This may be regarded as a sure omen of the glorious triumph which awaits the republican banner in the Keystone state.
SOURCE: “The passage of the tariff bill,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 3.
In presenting
ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the National Republican Convention, as a candidate for the
Presidency, were are actuated not by our great love and esteem for the man, by
any open or secret hostility to any other of the eminent gentlemen named for
that high office, nor by a feeling of State pride or Western sectionalism, but
by a profound and well matured conviction that his unexceptionable record, his
position between the extremes of opinion in the party, his spotless character
as a citizen and his acknowledge ability as a statesman, will, in the
approaching canvass, give him an advantage before the people which no other
candidate can claim. We are not disposed to deny that Mr. SEWARD, is the
question of availability being set aside, the first choice of perhaps a
majority of the rank and file of the party; that Gen. CAMERON has claims upon
Pennsylvania which his friends will not willingly have overlooked; that the
statesman like qualities, inflexible honesty and marked executive ability of
SALMON P. CHASE entitle him to a high place in Republican esteem; that Mr.
BATES’ pure life and noble aims justly command the confidence of troops of
friends; that the chivalric WADE has extorted the admiration of the North and
West; that FESSENDEN, for his gallant service but be gratefully remembers; and
that JOHN McLEAN, whose life is without a stain and whose love of country has
never been challenged, must be remembered as a strong and unexceptional man.
But Illinois claims that Mr. LINCOLN, though without the ripe experience of
SEWARD, the age and maturity of BATES and McLEAN, or the fire of FESSENDEN and
WADE, has the rare and happy combination of qualities which, as a candidate, enables him to outrank
either.
I. By his own
motion, he is not a candidate. He has never sought, directly or indirectly, for
the first or second place on the ticket. The movement in his favor is
spontaneous. It has sprung up suddenly and with great strength, its roots being
in the conviction that he is the man to reconcile all difference in our ranks,
to conciliate all the now jarring elements, and to lead forward to certain
victory. Having never entered into the field, he has put forth no personal
effort for success, and he has never made, even by implication, a pledge of any
sort by which his action, if he is President, will be influenced for any man,
any measure, any policy. He will enter upon the contest with no clogs, no
embarrassment; and this fact is a guaranty of a glorious triumph.
II. In all the
fundamentals of Republicanism, he is radical up to the limit to which the
party, with due respect for the rights of the South, proposes to go. But nature
has given him that wise conservatism which has made his action and his
expressed opinions so conform to the most mature sentiment of the country on
the question of slavery, that no living man can put his finger on one of his
speeches or any one of his public acts as a State legislator or as a member of
Congress, to which valid objection can be raised. His avoidance of extremes has
not been the result of ambition which measures words or regulates acts but the natural
consequence of an equable nature and in mental constitution that is never off
its balance. While no one doubts the strength of his attachments to the
Republican cause, or doubts that he is a representative man, all who know him
see that he occupies the happy mean between that alleged radicalism which binds
the older Anti-Slavery men to Mr. Seward, and that conservatism which dictates
the support of Judge Bates. Seward men, Bates men, Cameron men and Chase men
can all accept him as their second choice, and be sure that in him they have
the nearest approach to what they most admire in their respective favorites,
which any possible compromise will enable them to obtain.
III. Mr. LINCOLN has
no new record to make. Originally a Whig, though early a recruit of the great Republican
party, he has nothing to explain for the satisfaction of New Jersey,
Pennsylvania or the West. His opinions and votes on the Tariff will be
acceptable to all sections except the extreme South, where Republicanism
expects no support. Committed within proper limitations set up by economy and
constitutional obligation to the improvement of rivers and harbors, to that
most beneficent measure, the Homestead bill, and to the speedy construction of
the Pacific Railroad, he need write no letters to soften down old asperities,
growing out of these questions which must inevitably play their part in the
canvas before us. He is all that Pennsylvania and the West have a right to
demand.
IV. He is a Southern
man by birth and education, who has never departed from the principles which he
learned from the statesmen of the period in which he first saw the light. A
Kentuckian, animated by the hopes that bring the Kentucky delegation here, a
Western man, to whom sectionalism is unknown, he is that candidate around whom
all opponents of the extension of Human Slavery, North and South, can rally.
V. Mr. LINCOLN is a
man of the people. For his position, he is not indebted to family influence,
the partiality of friends or the arts of the politician. All his early life a
laborer in the field, in the saw-mill, as a boatman on the Wabash, Ohio, and
Mississippi, as a farmer in Illinois, he has that sympathy with the men who
toil and vote that will make him
strong. Later a valiant soldier in the Black Hawk war, a student in a law
office, bonding his great powers to overcome the defects of early training;
then a legislator, and at last a brilliant advocate, in the highest courts, and
a popular leader in the great movement of the age, there is enough of romance
and poetry in life to fill all the land with shouting and song. Honest Old Abe!
Himself an outgrowth of free institutions, he would die in the effort to
preserve to others, unimpaired, the inestimable blessings by which he has been
made a man.
VI. Without a stain
of Know-Nothingism on his skirts, he is acceptable to the mass of the American
party who, this year, will be compelled to choose between the candidate of
Chicago and the nominee of Baltimore. The experience of two years has proved
their error and his wisdom. They want the chance to retrieve the blunders of
the past. Endeared by his manly defence of the principles of the Declaration
of Independence to the citizen of foreign birth, he could command the warm
support of every one of them from whom, in any contingency, a Republican vote
can be expected.
VII. Mr. LINCOLN is
an honest man. We know that the adage “Praise overmuch is censure in disguise”
is true; and we know, too, that it is the disgrace of the age that in the
popular mind, politics and chicane, office and faithlessness go hand in hand.
We run great risk then in saying of Mr. Lincoln what truth inexorably demands,—that
in his life of 51 years, there is no act of a public or private character, of
which his most malignant enemy can say “this is dishonest,” “this is mean.”
With his record, partizanship [sic] has
done its worst and the result we have stated. His escutcheon is without a blemish.
VIII. After saying
so much, we need not add that Mr. LINCOLN can be elected, if placed before the people with the approbation of the
Convention to meet tomorrow. In New England, where Republicanism pure and
simple is demanded, and where he has lately electrified the people by his eloquence,
his name would be a tower of strength. New York who clings with an ardent
embrace to that great statesman, her first choice, would not refuse to adopt
Mr. LINCOLN as a standard bearer worthy of the holy cause. Pennsylvania,
satisfied with his views in regard to the present necessity of fostering domestic
interests, and the constitutional moderation of his opinions upon slavery,
would come heartily into his support.
The West is the
child of the East, and aside from her local pride in one of the noblest of her
sons, she would not fail by her plaudits to exalt and intensify the enthusiasm
which the nomination of Honest Old Abe would be sure to excite. The West has no
rivalry with the East except in the patriotic endeavor to do the most for the
Republican cause. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin desire
no triumph in which the East does not share—no victory over which the East may
not honestly exult. In a contest for Lincoln, they will fight with zeal and
hope that has never before animated the Republican hosts.
We present our
candidate, then, not as the rival of this man or that, not because the West has
claims which she must urge; not because of a distinctive policy which she would
see enforced; not because he is the first choice of a majority; but because he
is that honest man, that representative Republican, that people’s candidate,
whose life, position, record, are so many guarantys [sic] of success—because he is that patriot in whose hands the
interests of the government may be safely confided. Nominated, he would, we
believe, be triumphantly elected; but if another, in the wisdom of the
Convention, is preferred we can pledge him to labor, as an honest and effective
as any that he ever done for himself, for the man of the Convention’s choice.
SOURCE: “President
Making,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15,
1860, p. 2, col. 1-2
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 1851.
MY DEAR MR. COMBE, — . . . I have nothing to write on political subjects that can afford any gratification to a humanity-loving man. In 1848, there was a great inflowing of the sentiment of liberty, both in Europe and in this country. You have already experienced the ebbing of that tide in Europe, and it has receded as much relatively in this hemisphere as in yours. Notwithstanding the inherent and radical wickedness of some of the compromise measures, as they were called, yet the most strenuous efforts are making by the Administration to force the Whig party to their adoption and support. It is a concerted movement between those who are ready to sacrifice liberty for office and those who are ready to make the same sacrifice for money. From the day of Mr. Webster's open treachery and apostasy (if indeed he had political virtue enough to be an apostate), he has been urging the idea upon New England Whigs, that, if they could give up freedom, they might have a tariff. This has wrought numberless conversions among those who think it a sin not to be rich. They say in their hearts, "The South wants cotton to sell, and must have negroes to produce it; we want cotton to manufacture, and so we must have negroes to raise it: slavery is equally indispensable to us both." So both are combining to uphold it. Before Texas was annexed, the whole Democratic party at the North denounced it. As soon as that was done, they wheeled round like a company of well-drilled soldiers at the word of command, and supported it. I fear the great body of the Whig party will do no better as regards these infamous proslavery measures. Party allegiance here has very much the effect of loyalty with you. It has the power to change the nature of right and wrong. I profess to belong to none of the parties. I have given in my adherence to certain great principles; and by them I stand, not only in independence, but in defiance of parties. I should like to send you a copy of my letters. I will do so as soon as I can find an opportunity. . . .
SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 346
NORFOLK, [VA.], May 11, 1856.
DEAR HUNTER: I have
just returned from a visit to my old (Hampton) county and hope things will end
there as we desire. Booker is warm in your favor and out against Buch[ana]n
talking publickly of his Tariff vote in '42 and Missouri Compromise opinions. I
shall attend the convention there on next Thursday and so told Booker who
seemed much pleased at my promise. I shall be an outsider but will try my best.
Drop B[ooker] a Line the moment you get this. It will encourage him much. Your
letter to him had a fine effect.
He is fond of you
but has been much courted by Wise. High minded honorable and brave as he is
these little attentions are always agreeable especially to a country gentleman
living a secluded life. He still praises W[ise] but thinks him out of the
question this time. I want you to ask him to go and say you will leave him to
act according to his own judgment content with any action he may take &c. Wednesday
the convention for the Norfolk district comes off. But for the Wise men who
still look to W[ise] as residuary Legatee of B[uchanan] we should have no
difficulty. No one is opposed to you but the idea is afloat that B[uchanan] is
the strong candidate and as office here controls every thing they profess
preference for him because he is as they think the strong man. Simkins has
softened down very much and so has Blow. If either of them go from the lower
end I have a strong hope of getting him right. If they get in their men I will
work day and night to operate on them and if I can wield a little influence in
Washington I may succeed. I have just had a conversation with Simkins the
Leader of the Wise party here as to the proceedings in Portsmouth and he asked
me to draw up the resolutions (this of course confidential) and state his
positions: 1st Compliment Pierce and endorse his admin [istratio]n, 2d support
nominee of Cin[cinnat]i Convention, 3d Express no preference, 4th Leave
delegates free to act according to circumstances. We shall carry a true man I
think from the upper counties and will at least divide the district.
I told Banks to get
old Frank Rives (who he says is all right) to work on Boykin of Isle of Wight
and Atkinson and he writes me that it has been done. Boykin wants office and is
slippery. He is weak in intellect and his attachments by no means stable. He
wants to go as a Delegate. I cant advocate him but I know, I think, how and who
can manage him. He is more tractable than Blow or Smith. The son I can do
nothing with. He wanted the Collectorship here and is sound against Pierce. He
will make a hard fight for Delegate but we have quietly operated against him on
the ground, that the Elector comes from Portsmouth, Smith's place of residence
and that she is not entitled to [a] Delegate and none of the Norfolk City
Delegation will support him. Pierce's office holders give us no aid whatever.
They are afraid to take position. When I was Navy Ag[en]t I ruled my party in
the District and so could Loyall have done, but he is effete, selfish and
timid. Sawyer has no power, even with his subordinates. Will the above
positions (I mean the resolutions) suit you or would it answer to make an issue
for Pierce direct. The result would be doubtful in as much as the floating vote
in Conventions generally sides with the moderate party whether they be so in
fact or in fraud. Drop me a line the moment you get this and draft me a
resolution or two. You need not be afraid of my indiscretion. You fellows in
Congress did not know me half as well as I did you. If I talk at random
sometimes, so also can I be silent and prudent when there is necessity. If I
had position in the Line or on the staff I could win the victory here. If I can
do any good I will speak at both Conventions. I care not who gets the
nomination for Delegates I mean to commence operations on him and if it be any
but Smith (who hates me) I hope to succeed. I am far from giving up the fight
for these ten districts for none will be pledged or committed.
Send me the names of
your friends in Gloucester that will be in Hampton that I may know who to
approach. My Brother Chas. K. Mallory, a lawyer, residing in Hampton is a warm
and active friend. It will be hard if him and Booker acting together can not
carry things to suit us.
Tell Muscoe our
inspection law has so far put a stop to slave stealing in lower Virginia. It
works beautifully tho' the Senate did it much damage by its amendments. I have
got things quite snug for him in the lower end of his district in view of
Bayly's departure.
My son has just
returned. Many thanks for your kindness, and please thank Pierce for me.
If you wish me to
hear from you before the Conventions meet, write the moment you get this, which
is nearly as hard to decipher as your own. The Baltimore Boats leave in the
afternoon and arrive here next morning. This you will get Tuesday morning. If
the positions in the resolutions suit you, telegraph me in the words "All
right," if not "make an issue direct for P[ierce] or H[unter]"
as the case may be and sign it. T. M. provided you cant mail your letter by the
1 P. M. [boat] for Baltimore or 1½ P. M. or that which carries the mail through
to Norfolk which can be known by enquiring at the City p[ost] office. If the
vote of V[irgini]a depends on these two districts I dont think you have much to
fear let things take what shape they may just now. It is easier to vanquish men
in detail than attacking numbers. I shall act as we Doctors say "pro re
natu."
SOURCE: Charles
Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of
Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 189-91
BOSTON, [MASS.], April 1st, 1856.
DEAR SIR: I send you
a copy of the French Tariff whose promulgation has reached here in the last
mail. In the pendency of the proposed revision of our own, the new position of
France, possesses much [of] importance. Our constitutional and treaty
limitations necessarily make the task of revising a tariff, full of perplexity
and requiring mature analysis.
With all the aid the Treasury Department have furnished to the experience of Genl. [Charles Tillinghast] James,1 there are some features in his otherwise able bill, which are based on principles that cannot be justified in the free trade school of Statesmanship. There is a living faith in popular opinion eventually rendering to a patriot and a statesman the acknowledgment of his merit and forecast. You are beginning to experience this in the North. It has happened to me several times within a few weeks, conversing with leading merchants and manufacturers of this section, to hear from their lips those acknowledgments with regard to yourself that none of our party could ever have expected.
The policy you have
advocated is now successful and the manufacturers here, express their
unqualified confidence that you can arrange a revision of the tariff which
would be absolutely satisfactory to the South and agreeable to the North. From
the known accordance of my views with your policy, it could not have been
intended I should withhold these expressions from your knowledge.
1 A Democratic Senator in Congress from Rhode
Island, 1851-1857. He was elected as a protective tariff Democrat.
SOURCE: Charles
Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of
Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 185-6
On the tariff I am absolutely uncommitted. Mr. Henry Cabot, an old manufacturer, told me yesterday that he and others were now satisfied that “protection was a fallacy;” and that William Appleton had said that his vote could not be had for a change in the present tariff. Mr. Cabot thought the subject would not come up in the next session.
SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 254
DEAR SIR: I believe I had the pleasure of meeting you once, but waiving any claim to old acquaintance, I avail myself of the kind introduction of Mr Cisco, to say a few words in regard to the proposed modification of the Tariff.
The Manufacturers at the North and East believed for many years that the old Whig party was the only organization which cared a button for their interests, and that a high protective tariff was essential to their salvation. The more sagacious among them have at last opened their eyes, and finding that the hot-house system is not conducive to a healthy growth, are anxious to try the free-trade method of struggling for life in the open field. The only real difficulty in the way of this, is the tax upon raw materials, which the manufacturers of all other countries are allowed to import free, or at a merely nominal charge. The free-trade party tried in Walker's time to secure this, but the opposition was so wedded to the principle of protection, that it was found impossible to obtain a majority for it. Our woolen manufacturers, especially, need such legislation as shall take off the restrictions which a blind policy has formerly imposed upon their raw material; and thinking men in all sections of the country, without distinction of party, have advocated the measure of relief proposed. I have written, within the last eighteen months two pamphlets upon this subject, which have been widely circulated, and the response from solid men in all parts of the country, has been in favor of the scheme. I think that I have shown conclusively that it will benefit the wool growers quite as much as the manufacturers, and my views have been approved by a very large number of leading agriculturists and farmers. I rec[eive]d a long letter from Gov[ernor] Wright of Ind[ian]a some time since, assenting to my views, and confirming my opinion that those who control public sentiment at the West are with us on this question. Mr. Houston of Al[abam]a consented to this, last session, and at my suggestion, placed wool and many other raw materials in a schedule at a nominal duty; this bill passed the House, but failed in the Senate for want of time.
The measure is likely to be opposed, however, by those politicians who have heretofore been the most clamorous friends of the manufacturer. Greely hesitates not to declare, privately, that it shall not pass this session, but must be kept back for use in the next Pres[idential Campaign. Seward has sullenly agreed not to combat it openly, but as I learn from some of his own friends who have been on to Washington, on purpose to see him, he will prevent its success if he can without personal exposure. James of R[hode] I[sland] has drawn up his bill based on free trade in raw materials, but in order to effect his reelection, has levied the duties on other importations far too high. I send, herewith, a leading article from the Journal of Commerce of Saturday, commenting upon his scheme. Our merchants here are becoming impatient that a plan against which so little can be said, should meet so many delays. The manufacturing interests have been closeted at Boston, and feeling more than ever absolved from party ties, are fastening their eyes upon those Conservative Statesmen who are known to be honest, to see if now that there is an opportunity to do something for the prosperity of the country, without building up one at the expense of another, they may not find help in some whom they have not been accustomed to regard as friends.
Mr. Guthrie has been highly applauded for his services in repeating and enforcing the recommendations of Mr. Walker upon this subject, and there needs but a voice to be heard above the din of faction upon the floor of Congress, to draw the hearts of all the Commercial classes into one channel. Where shall we look but to you? Standing midway between the North and South, ever on the side of right in the past, and (if the signs of the times be true) to be still more largely trusted in the future, who so fit a spokesman for the public of all sections in this crisis as yourself?
Mr. W. W. Stone of this city (with whom I can claim no connection notwithstanding the name) a member of the firm of Lawrence, Stone and Co. one of the most respectable domestic houses in the country, and intimately connected with Eastern Merchants and Manufacturers, visits Washington to-day. He has been an earnest advocate of this revision of the Tariff for several years, and would like to converse with you in regard to it. He has formerly acted with the Whig party, but in the present unsettled state of political affairs, feels no party responsibilities, and has, I am sure, the welfare of the country at heart. He will speak to you more at large of the state of feeling at the East from which you will see that I have not written unadvisedly.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 184-5
There is a great
rush here of the Tariff party. Mr. Webster has held out the idea all summer,
that, if we would surrender liberty, the South would withhold their opposition
to a tariff. This is the idea that has worked such a wonderful change in
Boston, and in those parts of the State connected by business with it; and
almost all parts of the State are so connected. It is the pecuniary sensorium,
and the nerves reach to all the extremities; for it is within twelve hours of
every part of the State by railroads, &c. This idea, therefore, that money
is to be made by a settlement of the difficulties in favor of slavery, has been
the corrupting idea of the year, and it has worked its way with prodigious
efficacy. Several attempts have been made to get a tariff measure through; but,
as yet, all have failed. I suppose this to be the reason why there is such a flocking
here now from Lowell and Boston. How disgraceful it is! and yet, if these
motives were exposed, they would first be denied, and then the author of the
charge would be sacrificed. It is a corrupt state of affairs; but I think not
all who are engaged in it either see or feel how base it is.
It is this class of
people who are making the outcry against me.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 331
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 1850.
I have but time to
say a word. . . .
There has just been
another desperate attempt to get a tariff. Messrs. A—— and G—— were put forward
to pioneer the measure. Mr. G—— moved to reconsider a bill from the Committee
on Commerce, giving Canada vessels a right to lade and unlade in our ports,
&c., so that it might be sent to the Committee of the Whole on the State of
the Union, to be there amended by a tariff. So the motion prevailed. Then a
motion to lay the subject on the table failed. Then came the question about
committing with instructions, which failed by a large vote. So the whole thing
slumped. We are surrounded by lobby members from Pennsylvania and New England.
The men who have been ready to barter away liberty and blood and souls for
profits have failed again miserably. Mr. Webster's promise made at the Revere
House, that, if the North would go for conciliation (that is, the surrender of
liberty), they could then have "beneficial legislation" (that is, a
tariff), has not been fulfilled.
I regret as much as
any one the suffering of our laboring classes; but there is a retribution in
all this which gratifies one's moral sense.
Good-by to you, my
friend!
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 335
WILMINGTON [DEL.],
March 29, 1854.
DEAR SIR: We have
taken the liberty of enclosing you herewith a memorial, which we shall esteem a
great favor, indeed, to have referred to the proper committee, and we have sent
a similar one to Mr. Riddle.1
Our reasons for
presenting this petition are that under the Tariff of 1846, English Galvanized
Tinned Iron is permitted to come in at a duty of 15 per cent. Whilst Common
Sheet iron not galvanized is chargeable at 30 per cent duty. The English
manufacturers, of this article, by a very simple and cheap process, tin their
iron before galvanizing it in order to bring it in, under the duty chargeable
on Tin Plates, (which is 15 pr. centum) thus saving this difference in duty,
and after its Importation into our own country, disposing of it as Galvanized
Iron. By reference to the Act of 1846, you will readily observe, how the law is
thus evaded, and by the present recommendation of the Secretary of the Treasury
Galvanized Tin or Galvanized Tinned iron, is placed on the Free list.
This, if effected,
you will perceive, would paralize the efforts of our own Manufacturers in this
country as the chief and intrinsic cost is embraced in the value of the Iron
itself, prior to Galvanizing it, and this, proposing to be admitted free, will
then give the foreign manufacturers, the entire trade of this article in the
United States.
We have, within the
past eighteen months, commenced the manufacture of this article, in this city,
and with the advantage of the same protection and duty that is now chargeable
upon common sheet iron, not galvanized, we fully believe, that we would then be
enabled to compete, successfully with the Foreign (English) makers. As we
think, the article is destined to be brought into very general use, in our own
country, relying with the above advantage, in connection, with its own
intrinsic usefulness.
1 George Read Riddle, a Representative
(1851-1855) and a Senator (1864-1867) in Congress from Delaware.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 158
WASHINGTON, March
16, 1861.
Every day affords
proof of the absence of any settled policy or harmonious concert of action in
the administration. Seward, Bates and Cameron form one wing; Chase, Miller,
Blair, the opposite wing; Smith is on both sides, and Lincoln sometimes on one
and sometimes on the other. There has been agreement in nothing. Lincoln, it is
complained in the streets, has undertaken to distribute the whole patronage,
small and great, leaving nothing to the chiefs of departments. Growls about
Scott's "imbecility" are frequent The Republicans are beginning to
think that a monstrous blunder was made in the tariff bill, and that it will
cut off the trade of New York, build up New Orleans and the Southern ports, and
leave the government no revenue; they see before them the prospect of some
being without money and without credit. But with all this it is certain that
Anderson will be withdrawn.
SOURCE: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p.
636
Tuesday morning, seven o'clock, September 27, 1850.
MY DEAR SIR,—There
is no chance of doing any thing for the tariff, this session, for want of time,
and from the crowded state of business in Congress. If we had three or four of
those precious weeks which were spent in making speeches on the Wilmot Proviso,
the revenue of the country might be settled, I think, on a satisfactory
foundation. There is a clear majority in the House of Representatives in favor
of a reform in the tariff of duties, although some Southern Whigs feel very
angry. Three of the North Carolina members, for instance, good men and good
Whigs, were found hanging off. I was asked to speak to them, or cause them to
be spoken to. They said that the Northern members, Whigs and all, had done
little else for six months, than assail their rights, their property, and their
feelings, as Southern men, and now those Northern men might take care of their
own interests. These gentlemen, however, will come into their places in the
ranks, after a little cooling and reflection.
I hope the important
measures, such as the appropriation bills, may get through to-day and
to-morrow, yet I am afraid of some mishap. Such a mass of unfinished things
never existed before, at so late a moment of the session.
It is a great
misfortune that Mr. Ashmun should leave Congress. The Whigs in the House of
Representatives need a leader, and if he could stay, he would be that leader by
general consent. He is sound, true, able, quick in his perceptions, and highly
popular. I hardly know how his place could be filled.
At the other end of
the avenue things go on very smoothly. There is entire confidence and good-will
between the President and all those about him. Mistakes will be made, no doubt,
but nothing will be done rashly, and no step is likely to be taken which shall
endanger the peace of the country, or embarrass the general business either of
the government or the country.
Some day next week I
hope to set out for the North. I never wanted to see home more. My catarrh is
going off, or else is having a long intermission; and, for whichever it may be,
I am truly thankful.
I pray to be
remembered most kindly to Mrs. Haven and your daughters.
SOURCE: Fletcher
Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol.
2, p. 390-1
Washington, D. C.,
September 13, 1850.
MY DEAR SIR,—I have
read to-day your exceedingly kind letter of the 11th instant. Your heart is
full of joy, at recent occurrences, and your friends are apt to imbibe your own
enthusiasm. I see you have a good deal of rejoicing in Boston, and I am
heartily glad of it. Nothing has occurred since I wrote you last, except the
passage of the Fugitive Slave bill through the House of Representatives. I am
afraid it is too late to do any thing with the tariff, except to make
preparation for action at the commencement of the next session, now only a
month and a half off. I am considering, however, whether some decided
expression of opinion, by the House of Representatives, might not now be
obtained, and be useful; it is a subject upon which I have been occupied with
friends all day. Possibly, something stronger than a mere expression of opinion
may be produced. There are several gentlemen here, interested in that subject,
principally from Pennsylvania. I shall be glad to see the Boston friends who
you say are coming. I wish you would come with them.
(From Vicksburg Sentinel, July 21, 1846.)
Fellow Citizens: I address you to explain the cause of my present absence from the seat of the federal government.
Those of our fellow-citizens who, in answer to a call of the President, had volunteered to serve the U. S. in the existing war with Mexico, have elected me for their Colonel, and the Governor has furnished to me a commission, in accordance with that election. Having received a military education and served a number of years in the line of the army, I felt that my services were due to the country, and believed my experience might be available in promoting the comfort, the safety and efficiency of the Mississippi Regiment in the campaign on which they were about to enter. Such considerations, united to the desire common to our people to engage in the military service of the country, decided me unhesitatingly to accept the command which was offered. The regiment was organized and waiting to be mustered into service preparatory to a departure for the army of operation. Under such circumstances, I could not delay until the close of the Congressional session, though then so proximate that it must occur before a successor could be chosen and reach the city of Washington.
It was my good fortune to see in none of the measures likely to be acted on at this session such hazard as would render a single vote important, except the bill to regulate anew the duties upon imports. The vote on this was to occur very soon (in two days) after the receipt of my commission as Colonel, and I have the satisfaction to announce to you that it passed the House the evening before I left Washington; and I entertain no doubt of its passing through the Senate and becoming the law of the land. An analysis of the votes upon this bill will show that its main support was derived from the agricultural and exporting States. To these in a pecuniary view it was the measure of highest importance. But whilst I rejoice in it for such considerations, because tending to advance the great staple interest of our State, and thus to promote the prosperity of all industry among us, I am not less gratified at it as a measure of political reform. In adopting the ad valorem rule and restricting its operation to the revenue limit, the great principle of taxing in proportion to the benefits conferred is more nearly approximated, and the power to lay duties is directed to the purpose of raising money, for which alone it was conferred in the constitution of our confederacy. Thus it was exercised by the fathers of our Republic in the first tariff enacted under the federal constitution; when for the benefit it would confer upon American producers and manufacturers they chose to raise revenue by imposts rather than direct taxation. Since then, as in the bill of 1842, (to be substituted by that lately passed through the House of Representatives,) the collection of revenue has been the subordinate; the benefit to particular classes, the main object of duties. And the extent to which this was pursued was concealed by specific duties and minima valuations-rendering the law unintelligible on its face, and in many cases wholly prohibitory in its operation-destroying revenue but leaving taxation. A tariff "for protection" must discriminate against the necessaries of life to favor manufactures in a rude or "infant" state; a tariff for revenue may, and generally would, impose its highest duties upon luxuries, for reasons so just and equalizing in their practical effects, that one could have no inducement to conceal the policy or shrink from its avowal.
Commercial changes and the wants or superfluities of the treasury must require occasional modifications in the rates of duties upon imports; but a salutary check is held by the people so long as all modifications are made by changing the rate per cent. on enumerated articles, by which it is seen at once what tax is imposed upon consumption, and whether or not the limit of revenue is passed.
I trust we shall never again witness the spectacle, so revolting to every idea of self government, of a law in which, by specific duties and minima valuations, the purpose and effect is as absolutely concealed as in the edicts of the ancient tyrant, which were written in a hand so small and hung so high as to be illegible to those upon whom they were to operate.
During this session, as your Representative, I have acted upon all measures as seemed to me best to accord with the principles upon which I was elected, and most likely to correspond with the wishes and interests of the people of Mississippi. Thus my support was given to the law for the separation of the fiscal affairs of the general government from all connection with banks. The bill passed by the House of Representatives will, it is confidently expected, pass the Senate of the United States probably with an amendment extending the time at which it is to go into full effect. This is supposed to be necessary to prevent an injurious revulsion in the trade of the country, consequent upon the sudden contraction of the discounts of those banks, which have extended their accomodations upon the government deposits. Evils however positive, cannot always be immediately abated; and in this extension of the time it is only designed to make a temporary concession of policy, that by an easy, gradual change the prosperity of trade may be secured and monetary derangement be avoided. These two, the "tariff" and "Independent Treasury," are the measures which seem to me most deeply to involve the interests of Mississippi. Without mountain slopes, and mountain streams to furnish water power; without coal mines permanently to supply large amounts of cheap fuel at any locality, we cannot expect, in competition with those who enjoy either or both of these advantages, ever to become a manufacturing people. We must continue to rely, as at present, almost entirely upon our exports; and it requires no argument, under such circumstances, to maintain the position that the interest of our State will be most advanced by freeing commerce from all unnecessary burthens, and by measuring the value of our purchases by the standard used in our sales-the currency of the world.
By the active exertion of our Senator Speight, a bill was passed through the Senate, granting to the State of Mississippi alternate sections of land to aid in the construction of the proposed Mississippi and Alabama rail road. It is scarcely to be hoped that the House will act upon this measure at the present session, but placed upon the calendar of unfinished business, I think it will become a law at the next session of this Congress. I have also hoped that at the same session, a law would be passed to enable the Postmaster General to make contracts for a long term of years with rail roads under construction, by which the government would be secured from the exorbitant charges monopolies have it in their power to impose, and such certainty conferred upon the value of rail road stock as would greatly aid in the completion of an entire chain of railways from the Mississippi at Vicksburg to the Atlantic, and to the metropolis of our Union—a chain like a system of nerves to couple our remote members of the body politic to the centre of the Union, and rapidly to transmit sensation from one to the other; or like great sinews, uniting into concentrated action the power of the right hand and the left-the valley of the Mississippi and the coast of the Atlantic—when ever the necessities of one or the other shall require the action of both.
Much has been done during the past winter to adjust suspended and conflicting claims to land purchased from the U. S., and it is to be hoped that the action of this Congress will relieve our people from the uncertainty and harassing delays under which so many of them have labored for years past.
The bill to graduate and reduce the price of the public lands, will no doubt become a law; and we may expect from it an important increase to our population and State wealth; such as has been the result in the northern portion of our State, where under the Chickasaw treaty, a graduation system has been in operation, it is to be supposed, will be the result of a similar graduation in those districts where the public land has remained long unsold. The coast survey, now in progress along the Gulf of Mexico, cannot fail to have an important influence upon that portion of our State which borders on the Gulf, by giving correct charts of the channels and points of entrance safe for coasting vessels. Beyond this, I anticipate that the survey will establish as a fact that the best point west of Cape Florida for a navy yard to repair or construct vessels of the largest class, is the Harbor of Ship Island; and further, that it will lead to the speedy establishment of the necessary lights along the Coast and upon its adjacent Islands. The difficulty of obtaining appropriations for these has heretofore been greatly increased by the want of official information. The Legislature of our State memorialized Congress upon the propriety of re-opening the Pass Manchac. I was fully impressed with the propriety of the claim. Under more favorable circumstances, an appropriation for the purpose might have been obtained; and I yet hope that we shall get a survey and report for the contemplated work, in time for action at the next session of this Congress.
Since I took a seat as your Representative in Congress, the country has been disturbed; its political elements agitated and thrown into confusion; its peace with England seriously endangered by a question of boundary in what is known as the Oregon Territory. We have now satisfactory reason to believe that this question is amicably adjusted. The exact terms of the agreement have not transpired; but in general language it may be stated as settled on the basis of the 49th parallel of north latitude, with a temporary permission to the Hudson's Bay Company to navigate the Columbia River. That there should have been a desire among our people generally to hold the whole Territory was but natural, and this not merely from a wish to extend our territory, but also from a more creditable desire to reserve as far as we might, the North American Continent for republican institutions. As few will contend that this desire would have justified our Government in waging a war for territorial acquisition, the question was narrowed down to this: how far our rights clearly defined, and how shall we best secure what is clearly our own, and upon what terms shall we compromise for what is disputable? There were some who claimed for the parallel of 54° 40′ N. L. a talismanic merit-that it was the line to which patriotism required us to go, and short of which it was treasonable to stop. This opinion could only rest on the supposition that by purchase from Spain we acquired a perfect title. But this was to assume too much. The assumption carried with it the element of its own destruction. The Spanish claim extended as far as the 61st degree. If the boundary had been well defined, and the title perfect, then there was no power in our Government to surrender any part of it, and the Convention with Russia is void. But if, as must be generally admitted, the line of 54° 40′ was a compromise with Russia growing out of the fact that our title was imperfect and the boundary unsettled, then was 54° 40′ merely a line of expediency, as any other parallel would have been-good only as against Russia, and subject on the same principle to further adjustment with the other claimant in that territory.
The history of our past negotiations with Great Britain in relation to that territory gave little foundation for the expectation that we could get amicably, the whole country we have now secured south of the 49th parallel of latitude; and if the information I have derived from the officers who have explored different portions of that country be correct, a few years will satisfy our people that we have obtained nearly all which would have been valuable to us-a territory extending further north than the most northern point ever occupied by any portion of our people, and if the term "Oregon Territory" was properly applicable to the valley of the Columbia, or Oregon River, a territory far more valuable than could be claimed in the valley drained by that stream and all its tributaries.
In the south we had another question of boundary unsettled; and though all proper efforts were made to adjust it amicably, they proved abortive. The minister sent to Mexico under a previous understanding that diplomatic relations should be renewed, and invested with full powers to treat of all questions in dispute, was rejected, without even being allowed to present his credentials. It could not be permitted to our rival claimant thus to decide the question, and though the insult would have justified an immediate declaration of war, in spirit of forbearance, the administration refrained from recommending this measure, and merely moved forward our troops to take possession of the entire territory claimed as our own, when there was no longer a prospect of adjustment by negotiation. This led to such hostilities as rendered it necessary to recognize the existence of war. Our government made the declaration in the mode provided by the constitution; and proceeded steadily to supply the means for a vigorous prosecution of the war into which we have been so unexpectedly drawn. In this connection it is worthy of remark that before a declaration was made on our part, the President of Mexico had made a similar declaration, and the appointments of the Mexican army which crossed the Rio Grande to attack the forces of General Taylor clearly show that it had advanced on that frontier for the purpose of invading the State of Texas.
The zeal shown in every quarter of the Union to engage in the service of our common country—the masses who have voluntarily come forward in numbers far exceeding the necessities of the occasion-attest the military strength of our Republic, and furnish just cause for patriotic pride and gratulation. I regret the disappointment felt by so many of my fellow-citizens of Mississippi at not being called into service; and I have not failed to present the case fully to the Executive of the U. S. Your patriotic anxiety is well appreciated; nor is the propriety of your conduct in waiting until regularly called for, forgotten; and if the war should continue, as further supplies of troops be required, there is no doubt but that our State will be among the first looked to for new levies.
There are several subjects connected with the local interests of Mississippi upon which it would have been agreeable to me to have said something, but the great length to which this letter is already extended, induces me with a few remarks bearing more particularly upon myself, to terminate it.
Unless the government of Mexico shall very soon take such steps as to give full assurance of a speedy peace, so that I may resume my duties as your Representative at the beginning of the next session of Congress, my resignation will be offered at an early day, that full time may be allowed to select a successor. Grateful to the people for their confidence and honor bestowed upon me, I have labored as their representative industriously. Elected on avowed and established principles, the cardinal points to guide my course were always before me. How well that course has accorded with your wishes; how far it is improved by your judgment, it is not for me to anticipate; but I confidently rely on your generous allowance to give credit to my motives, and for the rest, as becomes a representative, I will cheerfully submit to your decision.
SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 52-8
MY DEAR SIR, You
must excuse me for not answering all your kind letters. I should be glad to do
so, if it were possible, especially if it would be the means of getting more;
for they are most acceptable to me.
I learn that Mr.
Webster has written home, that, if the
North will give way on the subject of slavery, THEY CAN HAVE A TARIFF IN
SIX WEEKS; and I suppose the address now to be circulated is for signatures,
calling upon the Massachusetts delegation to make “concession;” that is, to
surrender the Territories to slavery: then we may have "beneficent
legislation," by which he means a tariff.
I am also told that
the Hon. ———, a factory superintendent at Lowell, on a salary of four or five
thousand dollars a year, was on here two or three weeks ago to see if some
arrangement could not be made to barter human bodies and souls at the South for
the sake of certain percentages on imported cottons at the North; and that Mr.
Foote of Mississippi, and Mangum of North Carolina, offered to become sureties
for the arrangement: how many others, I do not know. I have no doubt of all
this, not a particle; though I communicate it to you to give you the means of
further inquiry, and of action after inquiry is made. . . .
The Whigs, with very
few exceptions, appear to stand well in the House; and I trust we shall be able
to give a good account of ourselves. How I wish the Whigs now had all the
Free-soilers in their ranks ! In great haste, yours ever and truly,
HORACE MANN.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 304
Washington, April 13, 1850.
MY DEAR SIR,—Your letter and The Courier of Saturday came together this
morning. I am infinitely obliged to you for the pains you take to keep all things
in order which respect me, and my speech. The editorial in The Courier is
excellent; it is exactly in the right spirit. It convinces people.
I am very glad you inserted Mr. Sturgis's name, and Mr. William
Appleton's.
From the South, the West, and some parts of the middle States, addresses,
letters, and calls for speeches, continue to come in without number. It is
evident that there is a milder feeling in the country, though I cannot yet say
what will come of it. I meant to intimate, in my answer to the Boston letter,
that nothing would be done with the tariff till this slavery question shall be
adjusted. Our good friends from the North seem to come here, with no other
notion than that they are to make speeches, in daily succession, against
slavery. I am sorry to say, no one seems to take any comprehensive view of
things, or labors for adjustment.
As to the time of my going home, my present hope is to reach New York
next Saturday evening. It depends upon the time when the committee goes South.
I will keep you well informed.
SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of
Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 365-6
Mr. JEFFERSON DAVIS
said he did not intend to enter into a wide discussion with reference to the
tariff, to Oregon, to Texas, or to the improvement of the rivers and harbors of
the country. The House had under consideration a proposition to raise two
regiments of riflemen. The only questions to be determined were: first, the
necessity of the increase; and, second, the mode in which it should be made.
There were two great propositions imbodying different modes: one to increase
the army by increasing the number of regiments; the other, to add to the rank
and file of the existing regiments. Our organization under a peace
establishment is designed only to be the skeleton of an army; we organize our
regiments not so much with a view to their present efficiency as on the arising
of an emergency which shall require them to enable us to fill them up and
render us the greatest service. We who were literally the rifle people of the
world, who were emphatically skilled in the use of the rifle, were now falling
behind France, England, and other nations, who were paying attention to it, and
now actually had no rifle regiment. For this reason, if there were no other, he
would vote to raise a rifle regiment to perfect our organization, and add the
wanting bone to the skeleton of our army.
Another reason in
behalf of this bill was, that it was recommended by the President of the United
States. [Mr. D. read that part of the Message recommending the establishment of
stockade forts on the route to Oregon, &c.] It did not depend upon the
notice, upon future emigration, but was necessary to protect the emigration now
passing to Oregon. He pointed out the dangers from the attacks of nomadic
hostile Indians, to which the traveller across the prairies is exposed, the
necessity of mounted riflemen for their protection, and the superiority in very
many respects of mounted to unmounted riflemen for this service. He agreed with
the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. BOYD,] who, in his amendment, proposed to
make it discretionary with the President whenever, in his opinion, the public
interests shall require, to mount such portions of these regiments as he may
deem necessary. He (Mr. D.) hoped that at least half of them would be mounted;
for it was perfectly idle to send infantry to guard emigrants against Indians
who live on horseback, who rob all companies not sufficiently strong to resist
them, and fly with their booty as on the wings of the wind.
He denied the
correctness of the position of Mr. RATHBUN, that this bill was intended for
raising troops to transport our men, women, and children to a territory over
which we dared not assert our rights; and said that the President had
recommended mounted riflemen to protect the emigration which is now going on;
we needed it before emigration commenced, and emigration has only increased its
necessity. He urged the importance of this measure, and the advantages and
facilities which would be extended to emigrants to Oregon, by the erection of a
line of stockade forts on their route. In further reply to Mr. R., he
vindicated the qualifications of western men for this particular kind of service,
acknowledging that they would be loth to submit to military punishment, but
assigning their habitual subordination to the laws of the country, and their
patriotic and gallant devotion to its interests, as the means by which they
would avoid subjecting themselves to it. In the course of his remarks, he
adverted to the necessity of the Military Academy in reference to the attacks
from time to time made upon it, maintaining the unquestionable necessity of a
military education to prepare a man for command in the army; which education,
he said, was only to be obtained at a military academy, or piece by piece to be
picked up, at the hazard of loss of property and life, by the officer, after he
was commissioned and under heavy pay. Mr. D. also touched briefly upon one or
two other points.
Dear Sir—I have recently been informed by a letter from Jackson, that a rumor prevails to the effect that I have endorsed the statements made by your correspondent "Veritas," in letters written from this place in December last.
To those who know me, I hope it is unnecessary to say, that I would not adopt such a mode to attack any man, or thus circuitously proceed to guard our State against "intrigue" and "insult.' Had there been no other consideration than my own position, it would have been left to time to correct any false impressions which this unfounded rumor may have created; but the so-called "facts" contained in these letters are of a character to excite prejudices in Mississippi which may prove injurious to our common interests; and therefore, without taking upon myself the part of advocate or apologist of any one, I wish to disabuse the public mind by a simple correction of the most prominent mis-statements in the letters referred to.
In the letter of the Dec. 20th, 1845, it is stated that Wm. M. Gwin received a draft for $7,972.24, drawn against an amount of interest decided to be due to the Chickasaw Indians on monies deposited in the Agricultural Bank of Mississippi.
The writer says: "This amount Gwin received while here a few weeks ago. He got the Secretary of the Treasury to allow the claim had it passed through the several accounting departments; and the Doctor pocketed the snug sum, and hastened forthwith to Mississippi, to attend to Mr. Walker's orders in the Senatorial campaign."
Here is an act asserted to have been performed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and a corrupt motive insinuated for the performance of that act; constituting a charge which might well arouse suspicions, and create fears for the safety of the public funds under the present administration. What are the facts in this case? By the books of the 1st Comptroller, it appears that on the 21st January, 1845, the claim of Wm. M. Gwin, agent for the Chickasaws, was allowed for the sum of $7,992.24, and that sum paid on the same day, by draft on the Bank of Louisiana; the transaction being closed a month and a half before the present administration came into power.
I have learned from the Treasury Department, that shortly after Mr. Walker became Secretary, large claims were presented by Dr. Gwin, agent of the Chickasaws, for allowance and payments; and that under the provisions of the Act of 3d March 1845, they were all rejected, and that no money has been so allowed or paid to Dr. Gwin by the present Secretary of the Treasury.
With regard to the charge of interference in our Senatorial election, made elsewhere more distinctly, and with violent appeal to resent the insult, and resist the attempt at official dictation; I have made inquiries, and been distinctly answered, that Mr. Walker did not write a single letter, or otherwise interfere in the late canvass for a Mississippi Senator.
In the letter dated Dec. 19th, 1845, it is asked, where does the Secretary of the Treasury deposit the public funds in this District? and the writer answers: "Why, he selects the firm of Corcoran & Riggs (brokers and money dealers in this city) as the depositories of the public moneys." The writer does not stop to inform you whether a better selection could have been made, but goes on to tell how "the story runs" that these Bankers "give fine dinners; they dine and wine the Secretary of the Treasury," and that "they also build a fine house for Mr. Walker to dwell in.”
Now, sir, this second "fact," this second insinuation of a corrupt motive, is of the same baseless character as the first.
The Bankers were not selected as depositories by the present Secretary of the Treasury, (Mr. Walker.) The security they deposited has been found ample, and they have been continued. If an "Independent Treasury" law should be re-enacted, for which no one has shown greater solicitation than the present Secretary of the Treasury, all future connexion with these Bankers would be precluded. As to the house suffice it to say, Mr. Walker resides in the house he has occupied for years past, and I have been informed that Corcoran & Riggs are not building, nor ever have built a dwelling house in this city.
From these samples you will be able to put a proper estimate upon the many other points which are contained in those letters, and to see the propriety of this move to arrest at once the
impression that I was connected with, or responsible for, the veracity of "Veritas."
I will, before closing, notice one other point in the correspondence treated of. In the letter of December 23rd, 1845, your correspondent, ("Veritas,') referring to the circumstances connected with the "Lost Commission," says of the Secretary of the Treasury, "if it does not cost him his seat in Mr. Polk's cabinet, it will at least paralyze his efforts, his aims and desires for all practical and useful purposes."
Like yourself, I have from the beginning contended that the public had a right to know all that their agents had done in relation to a transaction so important as the appointment of an U. S. Senator. Before this reaches you I hope the correspondence thereon will have been published, and that like many other secrets, its importance will have been lost in the act of disclosure.
In the mean time, sir, I would say that it would be with the greatest reluctance, and the deepest regret, that I would entertain the idea that the efforts of the Secretary of the Treasury are to be paralyzed at the moment when all his energies are directed to the accomplishment of those great objects, "the divorce of Bank and State," and "the repeal of the protective Tariff of 1842."
Am I deceived when I expect Mississippi to nerve the arm engaged in such a contest, rather than to strip it of its power? It is her cause, and her prayers belong to him who enters the lists to sustain it.
The political aspirations of individuals are only important as they are connected with the public good. This is, I think, the case in the present instance. Mississippi has now for the first time in her history, a representative in the Executive Cabinet. We have believed that our interests were unjustly neglected by the Federal Government; we find the Secretary of the Treasury, with his acknowledged ability, laboring for us. Shall he not receive the cheer necessary to sustain the laborer? Shall vague rumors shaped by private spleen—shall dark suspicions anonymously thrown into circulation, be permitted to rob your public servants of the only reward the honest politician seeks, the approbation of those to whom his time and toil have been given?
Please publish this, that it may follow the misrepresentations it is designed to correct.
“The sick man knows the Physician's step,” but I assure you that if breaking a long silence to ask a favor of you should expose me to the suspicion of remembering you only because of my trouble, the fact is nevertheless quite otherwise. I am one of the Presidential "electors" for the State of Mississippi and though I do not doubt the democratic character of our people I fear false statements and false issues in the approaching canvass and expect the Whigs to make great exertions.
I wish you to aid me with any statements which can be made available against the charge of defalcation and extravagance under Mr. Van Buren's administration, against the present Tariff as productive of revenue, against the U. S. Bank, against the charge of improper removals of officers and if there be such statement the removals in the first year of Harrison & Tyler's administration. Further I should be glad to have the evidence of Mr. Clay's refusal to divide the resolution of censure upon President Jackson for the removal of the deposits and the rule of the senate in relation to the division of questions, Secretary Taney's report on the removal of the deposits from the U. S. Bank, Secretary Poinset's annual report recommending reorganization of the militia and answer to call of the house on the same subject. Was not President V. Buren one of the first to point out the unconstitutionality of the military districts as projected in that answer? I had but cannot now find a speech of yours showing that the U. S. Bank loaned at a time which indicated the purpose, more money to members of Congress than the amount of their pay. Can you send me a copy of that speech?
I have mingled but little in politics and as you perceive by this letter have an arsenal poorly supplied for a campaign. Labor is expected of me and I am willing to render it. I believe much depends on this presidential election, and that every man who loves the union and the constitution as it is should be active.
You will understand what I want or should want better than myself, so far as you can conveniently send such you will greatly oblige me, and any suggestions you may find leisure to make to me will be highly appreciated.
WASHINGTON, D. C., July 7, 1866.
DEAR UNCLE:— Have you melted away? Not heard from you for a good many hot days.
We have the inevitable tariff before us noon and night. I hope we shall get off in a fortnight. A little cholera wouldn't be bad now. Anything to get up a scatterment. - Write a word.
