FRANKFORT, April 30, 1850.
DEAR ORLANDO,—On my return, last Saturday, from Louisville, where I had been spending some days, I found your letter. I perused it with the most painful interest. My heart is troubled at the discord that seems to reign among our friends. Burnley will be in Washington when this reaches you, and with his good sense and his sincere devotion to General Taylor will be able to settle all difficulties about the Republic, and give to it a satisfactory and harmonious direction. The editors of that paper are the friends of General Taylor, and if his cabinet is not altogether what they could wish, they ought, for his sake and the sake of his cause, to waive all objections on that score. Concession among friends is no sacrifice of independence. The temper to do it is a virtue, and indispensable to that co-operation that is necessary to political success. I do not, of course, mean that any man, for any object, ought to surrender essential principles, or his honor; but in this instance nothing of that sort can be involved. The utmost differences of the parties must consist of personal feelings, or disagreements in opinion about expediencies. If even an old Roman could say, and that, too, with continued approbation of about twenty centuries, that he had rather err with Cato, etc., I think that we, his friends, one and all of us, ought to give to General Taylor the full benefit of that sentiment, and strengthen him thereby to bear the great responsibility we have placed upon him. Cato himself was not more just or illustrious than General Taylor, nor ever rendered greater services to his country. When I read your account of that interview, in which he uttered the indignant complaints extorted from him by contumely and wrong, I felt, Orlando, that scene as you did, when you so nobly described it,—my heart burned within me. It is not with such a man, so situated, that friends ought to stand upon niceties, or be backward in their services. The men of the Republic will not, I am certain. They are men of the right grit, and I assure myself that all will be amicably arranged and settled with them. The course pursued in Congress towards General Taylor and his cabinet will, I think, react in their favor, and out of the very difficulties that surround him he will triumph, as he has triumphed before. This is my hope and my faith. The committees intended to persecute and destroy, will strengthen and preserve, the cabinet, and the slavery question settled, the friends that it has dispersed will return to the standard of old Zack.
I am sorry that you intend to resign your office so soon. I am satisfied that you are useful to General Taylor, and that your leaving Washington will deprive him of a great comfort. There must be something soothing in escaping occasionally from the stated and formal consultations of the cabinet and indulging in the free and irresponsible intercourse and conversation of a trusted friend. Who is to succeed you when you resign? Every one, I believe, feels some particular concern in his successor, as though it were a sort of continuation of himself. If you have not committed yourself otherwise, I should be pleased to see Alexander McKee, the clerk of our county of Garrard, succeed you. You know him, I believe. He is the near relation of Colonel McKee, who fell at Buena Vista, a man of business and a bold and ardent friend of General Taylor. If you are willing and will advise as to the time and course, he will probably visit Washington and endeavor to obtain the office. Let me hear from you on this subject. I think you will yet be offered the mission to Vienna, and that you ought not to decline so fine an opportunity of visiting the Old World.
It seems to me evident that the slavery question must now soon be settled, and that upon the basis of admitting California and establishing territorial governments without the Wilmot proviso. If this fails, great excitement and strife will be the consequence, and all will be charged, right or wrong, to the opposition of the administration to that plan. In the present state of things, I can see no inconsistency in the administration's supporting that plan. It is not in terms the plan recommended by the President, but it is the same in effect, and modified only by the circumstances that have since occurred. General Taylor's object was to avoid and suppress agitation by inaction, and by leaving the slavery question to be settled by the people of the respective territories; but the temper of the times was not wise and forbearing enough to accept this pacific policy. To promote this policy, General Taylor was willing to forego what, under ordinary circumstances, would have been a duty, the establishment of territorial governments. But what has since happened, and what is now the altered state of the case? The agitation which he would have suppressed has taken place, and, instead of the forbearance recommended by him, a course of action has been taken which must lead to some positive settlement, or leave the subject in a much worse condition than it has ever been. Here, then, is a new case presented; and it seems to me that the grand object exhibited in the President's recommendation will be accomplished by the admission of California and the establishment of territorial governments without the Wilmot proviso. The prime object was to avoid that proviso and its excitements by inaction; but any course of action that gets rid of that proviso cannot be said to be inconsistent with the object in view. The only difference is in the means of attaining the same end, and that difference is the result of the altered state of the subject since the date of the President's message. In the attainment of so great an object as that in question, the peace and safety of the Union, it will, as it seems to me, be wise and magnanimous in the administration not to be tenacious of any particular plan, but to give its active aid and support to any plan that can effect the purpose. I want the plan that does settle the great question, whatever it may be, or whosesoever it may be, to have General Taylor's Imprimatur upon it.
I shall expect letters from you with impatience.
No comments:
Post a Comment