DEAR SIR: I beg to
call your attention, to that portion of Judge Conrad's speech in the
Anti-Fillmore Convention of New York, which is enclosed. (You will find the
whole speech in N. Y. Herald of 13th.)
I write to you as a
true friend of the South, to know what is the South to do. Are her statesmen
looking ahead and preparing for contingencies? As this letter is anonymous, you
are not bound, I admit, to treat it with any consideration. I ask only to free
my own mind of thoughts which press painfully upon it, and to leave them with
those who can best judge whether they are of any value or practicable. The
question is this—Cannot the South form an alliance, either with England, or
some foreign country, which will protect her from the threatened aggression of
the North? Look ahead, and do you not see a storm coming from the North which
must dissolve the Union? Ought we not then to look ahead, ought not the
Southern leaders to meet together and confer, and sound the governments of
England, or other foreign powers, to see what can be done in such a
contingency? You are one of the few men, I believe, not eaten up with selfish
ambition. Strike a blow, then, I entreat you for the safety of the South. Would
to Heaven that the South would stop talking and go to acting. Imitate the
forecast, the practical character, and (as it has become necessary to fight the
devil with fire) the subtlety of our sectional enemies. It strikes me, that it would be a good stroke of policy, and a most
holy and righteous retribution, if we could form a treaty with England,
giving her certain privileges in the
cotton trade and vast navigation, in return for which, she could stand by the
South, and crush the Free Soilers between Canada and the South States.
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. 145
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