BOSTON, May 13, 1852.
MY DEAR MR.
CRITTENDEN,—I received a welcome letter from you weeks ago, for which I have
often thanked you in spirit, and now tender you my cordial acknowledgments in
due form. I trust that we are going to meet you all again this summer. You must
come to Newport and resume your red republican robes and bathe off the
debilities of a long heat at Washington. I wish you could be here at
Commencement, July 22. Between now and then the great question of candidacy
will be settled. How? How? Who can say? However it be, this only I pray,—give
us a chance in Massachusetts to support it effectively. I do believe that we
can elect Webster, Fillmore, Scott, or Crittenden, if there shall not be an
unnecessary forcing of mere shibboleths down our throats. There is not an
agitator in the whole Whig party here—no one who cares to disturb anything that
has been done. As to the fugitive slave law, though I never thought it a wise
piece of legislation, nor ever believed that it would be very effective, I have
not the slightest doubt that it will long survive the satisfaction of the South
and stand on the statute-book after its efficiency has become about equal to
that of '93. But tests and provisos are odious things, whether Wilmot or anti-Wilmot.
Webster is here, and his arrival has been the signal for a grand rally among
his friends. There is no doubt but Massachusetts would work hard for him if he
were fairly in the field, and I think there will be a general consent that he
shall have the votes of all our delegates; but, what are they among so many? Do
not let anybody imagine, however, that we shall bolt from the regular nominee,
whoever he be, unless some unimaginably foolish action should be adopted by the
convention.
Believe me, my dear sir, always most cordially and faithfully your friend and servant,
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 36
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