Major General Zachary Taylor to Senator Henry Clay, November 4, 1847

HEAD QUARTERS, Army of Occupation,        

Camp near Monterey, November 4, 1847.

MY DEAR SIR,—By yesterday's mail I had the gratification of receiving your very welcome letter of the 27th September. Rest assured that nothing has transpired, nothing can transpire, to impair the amicable and kindly relations which it has been my pleasure and pride for so long time to maintain with you. Hints, similar to those to which you refer, have been thrown out in letters which I have recently received; but they have had no influence whatever upon me; not one word has served, in the remotest degree, to prejudice me against yourself or your friends, in either personal or political relations.

I fully agree with you in the necessity for more deliberation in the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, and I truly regret that my name should have been used in that relation. It has been permitted with the greatest reluctance on my part, and only from a sense of duty to the country. My repugnance to being a candidate before the nation for that exalted office has been frankly and sincerely made known. Most truly is it my hope that before next November the party may select a Whig in all respects worthy of the confidence of the country. To a mutual friend of ours I have recently made this announcement, asserting my greater desire for the quiet of private occupations, as not only a more appropriate termination to my services as a soldier, and more consonant with my earnest wishes, but particularly proper in reference to my limited acquaintance with matters of civil and national polity. I stated to him specifically that I was ready to stand aside, if you or any other Whig were the choice of the party, and that I sincerely hoped such might be their decision.

The importance of harmony and good feeling among the opponents of the present dynasty, is by no one appreciated more considerately than by myself, and whatever may be the decision of the party, I shall be studiously guarded in this particular, and strive to lend my best endeavors to the preservation of unity.

Permit me to repeat, that whatever representations may be made to me, from any source, conveying any expression of disrespect toward yourself or your friends, or that either entertain unfriendly feelings toward me, be assured, my dear sir, they will be repelled and discredited, as they justly merit.

I am much rejoiced that I have this opportunity to assure you, not only of my frank and full confidence in your friendship and kindly feelings, but that I warmly appreciate your wishes for my own success, and your expressed desire to contribute to it.

With my cordial assurance that what is herein written is dictated by the same candid and friendly spirit, so evident in your own letter, I subscribe myself, most sincerely and faithfully, your friend.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 548-9

Henry Clay to Henry T. Duncan, February 15, 1848

WASHINGTON, February 15, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — I received your letter of the 9th instant and I was gratified with the proceedings in Bourbon, of which it gave a full account. I presume through other channels you are advised of the state of public affairs here. I see no prospect of peace at present. Upon my arrival here the strongest appeals have been made to me to take no step withdrawing my name from among those from which a selection is to be made of a candidate for the Presidency. I have been assured that, if I did, it would lead to a prostration of the Whig party, especially in the free States. Then they say that General Taylor can not be supported in his present noncommittal position. Some doubt, if he were to assume distinct Whig ground, whether he could obtain the Whig support. I have suspended any definitive action.

Great surprise exists here as to the hot haste of our Taylor friends in Kentucky. Why is it? I am often asked, without being able to give any very satisfactory answer. What will be the issue of the two Conventions in Frankfort next week? Nobody knows here. After the long period of time during which I have had the happiness to enjoy the friendship and confidence of that State, what have I done, it is inquired, to lose it?

Those Conventions, if they would act wisely, I think, would acquiesce in the National Convention and leave their own delegates to act freely, according to all circumstances.

My suit has been argued in the Supreme Court, and I shall leave this place next week for Philadelphia, where some business takes me.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 554-5

Henry Clay to Leslie Combs, February 18, 1848

WASHINGTON, February 18, 1848.

MY DEAR GENERAL, — I received your favor this morning. I have written this winter no letters to Kentucky on public affairs but in answer to letters which I received, and of this description only three. That which you thought ought to have been addressed to you was of that character.

I remain in my passive position in regard to the Presidency. To this course I have been strongly urged. It is generally approved. Whether and when I may change it depends on circumstances. There is no occasion for precipitate action. Mine at least shall be deliberate; having due regard to country, party, friends. If I were to credit all I hear and see, there would be no doubt of my election, if nominated by the National Convention, with my consent; but experience has brought diffidence, and I do not lend too ready an ear to even agreeable things.

I learn from New York that there is not a particle of doubt that, if I were a candidate, the vote of that State would be given me by an immense majority. The Legislature (I mean the Whigs) have had a caucus, in which they passed a resolution, with I believe unanimity, designating me, although not naming me, and excluding our friend General Taylor, though not naming him. Our Kentucky and other friends ought to know what an up-hill business that is of supporting the General in the free States; and yet I lose no suitable occasion to impress on all union, harmony and concord.

I am fully convinced that no preference will be expressed next week in Virginia, at Richmond, for General Taylor; most probably none will be expressed for any one.

I expect to be in Philadelphia the two or three last days of this month and the first week of the next. If I can give any impulse to your business there, I shall not fail to do it.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 555

John McLean to Henry Clay, March 1, 1848

CINCINNATI, March 1, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — Your favor from Baltimore was lately received at this place, it having been forwarded to me by Mr. Botts.

The manifestations of confidence and affection by your fellow-citizens in your late tour must be gratifying to you, as they certainly have been to your friends. No higher honors could be bestowed than those which you have received.

No one can so fully understand and appreciate the importance of your position, as connected with the future, as yourself; and this knowledge best qualifies you to determine your course of action. Standing in the advance of all your compeers in age and in renown, you owe much to yourself. But your fame is not exclusively your own. It belongs also to the nation. No one friendly to his country could desire a step to be taken or omitted by you, which might not result, as it would be designed, for the general good.

You can not be insensible to the claims of duty, but your friends have no right to expect from you personal sacrifices. I can only repeat what I said to you in Washington, that if, on a full view of the whole ground, your friends believe, and your own judgment shall concur with theirs, that there exists the highest probability of success, you ought not to withhold your name. But, in all frankness, I will say that you ought not to enter into a doubtful contest. Your fame is of too much value to yourself and to your country to compromise it, in any degree, on a hazardous result.

Political success is no longer a test of merit or qualification. Had this been otherwise, you would long since have been at the head of the Government. If your name shall be brought before the country, with your assent, I shall feel the utmost solicitude for your success.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 556-7

General Zachary Taylor to Henry Clay, April 30, 1848

BATON ROUGE, La., April 30, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — Your highly esteemed letter of the 4th inst. was duly received, for which you have my best thanks. It was highly gratifying to me to hear from you, and to learn you had returned to Ashland, after so long a travel during the most inclement season of the year, in good health, which, I flatter myself, you will long continue to enjoy. Your views, as regards our respective chances to succeed to the Presidency at the coming election, are entitled to the greatest respect and consideration, as your opportunities of knowing the opinion of the people generally throughout the country, as regards that matter, are much better than mine can possibly be, having recently made a visit to the seat of the General Government, to three or four of our largest cities, and passed through, into, and along the borders of several of the strongest States in the Union; while I have, since my return from Mexico, for the most part remained stationary at an out-of-the-way place, where I see or hear but little of political movements or matters, save through the newspapers and letters, for the most part written and published by politicians, the editors and writers of the same are sometimes mistaken in their views on the subject of President-making, as other people.

I conceive I am, owing to circumstances which I could not well avoid, placed in rather a peculiar situation, as regards my being a candidate for the Presidency. It is well known to those who had my confidence, that I was very much opposed, when the matter was first agitated in several of the public journals, which was soon after the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, to my name being used as a candidate for that office, which I resisted as far as I could well do so, stating to those around me that I had no aspirations for civil office of any kind; that my greatest ambition was to bring the war we were engaged in to a speedy and honorable termination; that by being considered a candidate for that situation, would have the effect to make the President hostile to me even without his being aware of it, and in such a way as to impair my usefulness in the field, if not to destroy it, as regarded the object I had nearest my heart, which has been realized to the full extent of my expectation; for ever since the battle of Monterey, until I left Mexico, the hand of the Executive was laid heavily on me.

My name continued to be constantly referred to through some of the newspapers, from the time previously mentioned, as a candidate for the Presidency, until the battle of Buena Vista, soon after which I began to receive many letters from some of the first political men of the nation, and from several States, in which they stated that it was in contemplation to bring my name before the country as the Whig candidate for the Presidency, in November, 1848. In reply, I frankly stated my objections to their doing so; among others, that I was no politician, and that it might be considered presumption in me to aspire to that high station, when there were such statesmen who might be elevated to it as yourself, Mr. Crittenden, Judge McLean, and John M. Clayton, and hundreds of others unknown to me, who were, I conceived, much better qualified to preside over the destinies of the country than I was; that you were my first choice, nor did I wish to be in the way of any prominent Whig who might be brought out for that office. To which they replied some of whom were your warm political and personal friends that you would not again permit your name to be brought before the country as a candidate, and that they did not believe any other Whig, owing to events which had taken place, was so likely to be elected, in opposition to the party in power, as myself; and that I owed it to the country to permit my name to be used for said object; that I "could not avoid being a candidate if I would, and ought not if I could." Under this state of things I reluctantly yielded to their wishes. About the same time, I informed a distinguished member of Congress, that the arrangements for the next Presidential campaign were to be made during the approaching session of that body, which would shortly meet; and if, after consulting the members of both branches of the same, it was thought advisable to take up some other individual of the party who was more available, he was authorized to withdraw my name from the contest, and if it was you who was fixed on, so much the better. After writing said letter, I received the proceedings of the people called together in primary assemblies in several of the States, nominating me as a candidate for the Presidency at the next election, and in several instances stating it was understood that, in the event of any distinguished Whig being brought out as a candidate, I would at once withdraw my name; but urging me not to do so, but to continue as a candidate under all circumstances, on the grounds I had taken, which was not to be the exclusive candidate of any party, etc.; and on reaching New Orleans many friends called on me to let it be publicly announced that my name as a candidate for the office in question would not be withdrawn, let who would be in the field, which I consented to, and advised my friends in Washington of my change in that respect, without delay. I therefore now consider myself in the hands of the people, a portion of whom have placed my name before the country, for the highest office in their gift, without any agency of mine in the matter, and if they should think proper to drop me and take another, which they ought to do, provided they can fix on a more available candidate, and one better qualified to serve them, and cast their votes for him at the proper time, and should succeed in electing him, it will neither be a source of mortification or disappointment to me. On the contrary, if he is honest, truthful, and patriotic, I will rejoice at the result. And I can say, in all sincerity, that should you receive the nomination of the Whig National Convention, which is to meet in Philadelphia in June, and should be elected in November, but few of your friends will be more gratified than myself. And should you be unsuccessful, and should it be thought your being a candidate had the effect of preventing my election, it will not produce the slightest feeling of unkindness toward you, but I will continue to cherish those kind feelings which I have entertained for you for many years, which I hope are reciprocal.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 557-60

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green, April 17, 1847*

Fort Hill 17th April 1847

MY DEAR SIR, The mistake, which I think you and the most of my friends make in reference to myself is, that you do not fully realize how completely I hold my own advancement subordinate to what I deem my duty to the Country. Even in the ardour of youthful aspiration, when the Presidency was an object of desire, I never could bring my mind to yield to a measure, or course of policy, which I thought wrong, to obtain that high office; much less can I now, when it is no longer to me an object of desire. Had I arrived at the Presidency by any other way, than an upright, and fearless discharge of what I conscienciously believed to be my duty, I would have been much more flexible, and under the influence of friends; but as it is, when I do not agree with any one portion, they have been too apt to suppose, that I had been influenced by those, with whom I happen to agree. You make this mistake as to my course in 1840. It may be, that the motives of those on the occassion, to which you refer, was such as you suppose; but, be that as it may, in making up my opinion, I had no consultation with them, nor had their opinion in relation to the subject to which you refer, the least influence with me. I am always happy to hear the opinion of my friends and often avail myself of their suggestions, in modifying my course; but rarely ever in taking it. I have said thus much, because, I think, you not infrequently fall into error, in attributing, what is the result of my deliberate judgement to the influence of others.

I entirely agree with you, that the Presidential election ought to be held in reserve, with the restriction, that no one of the old hunkers or their nominee by the Baltimore convention, shall get our support. I regard that portion of the party, as incurably corrupt. In their folly and profligacy they made the Mexican war, without seeing, that the successful general will ever be sure to turn the party, in this country, out of power, which makes a war. They began to see it, when it was too late, and hence their desire to have a Lieut General and to strike a blow at Genl Taylor during the last session. And hence, also, the sending of Genl Scott, in the hope of exciting their mutual Jealousy and dividing their political friends on the Presidential question. Indeed, the movements, on the part of both parties, have looked to that exclusively. It is to be hoped, that the very few, who look exclusively to the country, by taking an independent stand, and keeping in reserve their influence, may finally throw it, where something may be done to advance the publick good.

I am glad to learn, that you have closed a satisfactory arrangement, about your mountain property, and I hope that your expectation will be realized, but let me repeat my hope, expressed on a former occasion, that you will not engage in publishing a paper, unless you can see your way clearly. Your first duty is to your family.

My Charleston friends appear disposed to make an effort to raise the necessary funds to establish a paper for the support of the South, on a solid basis, provided the other Southern States will cooperate, or at least a part of them. But, I fear, that their attention is so much absorbed in the events of the Mexican war, and that they are so much entangled by their party connections, that nothing will be done.

_______________

* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 727-8

 

Senator John C. Calhoun to Thomas G. Clemson, May 6, 1847

Fort Hill 6th May 1847

MY DEAR SIR, I am very happy to hear by yours by the Cambria, that you are all well.

The views you take in reference to Ritchie, and the position in which it has placed me in reference to the hunker portion of the party are perfectly correct. They are incurably corrupt; and I am glad to be seperated from them by their own act. It places me on ground perfectly independent of either party; to act according to the dictates of my own judgement. The days of hunkerism is numbered. Mr Polk is the last of the dynasty. It never can rise again to power. The folly and the vice of the party have destroyed it. He sought by the Mexican war to perpetuate the power of the party, but it will prove the means of his and their overthrow. As things now stand, he will make Taylor his successor by making the war. It has made him the available candidate, and that of itself will be sufficient to rally a majority around him. Indeed, it would seem to be an established principle with us, that the party in power, which makes war, will be sure to be turned out of power by it; — if successful, by the successful General; and if not, by the opposition. When that comes to be understood, as it will be, if Taylor should be elected, we never again shall have a war, when it can be averted. Had the administration had sufficient sagacity to see it, Taylor never would have been ordered to the del Norte, and there would have been no war. As much as I am opposed to military chieftains for presidents, I shall, thus thinking, be content to see him elected against Mr Polk, or any one, who contributed to make the war; and, let me add, against the nominee of a convention, either democrat, or Whig. But I go no farther. I shall stand fast on my own doctrines, and act in conformity to them, in any emergency, including the Presidential. It is the only way, by which I can serve the country and preserve my character. . . .

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 728-9

Henry Clay to Henry White, May 23, 1848

ASHLAND, May 23, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — I received your kind letter of the 19th instant, and I feel greatly obliged by the confidence in me which it evinces. You desire, in the event of there not being a majority of the Whig Convention disposed to nominate me, to know who among the distinguished names before the Convention would be my first, second and third choice. I have hitherto maintained a position of entire impartiality between my competitors for the nomination. It was dictated by considerations of delicacy toward them. I do not think that I ought to deviate from it. To you, as soon as to any friend I have, I would make the desired communication, if I were not restrained by the motives suggested.

I hope that your apprehensions of a stormy Convention will not be realized; but that it will be found animated by a spirit of concord and patriotism, and seeking to do the best it can for our common country.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 561

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

Willis Hall to Henry Clay, June 1848

NEW YORK, June, 1848.

MY DEAR MR. CLAY, — I write to you in the fullness of my heart, not to condole with you, for though I feel all the personal regard toward you which one man can feel for another, personal considerations are absorbed in those of a public nature.

The Presidency could have added nothing to your fame, and would have detracted much from your comfort.

This Government has had a national existence but little more than sixty years, during nearly forty of which it has been guided by your counsels. Glorious period! You may justly regard it with exultation! During this period you have demonstrated the great problem of the feasibility and permanency of popular government, and almost every nation in Europe, incited by the example, is now convulsed with the effort to imitate it. During this period you have impressed upon the country that high and honorable spirit in our intercourse with foreign nations, that spirit of conciliation and union among the States which have preserved us at home and made us respected abroad.

The uninterrupted and unprecedented prosperity of our national career has not been the work of accident. Three times, at least, the car of state would have taken the wrong road, if not the road to destruction, but for your guiding hand: once in 1810–12, once in 1819-20, once in 1830–31. Will no emergency of the kind ever occur again? When the next storm howls around us, this people, guilty and appalled, will shrink back covered with fear and dismay at the mischief they have done. You may say without arrogance, "Weep not for me, but rather weep for yourselves!" As the scroll of our history unrolls itself, your times will stand out in bold and bolder relief until it becomes the golden age of some future people, perhaps as unlike the present as the miserable herd that now defile the streets of Rome are unlike the associates of the elder Brutus. Convulsions and sterility immediately and abruptly following a tract of rich and elevated fertility, make the period of your counsels a stand mark to all future time.

We are on the eve of great events. Slavery will now become an immediate and bitter subject of dispute, and will not be relinquished until it is extinguished or the Union dissolved. I feel little disposition to commiserate the sufferings of the slave region. They have brought it upon themselves; they have thrust slavery upon us in the most offensive way; the policy of slavery governs all their actions; their conduct in the Convention will not be forgotten; the means they have taken to render themselves as they fancied more secure on this subject, has precipitated the discussion accompanied with an acrimony which will not tend to a friendly adjustment. The Whigs in this quarter every where are joining the Barnburners, ready to make the slave question the great issue in future. The next Presidential election (four years hence) will turn upon that point. A. Barnburner will be elected.

The Whig party, as such, is dead. The very name will be abandoned, should Taylor be elected, for "the Taylor party." The last Whig Convention committed the double crime of suicide and parricide. I loved that party, and whenever and wherever I shall hereafter discover any portion of my fellow-citizens guided by its principles, I shall attach myself to them; meantime I consider myself absolved from all political connection.

It was resolved to have a ratification meeting here as usual. The General Committee met on Monday evening, they were surrounded by more than three thousand people spontaneously collected, and the Committee was compelled to postpone the meeting indefinitely, in hopes that General Taylor's letter of acceptance will place himself more distinctly upon Whig ground. They will wait in vain. The Taylorites begin to think Taylor's election is not quite as certain as they supposed.

I hasten to the sole object of this long letter, which is to assure you of my undiminished and unalterable regard. Mrs. Hall begs me to join her in the expression of these sentiments and the respectful assurances of our highest esteem.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 563-5

Henry Clay to James Harlan of Kentucky, June 22, 1848

ASHLAND, June 22, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR, — I wished much to see you, and hope soon to meet you. I got your letter from Choles' on your way home, and I have received to-day your favor of the 20th with the newspaper you sent me. Judge Robertson has returned, and has given me much information; but there are some points which you can best elucidate.

I shall take no active or partisan part in the canvass, but remain quiet, submitting to what has been done so far as relates to myself. I think this is the course prompted by self-respect and personal dignity. I shall attend no ratification meetings. How can I sanction and approve what the seven delegates from Kentucky did in the Convention, without virtually condemning what the five delegates did? How can I publicly and warmly support a candidate who declared that, in a reversal of conditions, he would not have supported, but opposed me? I am not misled by the humbuggery of the Louisiana delegates. What credentials, what instructions had they? They showed none, and had none.

In November, if I am spared, I shall, with all the lights then before me, go to the polls and vote for that candidate whose election I believe will be least prejudicial to the country. Of course I can never vote for Cass.

It is too soon to form any satisfactory opinion as to the issue of the contest. Neither candidate seems to be entirely acceptable to the party which supports him. And I suppose that party will probably succeed between whose members there will be ultimately the least division and the greatest intermediate reconciliation.

P. S. The Governor very handsomely tendered me the Executive appointment to the Senate, which I this day declined accepting.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 565-6

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

Senator John C. Calhoun to Thomas G. Clemson, July 8, 1847

Fort Hill 8th July 1847

MY DEAR SIR, There is not much to be added about politicks to what I wrote you last. The difference between North and South is daily increasing, in reference to the Slave question. It is hard to say to what it is destined to come. From every appearance, it will at least break up the old party organization. The indication is daily becoming stronger, in favour of General Taylor. The administration is evidently greatly alarmed at his popularity. Their fate is, however, sealed, whatever may become of the General.

The prevailing opinion seems to be, that there will be peace ere long. I regard it, as doubtful. I have no doubt, but the administration is most anxious for it, and that Mexicans desire it, but when they come to fix on terms, there will be great difficulty in agreeing. The former must insist, after so much blood and treasury, on a large cession of territory, and the latter will feel great repugnance to such cession. But be the terms, what they may, our difficulty within, will commence with the termination of those with Mexico.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 735

Senator John C. Calhoun to Thomas G. Clemson, July 24, 1847

Fort Hill 24th July 1847

MY DEAR SIR, We have had little of publick interest of late. The Mexican war has been at a stand. There is ever[y] now and then a movement in favour of General Taylor. The indication still is, that he will be the popular candidate, in opposition to the caucus nominees. I think with you, that my position is the most eligible of all the publick men of our country. It is the only independent one; and I can see symptoms, that it begins to be felt.

I do not in the least doubt, but that you are right, as to the European terminus of our steam boat line; or as to the means, by which it was selected. It was done as everything with us is done, through favouritism.

It is appearent, that the conflict between North and South is every day becoming more pointed and determined. If nothing else should be in the way it, of itself, will do much to break up the old party organizations.

All join in love to you and Anna and the children. Tell them how happy Grandfather is to hear that they are so well, and are such good children.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 735-6

Senator John C. Calhoun to Thomas G. Clemson, September 6, 1847

Fort Hill 6th Sept 1847

MY DEAR SIR, I agree with you, that the political condition of all western Europe is very unsettled, and especially France. Nor are we much better off. Our future is very uncertain. The old parties are disorganized. The administration weak; and the termination of the Mexican war, and what will grow out of it, uncertain. We must wait for the developements of the next 12 months to know where we are. In the meantime, Clay and his friends are making a great effort to bring him out again, as a candidate, and will probably succeed. Taylor has lost ground greatly, and will probably be ruled off. He has written too many letters, and some of them very illy advised. Wright has died,¹ — a severe blow to the Hunkers; and Benton is denouncing the administration, whether to break with them, or control them is uncertain; probably the latter. We (the State rights party) are making an effort to establish an independent press at Washington, as the organ of the South. A large amount has already been subscribed, and it is hoped, it will be in operation by the meeting of Congress.

_______________

¹ Silas Wright died August 27, 1847.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 736-7

Senator Henry Clay to George William Curtis, July 4, 1848

ASHLAND, July 4, 1848.

DEAR SIR,—I comply so far with the request contained in your note of the 23d ultimo, as to acknowledge its receipt, and to say that, submitting to the decision of the Philadelphia Convention, so far as I was personally affected by it, I can not give my countenance or encouragement to the use of my name in connection with the Presidency. Abstaining from the expression of any opinion in regard to the nomination which was actually made, I will only observe that Ohio, Indiana, and Massachusetts, and other Northern States, had it in their power to prevent it, if they had chosen to unite upon one whose attachment to the Whig cause was never doubted; but they did not think proper to do so. Ought they then to complain of what was done, upon the ground that General Taylor is not pledged to the support of Whig measures and principles?

I tender my thanks to you for the friendly sentiments toward me which you were kind enough to express, and I am, etc.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 568-9

Senator Henry Clay to Susan Allibone, July 19, 1848

ASHLAND, July 19, 1848.

If I have not before written to you, my dear Miss Susan, I pray you to believe that my silence has not proceeded from any want of regard to you or from any insensibility to the kindness which you have displayed toward me, in your obliging letter of the 4th March last, and in presenting me with the valuable writings of Archbishop Leighton.

With perfect truth and candor I say that I have rarely ever made a visit to any individual in my life that afforded me higher satisfaction than that which I derived from seeing you. Your physical misfortunes, your resignation to the will of our Maker, your gentle and intelligent countenance, and your interesting conversation, all combined to give to the short interview I had with you a thrilling interest. I have oftentimes thought of it, and have frequently described the touching scene to my friends.

I have looked enough into the volume which you kindly sent me to be convinced that it merits your high commendation of it; and I intend to give the whole of it an attentive perusal.

I am very thankful, dear Miss Susan, for the friendly manner in which you allude to the domestic afflictions with which it has pleased Providence to visit me. I have had a large share of them. Since my return home another has been added to the former number in the death of a most promising grandson, at New Orleans, under circumstances which greatly aggravated our grief. I am happy, however, to tell you, on the other hand, that the sweet little granddaughter, whose case of spinal affection I mentioned to you, is much better, runs about with the free use of her limbs, and we hope will have her strength and health fully re-established. In behalf of her I thank you for the little book which you had the goodness to send her. She is yet too young to read it herself, but I trust that she will be spared to be able hereafter to peruse it. In the mean time her excellent mother will make her familiar with its contents.

Relieved as I am now from the cares, the troubles and the responsibilities of public life, I hope to profit by retirement in making those preparations for another and better world which are enjoined upon us by our highest and eternal interests. In these, your example of perfect submission and complete obedience will be constantly remembered by me, with great benefit and advantage. Instead of condoling with me, as some of my friends have, on account of my failure to obtain the nomination at the. late Philadelphia Convention, their congratulations on the event would have been more seasonable and appropriate.

I request you to present my respectful regards to your brothers and their families; and accept for yourself my prayers that He who has enabled you so calmly and cheerfully to bear up under the heavy privations which you suffer, may continue His watchful care over you to the end, and that we may both hereafter meet in the regions of eternal bliss.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 569-70

Major General Winfield Scott to Senator Henry Clay, July 19, 1848

ELIZABETHTOWN, N. J., July 19, 1848.

MY DEAR MR. CLAY,—I have been most unfortunate in respect to your very kind note to me of May 30, addressed to this place. It followed me to Frederick, Md., then to Washington, a second time to Frederick, thence to Leonardstown (our friend John Lee's post-office), and after lying there long after I had left his hospitable mansion, it has finally just overtaken me here, viâ Washington.

It is now sixty days since I landed on the Jersey shore, with a Mexican disease upon me, and although obliged to travel and to engage in the most vexatious and disgusting work, I have not had the strength to walk three hundred yards at once in the whole time. I am still very feeble, and go to-morrow to the sea shore to gain vigor to meet the same court (nearly) in my own case, at the beginning of the next month.

I left Mexico in the comfortable belief that the choice of a Whig candidate for the Presidency had been narrowed down to two names, yours and that of General Taylor, and that you would be the nominee. The day after I landed a distinguished public man from a wing of the Capitol, a friend of yours, passing by got out of the train to see me. I stated my impressions and wishes to him, and was astonished to hear him say that your friends in Congress, with four exceptions—Berrien and Botts, but no Kentuckians, were two of them—had given you up on some calculation of a want of availability! I promptly said, if I could be flattered into the belief that my name on the same ticket (below yours) would add the vote of a single State, I might be considered as at the service of the party, and authorized him to say so on his return to Washington, notwithstanding my reluctance to change my army commission, etc. In a day or two I went to Washington, visited Frederick and returned, but I was confined to a sick bed, and, although I saw many political men, I was not in a condition to converse or to exercise the slightest influence. I believe the impression was quite general that I was not likely to recover. At the end of a week, however, I got back, with difficulty, to Frederick, and there the nomination of General Taylor reached me.

If he shall frankly accept the nomination as a Whig, with a pledge to administer the Government on the principles of the party, I shall fervently pray for his success. If not, I shall at least be indifferent.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 570-1

Senator Henry Clay to James Harlan, August 5, 1848

ASHLAND, August 5, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR,—I received, at the Estell Springs (from which I returned yesterday), your favor transmitting a sketch of Mr. ———’s speech at Versailles, for which I thank you.

How derogatory is it for politicians to attempt to ridicule and degrade themselves in the presence of General Taylor! And how inconsistent is it to denounce party in the same breath in which the Whig party is called on to support the General as a Whig, that is, a party man! It is mortifying to behold that once great party descending from its lofty position of principle, known, avowed and proclaimed principle, and lending itself to the creation of a mere personal party, with a virtual abandonment of its old principles.

I have a letter from General Scott in which he states that he authorized, on his landing from Mexico, a distinguished gentleman from Washington, to say that he was willing to run as a candidate for the Vice Presidency on the ticket with me.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 571-2

Senator Henry Clay to Nicholas Dean, August 24, 1848

ASHLAND, August 24, 1848.

MY DEAR SIR,—I duly received, and perused with lively interest and gratitude, your friendly letter of the 27th ultimo.

The Whig party presents an anomalous condition. Without any candidate who recognizes his obligation to conform to their principles, the members of it are called upon as a party to support the no-party candidate; and I have been urgently and repeatedly appealed to, to indorse as a Whig General Taylor, who, while he adopts the name in a modified form, repudiates the principles of the party! I need not say, that I have done, and shall do, no such thing. Self-respect, consistency with deliberate opinions long ago formed, and my sense of public duty, will restrain me from taking any prominent or active part in the canvass. Whatever I may do, I will not expose myself to any reproaches from those if there be any such—who might be misled by my opinion. I have submitted quietly to the decision of the Convention, and beyond that I feel under no obligations.

I consider my public career as forever terminated, and I am most anxious to preserve untarnished that character, around which so many warm-hearted friends have done me the honor to rally. I should, I think, justly incur their censure if, after all that I have thought and said (confirmed as my convictions are by observation) against the elevation of mere military men to the Presidency, could I come out in the active support of the most exclusively military candidate ever presented to the American people; one, too, who has forced himself upon the Convention, or been forced upon it. One who declared that he would stand as an independent candidate against me, or any other Whig that might be nominated—a declaration made under his own hand, and which remains uncontradicted by any thing under his own hand, which the public has been permitted to see.

I do not mean to intimate what may be my final vote, given quietly at the polls, if I vote at all; that will depend upon a view of all existing circumstances at the time; but neither now nor then do I desire to influence any body else.

There is nothing in the contest to arouse my patriotism, or to animate my zeal. I regard the attempt to elect General Taylor as one to create a mere personal party. How such a party may work, I can not foresee; possibly better than that of either of his competitors; but this possibility is not sufficient to excite any warmth or enthusiasm with me. General Taylor has, I think, exhibited much instability and vascillation. He will inevitably fall into the hands of others, who will control his Administration. I know not who they will be, but judging from my experience of poor, weak human nature, they will be most likely those who will have favored and flattered the most.

Standing proud and erect in the consciousness of having faithfully fulfilled all my public duties, and supported and cheered by numberless intelligent and warm-hearted friends in all parts of the country, I acquiesce in the retirement in which I expect to pass the remnant of my life. Some of those friends may censure me for the inaction which I have prescribed to myself during the present canvass; but if they do, I appeal to their "sober second thoughts," or to the impartial tribunal of posterity. I am, etc.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 572-3