Louis McLane to George Douglas, Schuyler Livingston, and others, a Committee to Superintend the Public Dinner given to the Hon. D. S. Dickinson, June 19, 1850.

BOHEMIA, NEAR CECILTON, MARYLAND,        

June 19, 1850.

TO GEORGE DOUGLAS, SCHUYLER LIVINGSTON, and others, a Committee to Superintend the Public Dinner given to the Hon. D. S. Dickinson.

GENTLEMEN—Having been called by urgent business to Baltimore during the last week, I only received your letter of the 7th inst. on my return home last night. I have cordially approved the course of your distinguished Senator during the present session of Congress, and I fully participate in the admiration entertained by his Democratic fellow-citizens of New York, of the manly ability and unwavering patriotism with which he has assisted in tranquillizing the public mind and arresting an agitation that, if allowed to continue, would prove fatal to the harmony and preservation of our glorious Union. Under other circumstances it would have given me great pleasure to manifest my feelings by uniting with the Democrats of New York in their patriotic support of the constitutional principles involved in the pending issue.

I can at present, however, only return you my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored me, and assure you of my earnest hope that in the present crisis the support of the Democracy of New York may be as effective in maintaining the principles of the Constitution and the integrity of the Union as it has been on more than one previous occasion. I have the honor to be, gentlemen,

Very respectfully, your fellow-citizen,

LOUIS MCLANE.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 443