"LINDENWALD, _Septr. 1st, '56_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I am happy to find that the 'sober second thought'
has brought you to the right conclusion, as I was quite sure it must
do. I may add, too, that I honor the scruples by which you have been
embarrassed. It requires no small share of moral courage for men of our
antecedents to keep the posts of right and duty against the influence
of such resentments as we have been exposed to. But it would have
been a crying shame to have had a single link broken in a family so
pre-eminently Democratic as yours has been--from Dr. and Mrs. Younglove
to Sammy.
"We are not only right, but the crisis is, in my judgment, the most
imminent and critical of any we have ever experienced. That union
should so long have been preserved in a confederacy which contains an
element of discord of such magnitude and of so disturbing a nature as
that of slavery, is a wonder--more surprising than its dissolution
would be. This has been owing to the fact, I firmly believe, the
single fact that there have always been neutralizing considerations of
sufficient force to maintain party cohesions between men of the free
and slave States. Slavery questions have from the beginning had more
or less to do with our political contests, but have never before had
the effect of dissolving old party connections and sympathies, and the
balance-wheel has thus been preserved. Now, for the first time in our
history, one side, and that the one in which we reside, has undertaken
to carry an election, including the control of the Federal government,
and against the united wishes of the other. It has placed itself in a
position which, for the first time cuts itself loose from all hope, if
not desire, of assistance in the slave States. It not only admits that
this is its position, but avows that it is a desirable one. It wishes
to accomplish its mastery by its own unaided arm. Now, it needs no
ghost to tell us that one successful effort of this description will be
followed by another, for men have too much the quality of wild beasts
in them to stop the pursuit when they have once tasted blood, and it
would be against reason and experience to expect a Union, in which
political mastery is so plainly exhibited and organized, to continue.
From this evil we have been saved by the state of parties which
hitherto existed, and to this danger are we exposed from the new and
extraordinary thing which has taken the place of it.
"Slavery agitation must be eradicated in some way or another, or
our institutions cannot continue in their present form. I was so
indignant against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise that I could
not do justice to the Kansas Organic Act, as that was the instrument
by which the outrage was perpetrated. But I am now satisfied that
if Mr. Pierce had from the beginning taken the stand he now seems
to be taking, and interfered against all foreign interference the
moment he saw the disposition to interfere, of which he had at least
notice in the movements of the Missourians, the country would have
been saved from the disgrace to which our institutions have been
exposed in the estimation of the world, Kansas would have been a
Territory so decidedly free as to put an end to attempts to make it
a slave State, the country would have been quiet, the party united,
and he renominated. All that is now wanted to secure many of the most
important of these results is a rigid and effectual execution of the
Kansas Organic Act. Although I am not a particular admirer of Mr.
Buchanan, I have reasons that satisfy my mind that he will, if elected,
secure to the country this great advantage, and therefore, and because
he is the regular nominee of the party, I should vote for him. If I did
not think so I would not go to the polls. I do have a very favorable
opinion of Col. Fremont personally, but cannot for a moment doubt,
from his utter want of experience in the affairs of government, and
his inexperience in everything that belongs to it, that he would, if
elected, inevitably be thrown into the hands of Seward, Greeley, and
Weed, and I do not think the difficulties in Kansas could be brought to
anything like a satisfactory result through such agencies. I, on the
contrary, think there is the greatest reason to fear that to commit
the power of the government into such hands, at a moment so critical
as the present, would be but 'the beginning of the end' in regard to
the confederacy. There are, I trust, few Democrats who would like to
subject to their control and to the plundering propensities of their
followers, the treasury, much less the government itself. Our friends
who think they can go with the so-called Republicans this once and then
return, make a dangerous experiment. Their party has always been a
bourne from whence very few Democratic travellers have ever returned.
The reasons for this are numerous and too obvious to make it necessary
to detail them. They have, therefore, but one of two courses to
pursue--that is to trust to the Democratic nominee and the conservative
characters of the Democratic party, or to fly to evils they know not
of, save only that except upon a single point, out of a great many,
they cannot even hope for favorable results.
"But I must stop. This is the first private letter I have written about
the election, and it will probably be the last, and nothing but my very
great respect for yourself and your race, and my desire to preserve
their Democratic consistency, could have induced me to write this. If
it gets into the newspapers I would leave no stone unturned to have you
punished.
"Upon the subject of your last inquiry, I do not possess definite
knowledge. I believe no final resolution has yet been come to. But
I can tell you nothing encouraging. If ancient Federalism gain its
long-lost ascendancy in that quarter, as it is so apt to do one time or
another, I should give up judging of character.
"Remember me very kindly to your mother, sister and brother, and
believe me,
"Very truly,
"Your friend,
"M. VAN BUREN."
"_Moses Tilden, Esq._"