WASHINGTON, February 7, 1854.
DEAR SIR,—The bill
to organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas, with a provision to repeal
the Missouri Compromise act, will pass the Senate by a very large majority.
Every Whig senator, I believe, from the slaveholding States will vote for it,
and from all I can learn it will receive the unanimous vote of all the Whigs
from the slave States in the other branch of Congress, and will doubtless
become a law. There is a feeling here among the Whigs to run you for the
Presidency. In this desire I fully participate, and write this to beg you, in
the speech you make on the 16th, not to commit yourself particularly on this
question. I do not wish you to embarrass yourself either North or South.
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 101
