Thursday, May 25, 2023

George M. Dallas to Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, March 1, 1850

MY DEAR SIR—The Union of yesterday, which I received this morning, contains a letter addressed to yourself and me, dated as of the 15th ult. It is signed "John Hampden," a name over which I have heretofore seen several good articles, but by whom it is employed I can form no conjecture.

I am quite sure that as the actual and admirable senator of a great commonwealth, you have already fronted the crisis as became you, and that you will retain the ground you have occupied. But I am at a loss to conceive in what manner it is supposed possible for the late Vice-President usefully to emerge from his privacy, affect to advise Congress, or officiously intermeddle with business already in deputed and able hands. Would not such intervention expose me to plausible and unpleasant imputations, and so affect injuriously the very cause I should desire to aid?

Certainly I have nothing to conceal. Content with the measure of domestic happiness which God permits me to possess, and quite willing to work to the last at the law, I do not care to hide my opinions on public questions. They were frequently uttered in the hearing of thousands while position as a national executive agent made it excusable, if not becoming to do so. The extraordinary circumstances of the times have slightly modified these opinions, and the irrepressible bias of my head and heart, toward preserving the Federal Union, as moulded and embodied (if that word be admissible) by the Constitution, carries me further just now, than mere logic carried me heretofore. But I must confess to you that however much I may naturally fondle my own views and sentiments, I shrink from openly claiming to divert attention from the really wise and virtuous men in the capital, toward a mere Q in the corner.

I have written this under a strong impulse of curiosity to know whether the letter in the Union is but an ordinary flight of anonymous vivacity, or is designed as a serious and sober hint to us from any quarter. Pray let me have your idea: and excuse this hasty intrusion on your time.

I am always, very sincerely and respectfully, your friend and servant,

G. M. DALLAS.
March 1, 1850.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 424

No comments: