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
