"HARRISBURG, _Feb. 23d, 1853_.
"_Confidential._
"MY DEAR SIR,--A little matter of business, which called me here for
a day, has brought me again in contact with Gov. Bigler, and his
impressions are so strong on a point I casually mentioned to you
in New York that I think it not improper to repeat his suggestion
more formally. It is that, in case you have decided to take Mr.
Campbell[20] into your cabinet, you should, if practicable, put him in
the Interior or Navy, rather than the Post-Office. The Gov. says the
Catholics are very numerous in this State--enough to make it probable
that, in many instances, they may become candidates for appointment
as postmasters--and enough to awaken little neighborhood jealousies
respecting them. He deems it undesirable that Mr. C., as the head of
the department, should be called upon officially to decide on these
cases, and be exposed to the suspicion of appointing from religious
partiality, or to the necessity of doing injustice in order to avoid
that imputation. It is worth considering whether these views have not
more force than your own observation in the different condition of
things existing in New England would induce you at first to give them.
In expressing them, the Gov. can have no motive but the welfare of your
administration and of the party here, and his observation of the state
of opinion here is entitled to a consideration. He seems to entertain
these ideas so strongly, and so much to _desire that they shall_ be
presented to you, that I take the liberty of drawing your attention
once more to them;--not to press them upon you, but that your mind may
pause upon them and take their exact measure before you conclude the
question.
"I am not sure that my engagements will permit me to be in Washington
at the inauguration; but I hope, at any rate, to have the pleasure of
seeing you soon after.
"With great respect,
"I remain, truly,
"Your friend."
"_His Exy. Franklin Pierce_."
We have here a continuation of suggestions which Mr. Tilden felt called
upon to present to President Pierce to guide him in his dispensation
of his patronage in the State of New York. It makes one sad to think
what an opportunity was lost by this President, and through him by the
country, from his failure to see the wisdom of this advice and to adopt
it. Had Mr. Pierce respected the public opinion of the State of New
York and properly recognized the political sentiments and sympathies of
the majority there, as he did in the Southern States, the presumption
is that the Nullification party would have been as effectually disarmed
under his administration as it was by President Jackson a quarter
of a century before. Franklin Pierce, however, was a different man
from Andrew Jackson, and the conditions under which he received his
nomination did not leave him a free agent.
It was only at this stage of Pierce's administration that Tilden began
to indulge in the deplorable error of walking by sight and not by
faith. He did not believe, nor did he ever again seem to comprehend,
that in the slave States all other questions even the Constitution of
our government and the integrity of our territory, were subordinate
throughout the South to the preservation and extension of slavery; that
every person who ventured publicly to express a doubt of the wisdom of
allowing slavery to extend to the free Territories was pronounced there
a _suspect_, and was proscribed as a person who tainted every one who
associated with him politically. The Nullifiers saw, and saw correctly,
that the anti-slavery sentiment could only be resisted in America as
heresy was resisted by Louis XIV. in France--by crushing the heretics
or driving them from the country. To reason with Pierce in favor of
dispensing his patronage in the State of New York in accordance with
the public opinion of the State, was as idle as the lambs reasoning
with the wolf in the fable.
The following notes, though without address, were without doubt
prepared by Tilden and addressed to Pierce or to some one for his
perusal. By the paging of the MS., it appears that thirteen pages,
which have not been found, preceded those which are here submitted to
the reader.