(From Washington
Union, October 12, 1847.)
Brierfield, Sep. 19, 1847.
C. J. Searles, Esq.—My dear sir: Your highly valued letter of
the 3d inst. came duly to hand, but found me quite sick, and I have not
been able at an earlier date to reply to it. Accept my thanks for your kind
solicitude for my welfare.
Your past conduct
enabled me to anticipate this from you, and I am therefore doubly grateful.
The political
information you communicate was entirely new to me, and it is only under the
belief that the crisis renders important the views of every southern man, that
I can account for any speculations having arisen about my opinions as to the
next presidency. I have never anticipated a separation upon this question from
the democracy of Mississippi; and if such intention or expectation has been
attributed to me, it is not only unauthorized but erroneous.
It might become
necessary to unite us southern men, and to dissolve the ties which have
connected us to the northern democracy, the position recently assumed in a
majority of the non-slaveholding States has led me to fear. Yet, I am not of
those who decry a national convention, but believe that present circumstances
with more than usual force indicate the propriety of such meeting. On the
question of southern institutions and southern rights, it is true that
extensive defections have occurred among northern democrats; but enough of good
feeling is still exhibited to sustain the hope that as a party they will show
themselves worthy of their ancient appellation, the natural allies of the
south, and will meet us upon just constitutional ground. At least I consider it
due to former associations that we should give them the fairest opportunity to
do so, and furnish no cause for failure by seeming distrust or aversion.
I would say, then,
let our delegates meet those from the north, not as a paramount object to nominate
candidates for the presidency and vice presidency, but, before entering upon
such selection, to demand of their political brethren of the north a disavowal
of the principles of the Wilmot Proviso, an admission of the equal right of the
south with the north to the territory held as the common property of the United
States, and a declaration in favor of extending the Missouri compromise to all
States to be hereafter admitted into our confederacy.
If these principles
are recognised, we will happily avoid the worst of all political divisions—one
made by geographical lines merely. The convention, representing every section
of the Union, and elevated above local jealousy and factious strife, may
proceed to select candidates, whose principles, patriotism, judgment, and
decision indicate men fit for the time and the occasion. If, on the other hand,
that spirit of hostility to the south, hat thirst for political dominion over
us, which, within two years past, has displayed such increased power and
systematic purpose, should prevail, it will only remain for our delegates to
withdraw from the convention, and inform their fellow-citizens of the failure
of their mission. We shall then have reached a point at which all party
measures sink into insignificance under the necessity for self-preservation;
and party divisions should be buried in union for defence.
But, until then, let
us do all which becomes us to avoid sectional division, that united we may go
on to the perfection of democratic measures, the practical exemplification of
those great principles for which we have struggled, as promotive of the peace,
the prosperity, and the perpetuity of our confederation.
Though the signs of
the times are portentous of evil, and the cloud which now hangs on our northern
horizon threatens a storm, it may yet blow over with only the tear-drops of
contrition and regret. In this connexion it is consolatory to remember, that
whenever the tempest has convulsively tossed our republic and threatened it with
wreck, brotherly love has always poured oil on the waters, and the waves have
subsided to rest. Thus may it be now and forever. If we should be disappointed
in such hopes, I forbear from any remark upon the contingency which will be
presented. Enough for the day will be the evil thereof, and
enough for the evil will be the union and energy and power of the south.
I hope it will soon
be in my power to visit you and other friends at Vicksburg, from whom I have
been so long separated. I am, as ever, truly your friend,
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
SOURCE: Dunbar
Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers
and Speeches, Volume 1, p. 94-6
