January 4th, 1838.
Dear Robert: I
am anxious to hear whether you found my letter, on your return. Not because
there was anything in it, of which either of us need be ashamed; but because no
man likes his private letters to become topics of public remark, without his
consent. It was, (if I recollect), a free commentary upon the opinions and
feelings expressed in your letter, and if Tom, Dick, and Harry were to get hold
of it, might possibly cause those feelings and opinions to be misused by
your political enemies. My anxiety, therefore, that my letter should not
miscarry, is felt on your acc[oun]t, for I (like the Eels skinned alive) have become callous to newspaper
attacks; nay, I have been fool-hardy enough to provoke them, as you shall see.
The proofs will be sent to you under another cover, and headed, “Dialogue the
second, between the two old political cronies.” This, I am unreasonable enough
to beg you to read, as it contains an attempt to answer your arguments in favor
of public men becoming party-men. Not that I can believe it possible for you
ever to become a party-man; but because I think you utterly wrong in the
notion which you seem to entertain, that to be useful in public life, a man must
join some political party or other. This I most confidently believe
to be one of the greatest, the most fatal errors that any honest public man
ever committed; and therefore I am painfully excited to prevent (if I can) a
most beloved sister's son, whom I highly value, for his own merits, from
adopting a creed which would paralise his own usefulness, and so far strengthen
the damnable doctrine of political Partyism. Don't understand me as
fearing that you will ever knowingly fall into party-ranks; but I much fear the
effect of your apparent belief, that all men must be either drones, or
non-entities in political life, unless they will fall into these ranks, and be
led or driven, as party-politics require. My own belief is and always has
been, ever since I had a capacity and moral right to believe anything, that
the entire stock of knowledge and power which any man possessed to contribute
to the welfare and happiness of his species, might always be beneficially
exercised, under our Institutions, without his attaching and binding himself to
any party whatever, either in politics, morals, or religion. Such attachment
and binding might appear, for a time, to increase his power, because it
increased his popularity; but it would always prove a “penny wise and pound
foolish” business. This is the all important, the vital fact of which it
is indispensably necessary that all honest public men should assure themselves.
As party-men, they may gain and exercise great personal
influence; but it is an “ignis fatuos” which can not possibly delude those who
understand its real nature; and the mischief is, that all who have been once
led astray by the false light, will always hesitate to follow that which
is certainly true, certainly of heavenly origin. Young men are
prone to be Enthusiasts, old men to be Laxidos on all enthusiastic feelings.
Hence the former generally overshoot the true center, as far as the latter
undershoot it. What should a wise man determine between the two? He should take
for his guide the maxim “in medio tutissimus ibis;” and adhere to it,
too, in defiance of all party denunciations against “trimmers, and fence
men?” We must either
adopt and act upon this belief, or we must utterly eschew the notion, that the People
are competent to self government; and in the latter case we must sell
ourselves to the Devil, (politically speaking,) as fast as we can. As I cannot
possibly believe that you have a fancy for making any such sale, I address to
you these remarks, merely to cheer you in your course, and to prevent your
taking, what I consider a false view of your own powers to pursue it, with a
fair prospect of success. Weigh the matter fairly, bestow on it your most
deliberate judgment, and should your final determination be, that a man can do
no good in Congress, unless he becomes a party-man, then “curse and
quit,” the moment your time is out. Nay, call down curses upon your own head,
if you ever enter into public life again. But I must say, you have no just
cause to make any such desperate resolve; and that you have rational ground for
believing, that the People of the United States will yet learn to estimate the “no party-men” as their
only true and best friends. I believe these men to be strong enough, if they
would only understand each other, and act in concert, to make battle
successfully against all the party-men of the Nation. The conflict would be
arduous and long protracted; but to despair of its favorable issue, would be to
believe that truth, justice, and virtue will never obtain the ascendancy in
this World: and thus to think, is to discredit the word of God himself.
_______________
* Representative in Congress from Virginia, 1805-1809; died
May, 1843.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916
in Two Volumes, Volume II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter 1826-1876, p.
28-30
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