Senator Henry Clay to James Harlan, March 22, 1850

WASHINGTON, March 22, 1850.

MY DEAR SIR,—I received your favor of the 15th instant. What you have stated, in answer to those who have inquired of you, whether under any contingency I would consent to be a candidate for the Presidency in 1852, is pretty much what I should have said myself, if I said any thing; but I have great repugnance to saying any thing about it. It would be great folly in me, at my age, with the uncertainty of life, and with a recollection of all the past, to say now that I would, under any contingences, be a candidate. I can scarcely conceive any, there are none in the range of probability, that would reconcile me to the use of my name. I have already publicly declared that I entertained no wish or expectation of being a candidate; and I would solemnly proclaim that I never would be, under any circumstances whatever, if I did not think that no citizen has a right thus absolutely to commit himself.

We can not yet see clearly how or when our slavery difficulties are to be settled.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 605-6