Congressman William O. Goode to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, August 4, 1857

BOYDTON, VA., August 4th, 1857.

DEAR HUNTER: In reply to your favor of 30 July I have to say, that, at the time of the election, all the members elect from this Congressional District to the General Assembly were reported to be favourable to your reelection. I heard the members for Mecklenburg and Prince Edward severally pledge themselves in public speeches to vote for you against any other candidate. I made inquiries every where as to all the counties and was assured as to all.

In Charlotte, Wyatt Cardwell is returned, and he is an old line Whig-Know Nothing-and Distributuonist. I do now know his preference between you and any candidate who may be run against you. I suppose he would be controlled by party associations, Which I suppose cannot be expected to carry any one against you in favor of your probable competitor. As for me, I had not a doubt about my election. I told Meade before the Convention that I should receive more votes in the District than both of my competitors together if all three should run.

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), pp. 215-6

Henry Clay to James Clay, February 1, 1848

WASHINGTON, February 1, 1848.

MY DEAR SON, — I received your letter informing me of the occurrence which has taken H. E. Erwin to New Orleans. I am deeply concerned about it; but I can not but think that Mr. Prentiss will not fight him. If he should decline doing so I hope Henry will let it drop there, without resorting to any measure of violence or denunciation.

I have some hope of getting my cause tried next week, although there is not, I regret to say, entire certainty in regard to it.

I inclose a bill of lading for a barrel of sperm oil, purchased by Mr. Coffin, which I will thank you to hand to your mother.

I adhere to my purpose communicated to you before I left home. I have suspended the execution of it for the present, in consequence of strong assurances that if I take the step now it will be ruinous to the Whig party. It places me in a state of painful embarrassment.

My love to Susan and the children.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 553-4

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 Samuel Haight, April 15, 1848

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

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 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

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green, June 10, 1847*

Fort Hill 10th June 1847

I received your two last letters, the one written at New York and the other after your return from Washington, in which you urge me to attend the Convention to be held in Chicago on the 4th July.¹

After giving the subject the most deliberat consideration, I cannot concur with you in opinion as to the expediency or propriety of my attending.

My opinions in reference to internal improvement, both in reference to the Lakes and the Mississippi, have been fully expressed in my remarks at Memphis and the report on the proceedings of the Memphis convention. I have seen no reason since to change, or modify my opinion on any point. If I were to go to the Chicago convention, it would only be to repeat them, and to expose myself to the attack of those, who may be disposed to go farther than I can go, with my views of the Constitution, aided and backed by all, who may be politically opposed to me; while I would expose myself to the imputation of the very motive you assign for my going, and would lose more weight with the South, than I could possibly gain in the West.

Such are the objections, which occur to me, regarding the subject in the light you do, in reference to myself and my political advancement. But political advancement has ceased to be for a long time any object to me, personally. I would accept the Presidency on no condition but to reform the Government and carry out the principles and policy with which I am identified; and I have no idea that it will ever be tendered me for that purpose. All that remains for me is, to finish my course with consistency and propriety, and that I can only do, by an honest and manful discharge of my duty, while I remain in publick life. I am thankful to my friends for the interest they take in my elevation to power. One of the strong motives I would have to accept should it come to me, in a manner I could accept, would be to serve those, who have stood by me through so many trying scenes. Their attachment to me, has been the result of a community of sentiment in reference to the principles and policy of the Government; and, as such, I have ever regarded it, as alike honorable to them and me. Many of them, you among the others, overestimate the chance of my elevation, by not taking the proper view of the nature of the difficulty in my way. It may all be summed up in one, that I am not in favour of the spoil's policy. They who seek them are for the present masters of the country; and so long, as they continue to be so, ever will resist successfully my elevation. Nothing but a reaction, which shall rouse the country to a sense of its danger, which may not occur, until too late, can ever elevate me to power. That such should be the case, I have no reason to complain. I selected my course with a full knowledge, that such would be the case; and so far from regretting it, I would do it over again, if it was in my option to choose. I am not disappointed, and have none of the feelings belonging to the disappointed. But, I must say, that I am occasionally mortified, at seeing how little I am understood by some of my oldest and most faithful friends, and you among them, as I infer from some of your remarks in your letter from N. York. It is a grave charge to say, a man is unmindful of his friends. If I know myself, I would rather injure myself than a friend; and have ever been more unmindful of myself, than of them. It is I, who head without hesitation, or dread of consequences every assault on our common principles, and, if I have been careless of them, I have been much more so of myself. It would be a much truer estimate of my character to say, when duty is concerned, I am not only regardless of friendship or enmity but of myself. As to the case of Morton, my impression is, that I neither took part, nor voted. When I saw how badly the democratick party was acting on the Wilmot proviso, I saw little choice between one, or another of the party, or between a democrat, or a Whig. Besides Williams, whom he turned out, gave a statement in his favour; and yet, it seems, this miserable affair, is the proof that I am not mindful of my friends. It had nothing to do with any friend. If he had been rejected it would have only made room for some other, equally objectionable.

_______________

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

¹ The Northwestern Harbor and River Convention.

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. 731-3

Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Tuesday, June 19, 1860

Very warm summer day-Breakfasted at Dr Browns with Mrs Brown alone, he being in the Country     The letter of Hon Edw Bates to me declaring his intention to support Mr Lincoln for the Presidency appeared in St Louis Democrat to day.¹ Our friends are delighted with it. It is a great letter the production of a great man and noble patriot, and will be of immense value to us in the campaign. It is all that I could possibly desire.

_______________

¹ The salient passages in Bates's letter, above referred to, were as follows:

St. Louis, June 11, 1860.

O. H. Browning, Esq., Quincy, Ill.

 

. . . It ought not to have been doubted that I could give Mr. Lincoln's nomination a cordial and hearty support. . . .

 

There was no good ground for supposing that I felt any pique or dissatisfaction because the Chicago convention failed to nominate me. . . . On party grounds I had no right to expect a nomination; I had no claims upon the Republicans as a party for I have never been a member of any party . . . except only the Whig party. . . . Many Republicans honored me with their confidence and desired to make me their candidate. For this favor I was indebted to the fact that between them and me there was a coincidence of opinion upon certain important questions of government. They and I agreed in believing that the national government has sovereign power over the territories, and that it would be impolitic and unwise to use that power for the propagation of negro slavery by planting it in free territory. Some of them believed also that my nomination, while it would tend to soften the tone of the Republican party, without any abandonment of its principles, might tend also to generalize its character and attract the friendship and support of many, especially in the border States, who, like me, had never been members of party, but concurred with them in opinion about the government of the territories. These are . . . I think, the only grounds upon which I was supported at all at Chicago.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *

Mr. Lincoln's nomination took the public by surprise because, until just before the event, it was unexpected. But really it ought not to have excited any surprise, for such unforeseen nominations are common in our political history. . . . As an individual he earned a high reputation for truth, courage, candor, morals, and amiability so that, as a man, he is most trustworthy, and in this particular he is more entitled to our esteem than some other men, his equals, who had far better opportunities and aids in early life.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *

I consider Mr. Lincoln a sound, safe, national man. He could not be sectional if he tried. His birth, his education, the habits of his life, and his geographical position compelled him to be national. All his feelings and interests are identified with the great valley of the Mississippi, near whose center he has spent his whole life. That valley is not a section.

*        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *        *

I give my opinion freely in favor of Mr. Lincoln, and I hope that, for the good of the whole country, he may be elected, but it is not my intention to take active part in the canvass. For many years past, I have had little to do with public affairs, and have acquired no political office; and now, in view of the mad excitement which convulses the country, and the general disruption and disorder of parties, . . . I am more than ever assured that for me, personally, there is no political future, and I accept the condition with cheerful satisfaction. *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Edward Bates

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 416-7

Congressman Horace Mann to Mr. Combe, July 1, 1852

WASHINGTON, July 1, 1852.

MY DEAR MR. COMBE, — . . . My friend Henry Barnard, Esq., who for many years was Secretary of the Board of Education, either in Connecticut or in Rhode Island, is about to visit England and Scotland, partly on account of his health, and partly to see your schools. You have always been partial enough to affix a higher value to my services on the subject of education than I could honestly claim or fairly expect. If you will put double all the credit you have ever given to me, and pass it to Mr. Barnard's account, you will hardly do his extraordinary services more than justice. His mind is full of wisdom, and his life has been full of devotion on this subject.

You will have learned, before receiving this, the event of our party Presidential nomination. What an awful moral has been derived from the fate of those who have been false to freedom! Every one of those Northern men, who, for the last half-dozen years, have devoted themselves to slavery, have been set aside; and those men who suffered and indirectly promoted all the atrocities of the Mexican war, though against all their own professions, did, by that very dereliction from duty, raise up two warriors to come in and pluck away the honors they had forfeited their integrity to obtain. Was it not a just retribution?

There is all the difference between the candidates that there is between a hero and his valet de chambre. Scott, too, is an antislavery man. Pierce will be the merest tool of slavery.

The Democratic Convention was almost in toto a proslavery body, and the ultra proslavery portion of it prevailed in the selection of Pierce. In the Whig Convention, the antislavery element prevailed; so that, though the contest is implicated with other matters, and its real issues are somewhat obscured, yet, if Scott is elected, it will be a great antislavery triumph. It was the first time that the antislavery element ever prevailed in any national convention.

Mrs. Mann and the children have gone home. I live here alone, and, of course, forlorn. I hear from them every day, and they are well. With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Combe,

I remain, as ever, yours truly,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 372-3

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 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 Charles Sumner to Charles Francis Adams Sr., June 21, 1852

We hear that Scott is nominated at last. I tell you confidentially how Seward regards it. He thinks that his friends have been defeated, that Scott is made to carry weight which will probably defeat him, and that the campaign can have little interest for the friends of our cause. He will take an opportunity, by letter or speech, to extricate himself from the platform. Seward's policy is to stick to the Whig party; no action of theirs can shake him off. But the cause of freedom he has constantly at heart; I am satisfied of his sincere devotion to it. Major Donaldson says that there is now no difference between the Whigs and Democrats; their platforms, he says, are identical. This is the darkest day of our cause. But truth will prevail. Are there any special words of your grandfather against slavery anywhere on record, in tract or correspondence? If there are, let me have them. I wish you were here.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 281

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

Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Tuesday, May 22, 1860

Fine day—At work in office. out at Cox's to tea. “Help me Cassius or I sink” received a long letter from Hon David Davis, Tho^s A Marshall, N. B. Judd, E Peck¹ & O. M. Hatch, entreating me in the most earnest terms to go, without delay, to St Louis, and see Judge Bates, and try and prevail upon him to come into Illinois, and assist us in the campaign. They want his influence to carry the old whig Quincy element for Lincoln.² Some of these same men had blamed me for supporting Judge Bates for the Presidency and had asserted, in the most emphatic terms, that he could not carry Illinois. I believed before the convention, and believe now, that he would have carried the entire Republican party, and the old whig party beside, and I think others are beginning to suspect the same thing, and that we have made a mistake in the selection of candidates.

I immediately wrote a long and urgent letter to Judge Bates, and will follow it in person tomorrow—for in my opinion, the existence of the party and the highest good of the country, are alike dependent upon our success, and I am willing to forego all personal preferences, and make any reasonable sacrifice to secure a triumph

_______________

¹ Ebenezer Peck, 1805-1881. Born in Maine; admitted to bar in Canada; member of Canadian Parliament; came to Chicago, 1835, being one of the founders of the Democratic party and one of its supposedly unscrupulous politicians. Lincoln opposed him then, but by 1856 Peck had become a Republican and he took part in the Republican convention at Bloomington in that year. He was elected clerk of the Supreme Court in 1841 in a meeting of five of the nine justices of the court. His election was supposed to be part of a bargain regarding the passage of the act of 1841 reorganizing the Supreme Court on Democratic lines. He was therefore known as the "midnight clerk." President Lincoln appointed him to the United States Court of Claims. Palmer, The Bench and Bar of Illinois, 1:76-77; 2: 627; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, 1:126127; 2: 28; Memoirs of Gustave Koerner, 2: 93.

² This letter is in the files of the Illinois State Historical Library at Springfield and reads as follows:

Springfield, Ills

May 21 1860

Dear Browning—

 

There must be no mistake about carrying Illinois—

 

Our honor is pledged to it—

 

To conduce to this end, it is apparent to a number of friends now here, that Judge Edward Bates should be got to make speeches, at 4 or 5 prominent places in this State, say Charleston Springfield, Jacksonville, Carlinville, or Alton, & some place on Military Tract

 

Judge Bates owes it to himself & the cause to make this sacrifice His appearance & the man himself would be more effective, than a thousand speeches from Eastern Orators—

 

—Mr Bates, would emphatically settle the Fillmore element for us—

Your friends think that if these speeches could be made all of them before the Baltimore nomination—that they would be greatly—infinitely more effective—than if made afterwards

 

Now is the appointed time— In looking over the list of our friends, who should be sent to Mr Bates to effect this end a number of your friends & Mr Lincoln's now here, unitedly believe that you are that man—

 

The undersigned therefore, earnestly & affectionatley urge you immediately to visit Saint Louis & if possible secure the services of Mr Bates— We assure you that you could not more effectually serve the cause—

 

We beg of you to lay aside business & visit Saint Louis—for this purpose—

 

Write to Mr Hatch the result of your mission—Knowing your interest in this cause, we feel certain that you will not hesitate a moment, in endeavouring to accomplish this very desirable object.

 

Mr Blair of St Louis thinks it most important & if in St Louis will lend his aid— Mr Blair has the matter at heart—

 

We remain

Dear Sir

Your friends

David Davis

N. B. Judd

T. A. Marshall

Eb Peck.

O. M. Hatch

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, pp. 408-10

Congressman Horace Mann to Samuel Downer, February 10, 1852

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 1852.

MY DEAR DOWNER, - There is nothing of much moment transpiring here. Cabell of Florida, in the House, a few days ago laid down the Southern Whig platform, that no man should be supported for President who was not sound on the slavery question; and added, that though Scott, for every other reason, would be his first choice, yet he had not come out in favor of slavery to this time, and he feared it was even now too late. He was determined (Cabell) never to be caught by another Taylor. Murphy, from Georgia, followed on the Democratic side, and prescribed very much the same creed for the Democrats that Cabell had for the Whigs. So you see the bold stand the South is taking. June, they will act up to it. succumb?

They will talk up to it now. Next

Will not both parties at the North

Dismy of Ohio, in the same debate, on being taunted for voting against the Fugitive-slave Law, said he did it because it was not stringent enough!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 356-7

Senator Henry Clay to James Lynch and Others, September 20, 1848

ASHLAND, September 20, 1848.

GENTLEMEN, I have received your official letter as members of the (Whig) Democratic General Committee of the city and county of New York, and I take pleasure in answering it.

Never from the period of decision of the Philadelphia Convention against my nomination as a candidate for the Presidency, have I been willing, nor am I now, to have my name associated with that office. I would not accept a nomination if it were tendered to me, and it is my unaffected desire that no further use be made of my name in connection with that office. I have seen, therefore, with regret, movements in various quarters having for their object to present me as their candidate to the American people; these movements have been made without any approbation from me. In the present complicated state of the Presidential election they can not, in my opinion, be attended with any public good, and may lead to the increase of embarrassments, and to the exasperation of parties.

While I say this much without reserve, I must nevertheless add that I feel profound gratitude to such of my warm-hearted and faithful friends as continue to indulge the vain hope of placing me in the office of Chief Magistrate of the United States. And that I neither think it just or politic to stigmatize them as factionists or by any other opprobrious epithets. Among them I recognize names which have been long distinguished for ability, for devotion to the Whig cause, and for ardent patriotism.

You advert with entire truth to the zeal and fidelity with which the delegation from New York sought in the Philadelphia Convention to promote my nomination as a candidate for the Presidency. I am most thankful to them and shall ever recollect their exertions with profound gratitude.

And here, gentlemen, I would stop but for your request that I would communicate my views; this I shall do briefly and frankly, but with reluctance and regret.

Concurring entirely with you, that the peace, prosperity and happiness of the United States depend materially on the preservation of Whig principles, I should be most happy if I saw more clearly than I do that they are likely to prevail.

But I can not help thinking that the Philadelphia Convention humiliated itself, and as far as it could, placed the Whig party in a degraded condition. General Taylor refused to be its candidate. He professed indeed to be a Whig, but he so enveloped himself in the drapery of qualifications and conditions that it is extremely difficult to discover his real politics. He was and yet is willing to receive any and every nomination no matter from what quarter it might proceed. In his letter to the "Richmond Republican" of the 20th April last, he declared his purpose to remain a candidate, no matter what nomination might be made by the Whig Convention. I know what was said and done by the Louisiana delegation in the Convention, but there is a vail about that matter which I have not penetrated. The letter from him which it was stated one of that delegation possessed, has never been published, and a letter on the same subject addressed to the independent party of Maryland, has at his instance been withheld from the public. It was quite natural that after receiving the nomination he should approve the means by which he obtained it. What I should be glad to see is some revocation of the declaration in the "Richmond Republican" letter before the nomination was made.

On the great leading national measures which have so long divided parties, if he has any fixed opinions, they are not publicly known. Exclusively a military man, without the least experience in civil affairs, bred up and always living in the camp with his sword by his side, and his epaulets on his shoulders, it is proposed to transfer him from his actual position of second in command of the army, to the Chief Magistrate of this great model Republic.

If I can not come out in active support of such a candidate, I hope those who know any thing of my opinions, deliberately formed and repeatedly avowed, will excuse me; to those opinions I shall adhere with increased instead of diminished confidence. I shall think that my friends ought to be reconciled to the silence I have imposed on myself from deference to them as well as from strong objections which I entertain to the competitor of General Taylor. I wish to lead or mislead no one, but to leave all to the unbiased dictates of their own judgment.

I know and feel all that can be urged in the actual position of the present contest.

I entertain with you the strongest apprehension from the election of General Cass, but I do not see enough of hope and confidence in that of General Taylor to stimulate my exertions and animate my zeal. I deeply fear that his success may lead to the formation of a mere personal party. There is a chance indeed that he may give the country a better administration of the Executive Government than his competitor would, but it is not such a chance as can arouse my enthusiasm or induce me to assume the responsibility of recommending any course or offering any advice to others.

I have great pleasure in bearing my humble testimony in favor of Mr. Fillmore. I believe him to be able, indefatigable, industrious and patriotic. He served in the extra session of 1841 as Chairman of the committees of the two houses of Congress, and I had many opportunities of witnessing his rare merits.

I do not desire the publication of this letter, but if you deem it necessary, you may publish the four first and the last paragraphs.

SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, pp. 575-80

Diary of Gideon Welles, Monday, June 18, 1866

Senator Doolittle brought me last evening the rough draft of a proposed call for a national Union convention which he had prepared. Some of the points were well put, but there was too much restriction, too much fear that we should have men we did not care to fellowship with, although we might agree on present issues. To this I excepted, but my strongest point was the omission to meet and present the real issue, our objections to the proposed change of the Constitution which has passed the two houses of Congress.

"What," said I, "are the reasons for calling a convention at this time? Is it not because the faction in Congress, assisted by schemers out of Congress, have concocted a scheme under party excitement and by party machinery to change the Constitution in important particulars, and that by a snap judgment Governor Curtin has addressed a circular letter to the Governors of the several States, inviting an immediate convening of the State legislatures to adopt the proposed change, before the people can have an opportunity to express an opinion? An alarm should be sounded, warning the people of the movements that are being made to alter the organic law, and insidiously change the government."

These and other suggestions I saw made an impression on Doolittle, but still he hesitated and was embarrassed. Pressing him on this point, he admitted he wanted Raymond to sign the call, he being Chairman of the National Republican Committee, and Doolittle wanted others of that committee also to sign it. This I thought of less importance than to have a proper call; certainly I would not suppress the great essential for such a trimming, unreliable man as Raymond. As I urged the matter, he admitted that Raymond had seen the call and approved it; further that the President had read it, and I have no doubt that Seward had also seen it, although that was not distinctly stated. The call, if not the convention itself, is, I think, perverted to an intrigue in behalf of the old Whig Party, on which Weed and Seward rely.

I proposed that we should go and see Mr. McCulloch. It was raining intensely hard, but he at once accorded. He had been to Silver Spring and submitted the document to Mr. Blair and his son, who, he said, approved it.

Mr. McCulloch was not at home, and we parted, but the paper which D. presented, the convention, and the aspect of affairs gave me infinite concern. There is no doubt that Seward and Stanton have a personal understanding to act together. Stanton is in concert with the Radicals, and, at the same time, Seward is prompting Doolittle. The public is ripe for a convention, but this call is an artful contrivance to weaken it. The President is being subordinated by the intriguers, and the design is obviously to weaken the Administration and give the Radical Party the ascendant. Seward, beguiled by Stanton, expects to control the convention by the aid of Weed and Raymond. The fruition of seven months' intrigue means that and nothing else. They intend to rule the President, and I fear he will let them.

I stopped early this morning at Judge Blair's and inquired what he thought of the call. He said he had not been in any mood or mind to think of anything, having been without sleep the previous night, but it had appeared to him to have a too narrow basis. I then told him my view and the conversation Doolittle and myself had. Blair most earnestly agreed with me, said my views corresponded with his own, and promised to see the President if he could.

I called on McCulloch, who agreed to come to my house this evening and go with me to the President. When he called, I detailed the conversation with Doolittle, told him of my apprehensions, and dwelt emphatically on the subject of the Constitutional changes as the true basis of action, and our sounding the bugle-note of warning to arouse the people. My earnestness and the facts excited him, and we went to the President.

We spent an hour in a free and unrestricted conversation with the President. McCulloch, full of the views which I had urged, advised that the President should at once issue a proclamation after the manner of Jackson in regard to nullification, appealing to the people.

I inquired of the President if he had seen Doolittle since Sunday, and told him what I thought of the proposed form of call, and that the just alarm on the proposed change of the Constitution ought not on any account to be omitted. The people ought not to be deluded and cheated by trash. He concurred with me. I inquired if he had noticed that important omission in the proposed call. He did not answer direct, but said the call was too much in detail.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 529-31

Congressman Horace Mann, July 13, 1851

WASHINGTON, July 13, 1851.

A Virginian told me yesterday that he saw I kept preaching; and, upon my evincing some curiosity to know what he meant, he said he heard a discourse from me the day before, — Sunday; all which, being at last interpreted, meant that he had heard a street temperance-lecturer read my Letter to the Worcester Temperance Convention, to a large audience which he had collected. I see the letter itself is in Monday's "Commonwealth."

I was glad to see in some paper yesterday a letter from Gen. Scott to Gen. Jackson, declining a challenge for a duel which the latter had sent him. It was well written, saying at the end that he, Gen. Jackson, could probably gratify his feelings by calling him, Scott, coward, &c., till after the next war; meaning thereby, that, in another war, he would have an opportunity to vindicate his courage, &c.

The general impression here is that Mr. Webster cares nothing for the Whig party, but will accept a nomination from any body of men not too contemptible to be noticed.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 350