David Graham to Henry Clay, June 9, 1848

NEW YORK, June 9, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — The mis-representatives of the Whig party have at length consummated the greatest act of national injustice it was in their power to perform, in the nomination of a man as their candidate for the Presidency who has rejected the principles and spurned the organization and discipline of the Whigs. The intelligence has fallen upon the honest and true-hearted Whigs of this city, and I doubt not of the country at large, like a clap of thunder; and the execrations of the mass of the party here, at the treachery by which they have again been overtaken, are both loud and deep. For yourself, my dear sir, it will be gratifying to know that this last act of ingratitude has only served to bind you more closely to the hearts of your friends; and I do but justice to their feelings and my own when I say that a signal, and I trust, withering rebuke will be promptly administered to the stock-jobbing politicians for whose selfish purposes this outrage upon us has been perpetrated. To you no station can bring higher honor than that which you now enjoy; and, so far as you are individually concerned, it is not too much to say that an honorable retirement, accompanied with the heartfelt affection of the whole nation, must be more grateful than the turmoil and anxieties attendant upon office, however exalted. But it can not and will not be forgotten, that in your person the integrity and the hopes of the Whig party have been stricken down, and their existence as a party blasted and destroyed. And I trust the day is far distant when a forgiveness will be extended to the base combination between the heartless rivals whom you have outstripped, both in unexampled devotion to your country and in the favor of your countrymen, and the truckling harpies, who, like the followers of a camp, are bent upon plunder alone.

I know, my dear sir, that you will indulge in no personal regrets at the issue. But at the same time, allow me, as one of your truest friends, as one who from the moment when I was invested with the right to express an opinion upon public affairs, have been a Whig, and a Clay Whig, to beg of you, as an act of justice to your faithful friends, to withhold any expression of approval of the action of this Convention. Your magnanimity will be appealed to by those who have stabbed you and outraged us, as it was when we were betrayed in 1839; but I trust that the appeal will meet with a different response.

In addressing you in this earnest and emphatic manner, I feel that I am taking a great, perhaps an unwarrantable liberty, with you. I plead, as my apology, my integrity as a Whig and my unalterable veneration for yourself. I speak, moreover, the sentiments of your hosts of friends in New York, who only find relief from the despondency which weighs them down, in the proud reflection that they have battled to the last under your glorious and honored name.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 562-3

Henry Clay to a Committee of Louisville Kentucky, June 28, 1848

ASHLAND, June 28, 1848.

GENTLEMEN, — I received your favor adverting to certain reports in circulation in respect to me, with regard to the approaching Presidential election, and requesting information in relation to them.

Recognizing you as among my staunchest, truest, and most faithful friends, I shall ever feel under the greatest obligations to you, and shall be always happy when I can command your approbation, or do any thing agreeable to you. But I should not be entitled to your esteem if I did not continue to act, as I have ever endeavored to be governed, according to my own conscientious convictions of duty.

As far as I was personally concerned, I submitted to the decision of the late National Convention at Philadelphia. It has relieved me from much painful suspense and anxiety, if I had been nominated; and from great vexation, care, and responsibility, if I had been subsequently elected. I shall do nothing in opposition to it. I shall give no countenance or encouragement to any third party movements, if any should be attempted against it. I desire to remain henceforward in undisturbed tranquillity and perfect repose. I have been much importuned from various quarters to endorse General Taylor as a good Whig, who will, if elected, act on Whig principles and carry out Whig measures. But how can I do that? Can I say that in his hands Whig measures will be safe and secure, when he refuses to pledge himself to their support? when some of his most active friends say they are obsolete? when he is presented as a no-party candidate? when the Whig Convention at Philadelphia refuse to recognize or proclaim its attachment to any principles or measures, and actually laid on the table resolutions having that object in view?

Ought I to come out as a warm and partisan supporter of a candidate who, in a reversal of our conditions, announced his purpose to remain as a candidate, and consequently to oppose me, so far as it depended upon himself? Tell me what reciprocity is in this? Magnanimity is a noble virtue, and I have always endeavored to practice it; but it has its limits, and the line of demarcation between it and meanness is not always clearly discernible. I have been reminded of the course I pursued in the case of the nomination of General Harrison in 1839. But General Harrison was not merely a Whig in name. He was committed and pledged to the support of the measures of the Whigs. He did not declare that he would stand as a candidate in opposition to the nomination of the Convention. He was, moreover, a civilian of varied and extensive experience.

I lost the nomination, as I firmly believe, by the conduct of the majorities in the delegations from Kentucky in Congress and in the Convention, and I am called upon to ratify what they did, in contravention, as I also believe, of the wishes of a large majority of the people of Kentucky! I am asked to sanction and approve the course of the seven delegates from Kentucky, who, in violation of the desire of their constituents, voted against me, and virtually to censure and condemn the five who voted for me!

It seems to me, gentlemen, that self-respect, the consistency of my character, and my true fame, require that I should take no action or partisan agency in the existing contest. If it was between Locofoco principles and Whig principles, I would engage in it with all the ardor of which I am capable; but alas! I fear that the Whig party is dissolved, and that no longer are there Whig principles to excite zeal and to stimulate exertion. I am compelled, most painfully, to believe that the Whig party has been overthrown by a mere personal party, just as much having that character as the Jackson party possessed it twenty years ago.

In such a contest I can feel no enthusiasm; and I am not hypocrite enough to affect what I do not feel. There is undoubtedly a choice, but I regard it as a choice of evils, which I will make for myself in due time, under the influence of the great principles for which I have so long contended. I think my friends ought to leave me quiet and undisturbed in my retirement. I have served the country faithfully and to the utmost of my poor ability. If I have not done more, it has not been for want of heart or inclination. My race is run. During the short time which remains to me in this world, I desire to preserve untarnished that character which so many have done me the honor to respect and esteem. They may rest assured that I will intentionally do nothing to forfeit or weaken their good opinion of me. Abstaining henceforward from all active part in public affairs, and occupying myself with my private and more solemn duties, I shall, if spared, go to the polls at the proper season, like any other private citizen, and cast my vote as I may deem best and safest for the principles I have sustained and for my country. Seeking to influence nobody, I hope to be permitted to pursue for myself the dictates of my own conscience.

Such is the view which I have of the present posture of the Presidential question, and my relations to it. More light may be hereafter thrown upon it, which I shall be most happy to receive, and if it should point to a different course of duty, I shall not hesitate to follow it.

I address this letter to you in consequence of yours, and from the friendly regard I entertain for you. I should have preferred that you had not thought it necessary to appeal to me. It is manifest from the tenor of my reply that it is not intended for publication. I am, etc.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 566-8

Thomas W. Gilmer* to Congressman Robert M. T. Hunter, March 11, 1840

Richmond, [va.], March 11th, 1840.

Dear Hunter: I have frequently during the winter desired to write to you and to receive a letter from you, as one watchman likes occasionally to hail and to hear from another in a dark night. I hope that nothing has occurred or will ever occur to interrupt for a moment that perfect and confidential familiarity which has so long subsisted between us. From all that I learn of you through the medium (a bad one, I confess) of the newspapers, I take it for granted that we are now as nearly together in politics as we were when I saw you last summer. Nothing that has happened here or at Washington, I presume, can have shaken your steadfastness or mine in the great principles to which we have both given evidence of our attachment. But let this be as it may, though you are (without design on your part) the speaker of the H[ouse] of R[epresentatives] and though I in like manner have been appointed with the executive of Virginia, you are still Bob Hunter and I am as I always was your humble servant. We can never forget the Friar Tuck scene of the Expunging winter here, nor should either of us desire its oblivion. I suppose the labors of your station have allowed you very little time for correspondence and though I shall not be more respectful than the governor of New Jersey was to you, I venture to drop you a line, to say that I hope we may occasionally interchange a thought and a word. Is there any hope that parties will ever come back to the good old lines of honest differences of opinion as to principles. For until parties do so, there is really little or no hope that the government (in any hands) will. Are we always to see the millions of freemen in our country, marshalled as the mere clansmen of ambitious aspirants for the presidency? Many, I know, indulge the hope that after November next, there will be some more definite and durable organization of political parties. I confess, however, that I see little prospect for it. The radical fault is with the press and that I fear is past remedy. I am, however, on the outposts and can see but little of the chess board. You are at the fountain head, and I have only to ask that when you have time and can communicate any intelligence which you think would do good, that you may drop me a line, not that I would have you write as a letter writer from Washington, but that you may speak as one friend should speak to another about matters of the highest public concern. We have been grasping our way onward; so far together. I shall sink the partisan of course in my new vocation here. Indeed I have been little of one for some years past. The grease has been scarcely worth the candle. If you don't find time sooner, writer to me in the dry days.

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* Governor of Virginia, 1840-1841; a Whig Representative in Congress, 1841-1843; a Democratic Representative in Congress. 1843-1844; appointed Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 15, 1844, and served until his death on the Princeton, Feb. 28, 1844.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916 in Two Volumes, Volume II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter 1826-1876, p. 33-4

George Fitzhugh to Congressman Robert M. T. Hunter, December 15, 1839

Port Royal, [va.], December 15,1839.

Dear Hunter: I have not seen one single whig to whom the nomination of Harrison is acceptable. Many already declare they will vote for Van Buren in preference, some say they will not vote at all, and the rest that they will vote for any body sooner than Van Buren and for that reason alone will sustain Harrison.

Excuse me for suggesting to you that this is a favourable opportunity for you to let it be known that you will under present circumstances sustain the re-election of Van Buren. Dont let it be known however through me but if possible through some states right Whig in your District who is likely to pursue the same course. It seems to me this course will at once place you in an easy situation, in which you may enjoy the fruits of a pretty wide spread reputation, acquired, perhaps, in part by the painful notoriety of your late neutral position.

Of course, I only urge you to express opinions, which I believe you sincerely entertain.

I have been tracking Bob Hunter lately. * * * He is so far every thing I could desire. I should be glad to hear from you occasionally, I am too busy to visit Washington. Present my compliments to Mr. Pickens and tell him I have instructed you to sustain him for speaker.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916 in Two Volumes, Volume II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter 1826-1876, p. 30