Athens [ga.], May 22,1846.
Dear Howell, We
are pretty quiet here in the midst of the general war fever. I believe there
will be an effort made to raise a company for Texas, but I doubt its success.
Clarke county is too much under the influence of Whiggery to have much
enthusiasm in the matter. By the way, speaking of the Texas question, I am
afraid the Democratic party is about to take untenable ground about the
boundary there. The Rio de Norte is the western boundary, but not for its whole
course. No possible logic can prove that Santa Fe and the other towns on the
east side of the river on its upper streams, were ever a portion of Texas. The
true line would leave the river somewhere above Mier, and follow the mountains
north, leaving a large section between the line and the upper parts of the
river. You may think all this very superfluous on my part, but I have not yet
seen the distinction drawn by any one in Congress, nor by Ritchie, and you may
depend upon it is a serious consideration and worthy of attention. I think you
seem a little “riled” that your friends here have not taken up the cudgels on
your behalf on the 54.40 question. We acted, as we thought, for the best, not
only for you but for the party. If an attempt had been made to rally the party
upon the “whole of Oregon” I do verily believe it would have split us in
fragments, and for aught I can see would have given the Whigs and “moderate men”
a majority. But by letting the thing be quiet and not fanning the embers of
opposition, I think that all disaffection will die away and produce no
unpleasant consequences. The same way we reason about a convention. I have no
question that there is opposition to you in the breasts of some professed
Democrats, but it has taken no open and distinct form, and if no fuss is made
it will die of itself; but if we called a convention, though (I beg you to
observe) I have no doubt as to the issue and am not at all afraid but that you
would break down your opponents and be nominated and elected in spite of them, —
still feelings might be engendered and factions started which might do us very
serious injury hereafter. For this reason we thought it best to say nothing
until towards August or thereabouts, when our papers will put up your name as a
matter of course; and I presume there will be no opposition. In the meantime,
however, if a call is made for a convention by your enemies, we shall not
object, but shall go into it confident of a decided majority for you. I have
given you with perfect candor my views on the subject, in which I concur with
the most of your friends in Athens. Mr. Calhoun has killed himself about here
as far as Democratic support goes. I have not heard the first Democrat
sustain his course on the War bill. If he intended to quit us he could not have
chosen a time nor a topic on which he could do us less harm in Georgia. . . .
You speak in yours of the prospect of a settlement of the Oregon dispute. I am
unable to see the signs of it in anything that has come to my knowledge. I wish
you would let me into the secret in your next. . . .
_______________
*A neighbor and warm personal and political friend of Cobb.
SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual
Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The
Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p.
78-9
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