Private.
Cin. Nov. 21, 1854..
My Dear Sir, *
* * I confess I feel more uneasiness about the probable influences of the Order
on our movement than I did when I saw you last: but I still think that it is
best not to say anything against them. Wait until it becomes necessary & it
may never become necessary. What is objectionable may come itself. Meantime
Antislavery men should be constantly warned of the importance of Keeping the
Antislavery idea paramount. There is danger of its being shoved aside.
They must see that it is not lost sight of. Now even more than ever is it
essential that an earnest antislavery tone should be maintained by our [?]
& that the [?] should be sustained.
You are aware that for some days past this city has been the
seat of a grand American Council. What they call it I do not know; but I am
told delegates are in attendance from every state in the Union including Cala.
There seem great divisions of opinion.
For example, one very intelligent gentleman from Virginia
was anxious to have the ideas which we hold denationalization, &c. adopted
as the basis of a National party. Others & most, seem to be of opinion that
they must steer clear of northern & southern ultraism as they call our
ideas there of the Nullifiers. One man is reported to have said that it is as
settled they were to cut loose from Freesoilers & Southern. Another that
the organization must not in any way attack slavery; and that the [convention]
sitting here is in fact the American Legislature whose decisions Congress must
follow. Certain it is that Kenneth Rayner of N. C. & E [illegible] Davis of
Ky. are here & both leading spirits. Humphrey Marshall is also here or has
been & Daniel Allman, prominent friends as you know of Fillmore. Fillmore
is talked of among them for the Presy., & Davis also. Houston also, but not
much so far as I learn. He, by the way, was the favorite of the gentlemen I
first named.
These are some of the straws I see floating. They indicate
that the current (nationally) will not float as we would wish. But it may in
the State.
All we have to do, at all events, seems to me to maintain
our principles; act with no organization that dishonors them; cooperate frankly
with any which does not; & bide our time. * * *
SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual
Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol.
2, p. 265-6
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