Daniel Webster to Millard Fillmore, July 21, 1851

Boston, July 21, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR, — I arrived here early on Saturday morning, and on inquiring for Mr. E. H. Allen, our consul at the Sandwich Islands, I learned that he was sick here of a brain fever, and too ill to be seen.

I went immediately to Nahant, where my brother-in-law, Mr. Paige, has a summer residence, and there passed Sunday, and on coming to town this morning have received your letter.

The Tehuantepec business is very important, and I am afraid we shall have a good deal of trouble with it. The object of the canal is very important, and we ought to do all that we can to facilitate it. Nevertheless, until we have a treaty, it does not become a Government matter, and if the parties concerned see fit to prosecute their plans, in defiance of Mexico, they must be regarded as acting at their own risk. I shall be very glad to see Mr. Benjamin. I doubt much whether there is to be an extra session of the Mexican Congress. It is quite clear that General Arista expected no such thing at the date of his letter, and I hardly know how Mr. Letcher can have received later information. Nevertheless, it may be that he has. I shall be ready to go to Washington on any summons.

Have the goodness to direct Mr. Derrick to telegraph me here, if occasion should arise, and the despatch will be sent to me by express wherever I may be. The despatch to Mr. Severance, our commissioner at Honolulu, will be ready, as soon as I receive our paper from the Department for which I wrote to-day. As the French frigate, and The Vandalia have both left the Islands, I do not expect any outbreak in that quarter immediately. But, still, I feel anxious that the communication of Mr. Severance should be on its way, as soon as possible.

I go to Mrs. Webster at Marshfield to-morrow morning. We do not propose to open our house on the usual scale, or to resume our customary establishment. Mrs. Webster thinks of going to Saratoga and Niagara with certain of her New York relations. I shall remain pretty much secluded at Marshfield, or in its neighborhood, seeking rest, and recovery of strength; but ready, nevertheless, to obey the shortest summons to Washington. I have avoided seeing people here as much as possible, and shall continue on that line of politics. Í trust, my dear Sir, that you will write me freely, and not hesitate to call for me, whenever you desire my presence.

I learned at New York that the story of my going to Europe, &c., got out through Mr., to whom, I suppose, Mr. Curtis or myself must have spoken on the subject. Friends here have been quite alarmed at any such idea, but their fears are quieted.

I am, my dear Sir, always truly yours,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, pp. 451-2