RICHMOND, [VA.], February 5th, 1856.
MY DEAR UNCLE: The Kanawha River bill passed this morning, waiving the State's lien on the tolls, so as to authorise the Ja[me]s Riv[er] and Kan[awha] Co[mpany] to issue 7 per cent bonds ($320,000) to improve it according to Fisk's plans. I congratulate you on the result. There is a prospect of selling (through Latham to N[ew] Y[ork] parties) one half of the Old Dominion Co[mpany] at the rate of $150 per acre. This would net me about $2,000 for one-half of my interest therein; don't you think this would be a bad bargain for me?
My report is at last made; it kept me so closely at work I had no time to write you but the brief note of last week. Yet I have been attentive to your interests. Directly after closing that note, I had a long interview with Charles Irving; he is thoroughly and warmly with us, and we have (at Harvie's advice) taken him into our confidence. This exchange is very important, for it gives us a voice in the Examiner wing of the party. He has been making strenuous efforts on Hughes and Floyd. I learn that the former seems amenable to reason, and might, perhaps, be changed or rationalized, but for Floyd; but the ex-Governor is blind with resentment. He resents the late Senatorial election and thinks you interfered with Pierce against him. Irving says he said Douglas told him so, but this is confidential. Can it be true? Kenna is trying his hand on him, and though with little hope, does not despair. With Floyd, our affairs would be easy. Kenna is for you, as you know, but he is too much for a combination with Pierce; if I understand him aright, he wants us to indicate our willingness to vote for Pierce first, with a view of securing P[ierce]'s friends to you. Do you think Kenna reliable? Irving has sent an excellent leader to his paper coming out for you. He has gone up to Danville to secure that paper, and Clemens thinks he can get the Wheeling Argus to come out. The Dem[ocratic] Recorder has already closed. Mallory will get Irving's editorial favorably endorsed in Norfolk, and the Valley Democrat and Lexington Star must be made to follow suit. Banks promises to republish and endorse in his paper; but at first he hesitated on the plea that it was impolite to alarm the friends of Pierce by pushing you just now. I cannot but think that, as Meade says, Banks has an axe of his own to grind, and the hope of getting into the Union effects him. I don't think he will be worth anything to you, if he gets there, though I believe he really prefers you.
Harvie, Mallory and a few others have a consultation with me tomorrow night for purposes of organization. Harvie has written for Booker to come up and we are to have a frank talk with Wise. What do you think of asking the Convention on the 28th to endorse you? I fear the attempt may be very dangerous, but Mallory and Harvie are disposed, if we conclude we have the strength to carry. And there are some fair arguments in favor of it, other states are disposed to go for you, but are held back by the reports of division and weakness in Virginia. It is supposed here that our friends in Washington expect an expression of opinion by that Convention. Shall we attempt it, or shall we trust to quiet organization in the Districts, and such demonstrations of public opinion through the press, as we are arranging? This is a difficult question ahead of us. The members of the Legislature are much divided and very many undertermined. We have nobody who can efficiently work on the South well; we think Henry Edmundson could do much, if he would come down and spend a week here and be active. Cant he be persuaded to do so?
I deeply regret the Tucker business, both for its personal
effects and for political reasons. Your friends here sustain you, but the
Examiner has already opened its batteries and begins with a lie by saying that
Forney is elected. Beverly [Tucker] himself has given colour to this charge by
the assertion that Forney is still in the Union and that Stidell has pledges
from the President that Forney shall be kept in. The affair cannot permanently
injure except in that aspect, but if the President has cheated you, it may be
very injurious. You owe it to yourself to see that Forney is excluded, and
checkmate the fraud, if attempted.
* A Representative in Congress from Virginia, 1856-1861.
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. 178-9
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