ALTO, [VA.], March 18, 1856.
MY DEAR SIR: You would be amused to learn some of the manouvres which have been resorted to in our state to secure the nomination for the presidency. You stand no chance in such an intriguing age; and the truth is I have lost confidence in every body. A man who, some months since, told me he could and would make you president, if I am correctly informed, is now throwing every obstacle in the way of such a result. His own ambition may be an apology, but if it be true that he has countenanced strange combinations there is no excuse for him.1 I can scarcely believe what I hear from Richmond and I say nothing of my own knowledge, for I have been confined to my room for nearly three weeks, with a violent cough which prevented me from attending the convention. The resolutions of our little meeting here, every body understood was a preference for you and your name was not mentioned because we thought it would do more harm than good.
The plan pursued by our convention was a proper one, to express no preference, for any body of men who go into the National Convention tied down to a name, must have an up hill road to travel. I saw the disadvantage Mr. Buchanan labored under by such a course in the last convention. There was an omission, however, in our friends not instructing our delegates to cast the whole vote of the state as a unit. They sh[oul]d have gone further and instructed them to vote always for that son of V[irgini]a who was presented to the convention, by other states and receiving the largest vote.
1 Probably Henry A. Wise, who was then governor of Virginia.
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. 183-4
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