"GILSEY HOUSE, NEW YORK, _April 23d, 1884_.
"DEAR SIR,--I regret that your business engagements make
it inconvenient for you to receive me for a few minutes, as I
am obliged to set out for home on Thursday evening, and came on
from Washington (where I have been in attendance on the Sup. Ct.)
principally to see you.
"You must be aware that the Democratic party will not even consider
the question of selecting among candidates for the Presidency,
unless satisfied that you will be incapable of entering on the
discharge of the duties of the office when elected.
"Sensible men in the party will not ask that you _consent_ to be a
candidate, nor will they regard the fact that you decline to become
a candidate.
"Those who wish to see the Republican party maintained in power till
we shall cease to have a Republican _government_ try to persuade the
people that your health renders it _impossible_ for you to discharge
the duties of the office. Those in our own party, who look to their
own interests rather than to the good of the people, would also have
us believe this.
"Though comparatively a young man, I acted in 1848 as secretary of a
meeting of distinguished men in the Senate who, indignant at Cass'
answer in the question of slavery in the territories, proposed to
bring out another Democratic candidate, so as to insure his defeat
and teach the majority of the party a lesson.
"They selected Littleton Waller Tazewell, of Virginia, and addressed
him a letter, asking that he should become a candidate. I, as
secretary, preceded this letter to him with a private letter,
assuring him that in addition to the names of Yancey and others
composing the committee, that the movement would be supported by
Jefferson Davis and other leaders who would also write to him to
urge his candidacy.
"Mr. Tazewell replied at once, saying substantially that, while
entertaining the same opinions, and cherishing the same hopes
expressed by the committee, he must decline to allow the use of
his name as a candidate, and that no additional numbers, however
respectable, would alter his views.
"He advised them to select a candidate from another class; that
the Priams of the party said that he could only hope to last _telum
imbellisim ictu_, etc., etc.
"In his private letter to me he said that, recognizing me as the son
of an old friend, he would say that, while old and infirm (upwards
of eighty, I think), he regarded it as the duty of the citizen to
serve the State when called on. That Coriolanus had admitted this.
That any man could say he would not become a _candidate_, but no one
could say he would not _serve_ the State.
"I am one of the few survivors of the patriotic but mistaken
associates who addressed that letter to Tazewell thirty-six years
ago. On his declination no further steps were taken, and the matter
was kept quiet. Some of them have since filled high offices--one was
afterwards a justice of Supreme Court, New York, others Senators in
Congress--places which they would never have filled had this affair
become public. Had it become public it is possible that Yancey's
influence would have been so far impaired that he would not have
possessed the power, in 1860, to 'precipitate the South into a
revolution.'
"I thought that a history of this matter might be interesting to
you, and that I might draw some inferences from its discussion
with you which might enable me to render a valuable service to the
country. I believe that Hon. John A. Campbell is the only man now
living who could be compromised in any manner by what I have said as
to the correspondence with Mr. Tazewell in 1848; but can rely, of
course, on your discretion for the preservation of a curious bit of
political history.
"Resp'y and truly yours,
"HENRY C. SEMPLE."