Congressman Horace Mann, July 20, 1850

WASHINGTON, July 20, 1850.

I suppose the Cabinet work is done, and that Mr. Webster is to be Secretary of State. This is to be regretted for a thousand reasons; but there are some aspects of the case in which it may argue well for a settlement of the hostile questions which now agitate the country. Mr. Webster will be very acceptable to the South for the very reason that he has made himself offensive to the North. I only hope it will eventuate for the good of the country.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 308

Congressman Horace Mann, July 21, 1850

July 21. Four of the seven members who compose the cabinet are from the slaveholding States: so, if we consider Mr. Webster a proslavery man, they have five out of seven. But one thing is very observable, though four are from the slaveholding States, yet one is from Missouri, one from Kentucky, one from Maryland, and one from North Carolina. All these are just south of Mason and Dixon's line; and they are from the States that hold slavery in its more mitigated forms, and not one of them is an intense proslavery State. The men selected are, I suppose, moderate men, comparatively, on this subject. Therefore, though the South have no confidence in Mr. Webster as an honest man, yet his late change of position on this subject renders him less offensive to the extreme men, and more acceptable to the moderate men.

If Mr. Fillmore has taken this course to conciliate the South in the first instance, and, with his Cabinet, eventually to subserve Northern feeling on this subject of slavery, then the whole may eventuate well; but if it is a concession to the South, on the surface, to be followed by an adoption of their views as to slavery ultimately, then it deserves all reprobation. For myself, I shall not give my confidence to this Administration, on this point, until it earns it. When it does earn it, then, as a matter of justice, I shall no longer withhold it; though, in the honesty of one of the members composing it, I have not, and probably never shall have, the slightest confidence. I therefore await developments. It has proved, so far, a godsend to Mr. Webster; for I do not believe he could have withstood the opposition against him in Massachusetts. Now, instead of being defeated, he escapes from the conflict. Still I can have no confidence in his ultimate success; for no one can safely prophesy success of a dishonest man.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 308-9

Senator Daniel Webster to Franklin Haven, Thursday Morning, July 11, 1850—8:00 a.m.

Washington, July 11, 1850. Thursday morning, eight o'clock.

MY DEAR SIR,—It is not easy to say what will be the extent of the changes in consequence of General Taylor's death, and Mr. Fillmore's accession. It is at this moment supposed that there will be an entirely new Cabinet. Certainly not more than one or two can remain. Who will succeed to the vacant places, I have no means of saying with any certainty. One thing I feel sure of, and that is that they will be sound men. The President is a sensible man, and a conservative Whig, and is not likely to be in favor of any "isms," such as have votaries at the present day.

I believe Mr. Fillmore favors the Compromise, and there is no doubt that recent events have increased the probability of the passage of that measure. Nothing will be done in congress this week. The funeral ceremonies will take all that remains of it.

P. S. Two o'clock.—I am rather confirmed in the expectation of a total change. Beyond this I know little, and nothing which I can communicate. The idea is now general that the Compromise will go through. I have a few words to say on Monday or Tuesday.

Yours truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 376

Senator Daniel Webster to Franklin Haven, Friday Morning, July 12, 1850

Washington, July 12, 1850. Friday morning.

MY DEAR SIR,—You will hear various rumors respecting appointments to the Cabinet, but none of them will deserve credit any further than they rest on general probability. Nothing is decided as yet. The present Cabinet have all tendered their resignations, but they will not be answered till after the funeral.

The three important departments are State, Treasury, and Interior. I have no doubt some man known to be thoroughly sound in revenue matters, will be appointed to the Treasury. As to the State Department, I have no idea who will have it, although, if the power were with me, I think I could find a man¹ without going out of Massachusetts, who has talent enough, and knowledge enough; but whether he is at this moment so fresh in the minds of the people that his appointment would strike the public mind favorably, may be a doubt. Nobody can well be Secretary of State who has not fortune, unless he be a bachelor. The Secretary of State is the head of the administration, and he must have a house, sometimes to receive guests in. He is of course necessarily in daily communication with the diplomatic corps, which I believe is twice as numerous now as it was twenty years ago.

My dear Sir, you see the spirit of good-will which is manifesting itself here. This is the golden hour of opportunity, be assured. The opposition gentlemen are determined, all the conservative part of them at least, to give the administration fair play; and Mr. Fillmore is well-intentioned and discreet. He will meet with annoyances from the rather overbearing spirit of a certain quarter, but I hope he will stand stiff. If he is successful in forming his administration, I verily believe a prospect is before us for a better state of things than we have enjoyed for twenty years. Yours truly,

DAN'L WEBSTER.

_______________

¹ Mr. Everett.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 376-7

Senator John J. Crittenden to Albert T. Burnley, July 19, 1850

July 19, 1850.

DEAR BURNLEY,—I returned from Louisville last evening, where I was suddenly summoned a few days ago to attend the sick and, as was then supposed, dying bed of my son-in-law, Chapman Coleman. I left him much improved, and, as the doctors induced me to hope, out of danger, though still quite ill. This absence delayed the receipt of your telegraphic dispatches, in which you ask me if I will accept the office of Attorney-General, and say that it is important I should answer immediately. A little reflection will show you the difficulty of answering this communication with the telegraphic brevity of a "yes" or "no." Indeed, I find much of the same difficulty in responding to you in any mode. You are upon the spot, and with a nearer and better view of the condition of things. You give me no intimation of your opinions or wishes; nor do you give me to understand that the inquiry was made at the suggestion or by the authority of the President or any other official. I must therefore understand it as more an inquiry of your own, in order, perhaps, to enable you and other friends to press me more effectually for the office. If this be the object and purpose, I could not answer you affirmatively without in substance seeking the office for myself. That I am not willing to do, either in form or substance, directly or indirectly. I would not, for any consideration subject myself to the imputation of endeavoring to force or solicit my way into the cabinet of Mr. Fillmore. There are stations that can be neither agreeably nor usefully occupied except by persons having the personal good will and confidence of the President. My relations with Mr. Fillmore have always been of the most agreeable and amicable character, and I hope they may continue so. It seems to me that if he pleased to desire my acceptance of the office of Attorney-General, the most proper course would be for him to tender it to me; and that the most proper and becoming course for me would be to wait till it was tendered. The tender would then be most honorable to both parties, and certainly most gratefully received by me. I feel that before such an offer it would be indelicate in me to say that I would or would NOT accept. You will appreciate all this without any explanation, and so I shall leave the subject. There is no confidence, Burnley, that I fear to repose in you; and if it should appear to you that there is too much of reserve in this letter to be used towards an old and well-tried friend, I wish you to understand that it is intended to apply to the subject only, and to keep distinct and clear the line of conduct that I sincerely desire to pursue in relation to this matter.

My situation now is not exactly what it was when I declined an invitation to go into the cabinet of General Taylor; and to you, as my friend, my personal friend, I may say that my impression is that I should accept the office if tendered to me; but I will have no agency in seeking or getting it; nor do I wish my friends to place me in any attitude that can be construed into any such seeking; nor do I wish them to give themselves any trouble about the matter. If the offer of the office comes freely and without solicitation, then it comes honorably, and may be taken the more honorably. I think you will now understand me fully, and I have only to add that I am always your friend,

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

To A. T. BURNLEY, Esq.

SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 1, p. 374-5

William Jay to Gerrit Smith, November 9, 1852

Bedford, November 9, 1852.

My Dear Sir — Rarely have I been so delightfully astonished as by the intelligence of your election. What a rebuke of the vile pledge given by the Baltimore convention to resist all anti-slavery discussions in Congress or out of it, wherever, whenever, however, and under whatever shape or color it may be attempted! What a scorn is it on the atrocious effort of Fillmore and his Cabinet to convict of the capital crime of levying war against the United States, a peaceful, conscientious man, merely because he refused to aid in the villainy of catching slaves, that you, an undoubted traitor according to Webster's exposition of the constitution, should be sent, not to the gallows, but to Congress!

How must our Cotton Parsons mourn over the irreligion of Madison and Oswego, represented in the councils of the nation by a man who openly avows a higher law than the constitution, and who preaches that obedience to an accursed Act of Congress is rebellion against God!

You and I, my dear sir, very honestly differ in opinion on some points, but we cordially agree as to the diabolism of American slavery and the fugitive slave act; and most sincerely do I rejoice in your election.

May the blessings of the Almighty rest upon you, and may He give you wisdom from on high, to direct you in the discharge of your new duties; and may he deliver you from that fear of man which is at once the snare and the curse of almost all our public men.

Your friend,

William Jay.

SOURCES: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 214