ASHLAND, April 15, 1848.
MY DEAR SIR, — I received to-day your favor of the 10th instant. Prior to this you will have received my note addressed to the public announcing my assent to the submission of my name to the consideration of the National Convention. It so fully explained my views and feelings that I have nothing to add to it. I do not see how it is possible for any exception to be taken to it.
I concur with you in regretting the course of the "National Intelligencer" in regard to the French Revolution; but I think it ought not to operate, and I hope it will not to the prejudice of the Whig party. The editors expressly disclaim being the organ of that party, and the resolutions of congratulation to the French people have been passed, in both houses of Congress, by almost unanimous votes. My own opinion is, that our sympathies and congratulations were due to the French people for the Revolution which they had effected. In expressing these sentiments, we should not have been committed to the sanction of any future excesses which may be perpetrated in the progress of the revolution, if any such should unfortunately occur. My hope is that the foreign powers, profiting by the folly of their former interference with France, will abstain from all exterior pressure upon her, and that she, profiting by the errors which were committed in the former Revolution, will peacefully establish, without the spilling of blood, a free Government upon the basis of popular representation.
No one can doubt my feelings and sympathies who has any recollection of the course which I took in regard to the Spanish American Republics, and to Greece. While France has my cordial and hearty wishes for the triumphant establishment of liberty, I shall be ready to express the deepest regrets, if the Revolution should take an unfortunate turn.
I request you to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Haight.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 560
