ASHLAND, June 30, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR,—I received your friendly letter of the 23d instant. I have
been so much from home during the last eighteen months that it is not my
purpose at present to leave it this summer.
I have no doubt, with you, that many of the quiet and well-disposed
citizens of South Carolina are opposed to the measures of violence which are
threatened by others. But the danger is, as history shows too often happens,
that the bold, the daring, and the violent will get the control, and push their
measures to a fatal extreme. Should the State resolve to secede, it will
present a new form of trial to our system; but I entertain undoubting
confidence that it will come out of it with the most triumphant success.
I thank you for your friendly tender of your services. Should any occasion
for the use of them arise, I will avail myself of them, with great pleasure.
Do me the favor to present my warm regards to your good sister; and I
reciprocate your kind wishes and prayers, with all my heart.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of
Henry Clay, p. 620
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