His (Baldwin's)
politics differed widely from Mr. Tyler's. Mr. Tyler from his youth up was a Democrat
of the order of Jefferson, whilst Judge Baldwin had educated his son in the
ultra school of Alexander Hamilton. He abided not any school or schoolmen of
Democracy; was opposed to secession; was for peace, or prevention of war, on
almost any terms; made a speech for which he was crowned by a Boston woman with
flowery wreaths as the champion of the Union in the convention; and uttered
sentiments and arguments which bound him, it was thought, on principle, to
unite himself with the Northern cause against his native valley land of
Virginia. He especially opposed Mr. Tyler's views on the report of the
Commissioners of Virginia respecting the results of the Peace Conference at
Washington. His Whig prejudices, indeed, against Mr. Tyler, for long-past bitterness
of his party, for reason of his Bank vetoes and other matters of difference,
kept him aloof from his society. He had avoided personal contact with him. But
at last the ladies of the two houses met at the hotel where they messed and
brought them together. Mr. Tyler had observed Colonel Baldwin's avoidance of
him, if not his aversion to him; and one morning he walked up to him, and drew
a paper from his bosom and asked him to read it. It was a letter to Mr. Tyler
from Colonel Baldwin's father, written late in life. It proved that Judge
Briscoe G. Baldwin knew, loved and honored John Tyler, and it subdued the son's
aversion, and made him honor and respect the man of whom his honored father was
proud to be a friend.
SOURCE: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, pp.
669-70
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