with me in political opinions, and holding your own views honestly you
could not properly aid in placing me in a position of trust and influence, which
would enable me the more effectively to recommend & advance my own opposite
views. I am a Democrat unreservedly. Investigation & reflection satisfied
me long since that the leading measures & maxims of the Democracy were
right. And yet I did [not] act with the Democrats, because, I could not so long
as it was under the leading of slave holding and subservient politicians
without violating my convictions of duty. I was obliged, therefore, to act with
that forlorn hope of Freedom the Liberty Party — than which I verily believe
there never was a party composed of truer or nobler spirits. Last winter I
desired to see the Democrats & Freesoilers in our Legislature act together,
because I knew that many in the old Democratic line were tired of the alliance
with Slavery & felt sure that a liberal & conciliatory course on the
part of the Freesoilers towards them would do much towards breaking up that
alliance and bringing the entire party upon our platform. I was satisfied
moreover that in the Hamilton County matter and the apportionment question the
right was on the side of the Democrats. Policy & Justice, therefore
concurred in recommending to my mind the course actually adopted, as most fit
in itself for adoption and best adapted to the advancement of the general cause
of Freedom. I must observe, however, that it was no wish of mine that the
offices to be filled by the Legislature should be divided exclusively among
democrats & Freesoilers. I was anxious that the Whigs themselves should
signalize their own sense of justice, by yielding such modifications of the
apportionment law as moderate and fair minded men could agree on & that the
Freesoilers & Democrats on the other hand should concur in the appointment
of Whigs to a reasonable proportion of the offices to be filled.
Had this course been pursued, I am satisfied that much good
would have resulted from it. An era of good feeling would have arisen among the
contending parties and the honor & peace of the State put in jeopardy by
the contentions growing out [of] the apportionment law, would have been
restored & secured. I will not say that in the counsel I gave last winter I
was not uninfluenced by personal considerations: but I can say that I do
believe that I was not influenced by such considerations in any extraordinary
degree. Certainly I neither modified nor compromised in any way, my political
principles. I made no pledges — came under no obligations which at all, impair
my absolute independence of party restraint. If the Democratic party shall
prove itself in truth & earnest, a free democracy, I shall rejoice in being
instrumental in promoting, by honorable means, its ascendancy. But [if] the
Democratic Party shall determine in spite of all remonstrances and all efforts
to prevent it to go down to Egypt for help and renew an unnatural alliance with
the Slave holding Oligarchy, I shall, with God's help, go straight on in my old
course, and whether with few or many, enter upon the political battle of 1852
as I went into those of 1844 and 1848, under the banner of “No Nationalized
Slavery” “No more compromises of Freedom” I think however you will admit that
the signs of the times do not indicate any such course of the Democracy. Excuse
the infliction of so long a letter upon you. Read it with patience & good
humor and I will charge no other fee for complying with your request to be
enrolled among my personal friends.
P. S. I send you the Report of the Commissioner of the land
office, the extended and carefully prepared tables are of more than ordinary
value.
_______________
* From letter book 6, pp. 24 and 26.
SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 178-9
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