DEAR HUNTER: I was
in Richmond yesterday and saw Pryor who has heard from Washington that there is
some effort being made there to get him selected as one of the two coeditors of
the organ of the new administration at Washington. His circumstances and
possibly his ambition would prompt him to desire this place earnestly tho' he
says he is making no effort to get it. Dr. Garnett has written to him that he
should urge Wise to apply to Buchanan for it on behalf of Pryor. On the other
hand Beverly Tucker is struggling for it and says that Wise is committed to
him. Thus much for that. I also found that Pryor thought that Wise would urge
the offer of Secretary of State to be made to you and thought if so you ought
to accept it. Reed [?] had heard Beverly Tucker say that Wise would turn you
out of the Senate when the election came on. Now Pryor is a true man and true
to you and moreover is under some obligations to some of your friends that he
feels and wont disregard, but if he were to be the Editor of such a paper, you
being of the Cabinet, would be what of all things he would desire and I am
writing to you to warn and guard you in case such an offer be again and any
advice he may offer by letter or otherwise. If it be made it will of course be
for one of two reasons either because they know you will not accept it and thus
get for Wise and his President the credit of having made the offer, or to
create a vacancy in the Senate for Wise.
Now it is so clear
to me that you ought not to go into the Cabinet and that you ought to remain in
the Senate that I can scarcely think there is any occasion for writing. This
Administration can't stand, at the end of four years; at all events there must
be another and a fiercer struggle than has just taken place and you ought
to be in the Senate preparing yourself and the country for it, sustaining the
administration in all measures calculated to secure our rights, leading the
Southern men and forming and wielding them in a solid and compact mass. You can
and will have more power in the Senate than if President. It is expected, it is
conceded that you must take the lead and it is not in the power of any party or
partizans to arrest your career. So confident do I feel of this, so clear does
it seem to me that I should think you mad if not criminal if you were to doubt
or hesitate. I write strongly because I feel so. There is no necessity for the
sacrifice there is no propriety in it. Your acceptance of this offer if made
would be laid to the account of timidity or mere love of place and in either
case your power and usefulness would be lost. Don't then entertain any such
idea for a moment. If the offer that I just spoke of be made to Pryor, his
poverty will make him accept it and the power that he is exerting thro' the
Enquirer will be lost to him and that will be a great loss to us, but
nevertheless you are invincible in the State and those who assail you will find
it to be so. I think he will write to you and it is as well that you have some
knowledge of his views beforehand. Of course all of this letter in regard to
him is strictly confidential.
Present my warmest
congratulations to Garnett and say to him that I am not only rejoiced at his
success but proud of it. I don't doubt but that his Excellency [Wise] will
write to him to the same effect and possibly that he secured
his nomination and election. I wish you would sometimes write to me without my
forcing you to do so in answer to my letters and tell me what is in the wind. I
should like to see you before you go to Washington but if not I will see you
then.
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), pp. 202-3
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