To Messrs. Palmer, Putney, Davenport, Richardson, Gardner, and others.--
Gentlemen:
Your letter inviting me to become a candidate for the Convention, to be held next month, has been read by me with feelings of great personal gratification.--The number of persons by whom it is subscribed is a pleasing evidence of the kind feelings which the people of Richmond have for me. Besides the persons who are subscribers to your letter, a great many have solicited me to be a candidate for the Convention, and I cordially make my acknowledgments for such a manifestation of confidence.
The position which you propose to assign me is one of the gravest and most fearful responsibility; and as you think I may be of service in the deliberations of the State, you are welcome to use my name as a candidate for the Convention.
It is proper, however, that I should communicate to you my position, as I do not wish any one to vote for me or against me under a false impression.
Letters and speeches are now-a-days so long and so numerous that they are not apt to be carefully read or considered; but, being a candidate for your suffrages, I deem it proper to give you some indication of my views.
The Government of the United States is yet in the infancy of its existence.
In the lifetime of nations, it has lived scarcely a day. In growth and power it has no parallel in history.
To our shores we have welcomed the sons of every clime, and in every clime our flag has been recognized as the representative of a great and powerful people.
At home we have been united, prosperous and happy; now we are divided, distressed and unhappy.
Evil times betide us. The Government, which was formed by our forefathers, is threatened with destruction.
At the very prospect of this, you have already realized a sad experience.
In the place of peace, we have the melancholy prospect of war. Many of you have no occupation, because the times will not authorize your employment.
Your resources are weakened, your credit is impaired, and the people generally, without regard to party or classes, really feel distressed and unhappy in the present condition of the country.
We know that this is owing to the agitation of the question of slavery.
This is an institution which we believe to be not only lawful in the sight of man, but God.
Its existence has been a source of violent contention with the politicians of the country for a long time.
Its agitation has not only disturbed the harmony of the Confederation and the peace of the country, but has already in part broken up the Government.
A mad and infatuated feeling on the part of the Northern people against an institution of which they know nothing, has caused them to deny the Southern people rights which are plainly guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
Crimination has begotten crimination.
Abuse on one side has been returned with abuse on the other.
Excitement on all sides thus run high, and we all, therefore, find it difficult to consider with sufficient calmness the present troubles which surround and disturb us. Under such circumstances, we are all apt to do in a moment of impetuosity what we may never be able to undo; and therefore if we wish to act wisely, we ought to think well.
I have given to the present condition of affairs a great deal of consideration, and my opinion is, that the subject of slavery ought to be settled for once and forever.
We know that we are entitled to its unmolested enjoyment, and I think we ought to demand its unmolested enjoyment.
If the North will give us this guarantee, so as to put the future agitation of slavery at rest, in plain and unmistakable terms, I think we ought to remain in the Union.
I think so, because I fear civil war; and if bloody revolution once begins in this country, its history, its woes, its gloom, and its desolation, will perhaps present to the world the ‘"bloodiest picture in the book of time."’
Whether we can have these guarantees, we do not yet positively know.
Our Legislature has just delegated five able Commissioners to go to Washington for the purpose of conferring with the representatives of other States, and of ascertaining what, if anything, can be done to save the country.
They will not assemble until the 4th of February, and we of course, therefore, cannot hear from them until after that time.
If, after having exhausted these honorable means to save the country and its peace, we fail to do so, my opinion is that we should say to the Northern people, ‘"You have refused to live with us on terms of equality, and we will not live with you upon any other terms; ours is therefore an unsuitable and an insufferable connection; we will part from you peaceably if we can, but forcibly if we must."’ To the doctrine of coercion I am unalterably opposed, because no government which is sustained by force can be the government of a free, republican people.
These are, briefly, my views.
They seem to me to be reasonable.
They may be modified to-morrow or next day, according to the events of the day, and if it be the pleasure of the people of Richmond to honor me with a seat in the Convention, I can only promise to do my best to maintain the honor, and to advance the interests of Virginia.
I have deemed it proper to say this much to you because I desire you to know what views I entertain, and, further, because I have seen this morning that one of the leading journals of the day, the ‘"Richmond Enquirer,"’ has assailed my claims to the suffrages of the people of Richmond, upon the ground that I have ‘"avowed coercion in its most odious form,"’ and for this relies upon an isolated sentence extracted from a dinner speech, made on a social occasion, at the hour of three o'clock in the morning.
Now, on this occasion, I did not discuss or allude to the question of coercion, and it does so happen that the subject of coercion has never been an issue of discussion in any canvass in which I have been engaged.--Those, however, who have ever heard me speak upon the subject in private, know that it is a doctrine to which I have always been opposed, as I am now. Why it is that I am one of the first to be assailed, I do not know.
Whether I will make for you a proper representative, I leave to my fellow-citizens of Richmond. 