Boston, July 21, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR, — I
arrived here early on Saturday morning, and on inquiring for Mr. E. H. Allen,
our consul at the Sandwich Islands, I learned that he was sick here of a brain
fever, and too ill to be seen.
I went immediately
to Nahant, where my brother-in-law, Mr. Paige, has a summer residence, and
there passed Sunday, and on coming to town this morning have received your
letter.
The Tehuantepec
business is very important, and I am afraid we shall have a good deal of
trouble with it. The object of the canal is very important, and we ought to do
all that we can to facilitate it. Nevertheless, until we have a treaty, it does
not become a Government matter, and if the parties concerned see fit to
prosecute their plans, in defiance of Mexico, they must be regarded as acting
at their own risk. I shall be very glad to see Mr. Benjamin. I doubt much
whether there is to be an extra session of the Mexican Congress. It is quite
clear that General Arista expected no such thing at the date of his letter, and
I hardly know how Mr. Letcher can have received later information.
Nevertheless, it may be that he has. I shall be ready to go to Washington on
any summons.
Have the goodness to
direct Mr. Derrick to telegraph me here, if occasion should arise, and the
despatch will be sent to me by express wherever I may be. The despatch to Mr.
Severance, our commissioner at Honolulu, will be ready, as soon as I
receive our paper from the Department for which I wrote to-day. As the French
frigate, and The Vandalia have both left the Islands, I do not expect any
outbreak in that quarter immediately. But, still, I feel anxious that the
communication of Mr. Severance should be on its way, as soon as possible.
I go to Mrs. Webster
at Marshfield to-morrow morning. We do not propose to open our house on the
usual scale, or to resume our customary establishment. Mrs. Webster thinks of
going to Saratoga and Niagara with certain of her New York relations. I shall
remain pretty much secluded at Marshfield, or in its neighborhood, seeking
rest, and recovery of strength; but ready, nevertheless, to obey the shortest
summons to Washington. I have avoided seeing people here as much as possible,
and shall continue on that line of politics. Í trust, my dear Sir, that you
will write me freely, and not hesitate to call for me, whenever you desire my
presence.
I learned at New York
that the story of my going to Europe, &c., got out through Mr., to whom, I
suppose, Mr. Curtis or myself must have spoken on the subject. Friends here
have been quite alarmed at any such idea, but their fears are quieted.
SOURCE: Fletcher
Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol.
2, pp. 451-2
