Saturday, September 16, 2023

Senator Robert M. T. Hunter to George N. Sanders,* May 9, 1851

LLOYDS, ESSEX [Co. Va.], May 9, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR: You will be surprised to hear that your letter has just reached me. The mail comes here from the North but twice a week and it is irregular at that. No man can appreciate such a compliment more highly than I do and I wish to act according to the advice of my friends but they differ as to this matter. The same mail which brought your letter brought also one from Douglass. Confidential it was but there are no secrets from you. He advises me to decline, but to visit New York without parade during the summer. In the same letter he speaks in the highest terms of the skill and judgment with which you manage affairs. He himself I think is one of the coolest observers even when he himself is concerned that I ever saw. For myself I do not mean or wish to be obstinate. You know what my opinion has been all along. But I suppose and hope I shall soon hear from you again. Your report of progress is encouraging beyond any expectations I have ever had. I think that Douglass will take well in this state.

P. S. If Bev[erly] Tucker is in New York when this reaches you please tell him I had intended writing him by this mail but upon considering [?] the day of his sailing I found the letter would probably not reach him. I regret this very much as it was an oversight on my part.

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* This and the following letter are in the Library of Congress.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 127-8

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