the distinguished visitors: I know you will take pleasure in hearing that these two noble fellows are in good health. I had the honor to see them this morning, face to face, at the StateHouse gate. They looked interesting, but I had only a moment's satisfaction in beholding them. They appeared anxious, I thought, to deprive me of that pleasure. When will Congress adjourn? When will you be at home? What will Congress do? How does Captain Tyler stand? How do his promising boys behave? How does Webster stand the racket? Has he proved himself clear of all fornications by affidavits or otherwise, and will he reinain in his present situation long, or will he be pushed out? I think he will be thrown overboard before very long. Your friend,

Hon. J. J. CRITTENDEN.

R. P. LETCHER.

CHAPTER XIV.

1842.

The Loan Bill-Apportionment Bill-Letter of James Buchanan to R. P. Letcher.Letters of Letcher, Clay, and Crittenden.

ΤΗ

HE following eloquent and touching appeal to the senator from Arkansas, will strike all who knew Mr. Crittenden as eminently characteristic of him:

Mr. Crittenden.-Mr. President, in reference to the charge made against the Whig party by the senator from Arkansas, that they were a debt, loan, and tax party, I can only observe, that I had hoped a pause would be allowed, in the present condition of the government and the country, for breathing-time, for patriotism to come into action. I have, however, heard, in the last few days, two speeches from a gentleman known to me, and esteemed by every one in all the relations of life, in which he charges his friends with unworthy objects and intentions. I have heard this charge uttered with deep regret. The calamities which menace the country require the co-operation of wise counsels and unimpassioned deliberation. What tendency can crimination and recrimination have to reach just conclusions? What light can they shed upon public counsels? The fierce fire of party is one that burns, but sheds no light. I am sure it is impossible that in a heart so generous and so just as that possessed by the senator from Arkansas, there should exist at belief that the object of the Whig party was to bring down destruction on the country, or to involve him and his posterity in the calamities that he depicts. It seems to me we might debate on the affairs of government without so much asperity. I am willing to bear all my responsibility; but it is known to every gentleman in this body that the Whig party have not the control of the government, and in all fairness an undue share of responsibility should not be thrown upon them. There is no man more willing to retrench and reform than myself, and I believe this to be the case with my friends. We are willing to take counsel with these gentlemen themselves, and I implore them. not to suppose that we wish to fill the hands of the government with money to squander in extravagance. How can the senator

from Arkansas, after casting an imputation on the Whig party of opposing and abusing the President, suppose that they were anxious to place in his hands the means of wasteful expenditures? I will vote for this bill, but I will do so with profound reluctance; I vote for it under a sense of obligation, which impels me to act from public duty. It seems to me that the allusions made by the senator from Arkansas, to the relations of the Whig party with the President of the United States, were unkind and ungenerous; but I will not be drawn into any debate on this point; I will choose the time and occasion to revert to such matters, if it should be ever necessary to do so. I had hoped the time had come-a marvelous time-when the two great contending parties might meet on one common platform and reason together.

On the 24th of May, 1842, there was a debate on the apportionment bill, and Mr. Crittenden argued for the smallest ratio of congressional representation. In relation to the other amendment proposed, that of not requiring States to be districted for the election of representatives, Mr. Crittenden did not approve of the modification; he did not wish it to be left optional with the States to take the district system or the general ticket system; he was conscientiously opposed to the latter and in favor of the former; he believed that the only fair mode of obtaining a just representation was by the local district system; he thought the general ticket system nothing but a return to the old continental Federal system. Give the States of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio that general ticket system, and these three States, he was confident, could control the other twenty-three with imperial power; he believed there was not now a single State which elected their presidential electors by district, and in that there was a bright example burning with evidence of what might be expected in relation to elections for members of Congress. He was not willing to convert our republican system into an oligarchy. The senator from New York, Mr. Wright, tells us that if we pass the law for districting the States, New York will not obey. This sort of defiance should not be brandished in the face of the country to weaken our great bonds of union. He trusted this sentiment, though forcibly spoken, was uttered without deliberation.

(James Buchanan to R. P. Letcher.)

WASHINGTON, April 17, 1842. MY DEAR SIR,-I have done all I could do for Kentucky and her highly esteemed governor. I believe the course I have pursued has been satisfactory to his magnificent ambassador, General Leslie Coombs, and to Mr. Crittenden. By-the-by, this same ambassador is a man among a thousand; I like him very much, and yet I have never seen any specimen of human nature with which he could be compared. I think he possesses a clear head and a warm heart, and yet he talks too much for a diplomatist, unless he acts upon the principle of Talleyrand, that the use of speech was given to man to conceal his ideas. He is an agreeable study, however, and I should be pleased to have another chance at him. I think the Whig party, just now, is in a sick and lowly condition, and the sooner you get out of it the better. The grand Sir Hal is worth the whole concern, and they will, in the end, be false to him. Some of them are beginning to look over their left shoulder already. With how much more dignity he would close his political career by retiring to Ashland, and keeping out of the presidential struggle! The just fame which he has acquired ought to satisfy any man's ambition. So far as I am personally concerned, I am sincerely sorry he has left the Senate; he was an ugly customer, it is true, but there was a pleasure in contending against such a man, and one sustained no disgrace in being vanquished by him. I like Crittenden very much, and he is a very able and adroit partisan debater. I know nothing of the four-horse team to which you allude; I think they do not desire to hitch on with them the hero of the Thames. The late minister to England, or the late governor of Tennessee, will, most probably, be Van's Vice, should he be nominated. But you will learn all about it from his own lips, as I presume you will be of the party at Ashland to welcome the ex-President and his Neptune. Tyler and his cabinet are a poor concern; they live upon expedients from day to day, and have no settled principles by which to guide their conduct. The Toadies flatter him with the belief that whilst the politicians are deadly hostile to him, from jealousy of his rising fortunes, the people are everywhere rising en masse and coming to his rescue. Such is the tone of the Madisonians, and if you desire to obtain an office from him I advise you to pursue that course. Unless I am greatly mistaken in the signs of the times, an attempt will soon be made to head Mr. Clay on the subject of a national bank. It would seem that Tyler is now willing to approve the bill of Ewing, and Mr. Clay is to be attacked for having defeated the establishment of a bank from jealousy of Tyler,-Heaven save the mark! His constitutional scruples

would be satisfied with the provision, that no branch should be established in any State without the consent of the legislature, though an agency to transact the business of the treasury would not require such permission. Tyler and Webster, then, are to become the chiefs of the great Whig National Bank party, and Clay is to be denounced for having prevented the adoption of his own favorite measure. So we go! This seems to be the present track, but how they may continue it is mighty uncertain. For myself, I am a looker-on here in Vienna. I have been long enough here to understand the game, though I never play myself. The movements in Pennsylvania have been voluntary, so far as I am concerned. The attempt of Colonel Johnson's friends there has been a greater failure than I anticipated. We shall not divide upon our presidential candidate. We have a way of chopping off the heads of those, without ceremony, who will not submit to the decisions of the party in the National Convention assembled.

With sentiments of grateful kindness,
I remain your friend,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

(J. J. Crittenden to Governor Letcher.)

WASHINGTON, May 1, 1842.

DEAR LETCHER,-My wife's arrival and my change of location, etc. have interrupted my correspondence for a time.

Clay's leaving Congress was something like the soul's quitting the body. His departure has had (at least I feel it so) an enervating effect. We shall gradually recover from it. Captain Tyler will serve as a blister-plaster to stimulate and excite us, and that, perhaps, is the very best use that he is susceptible of.

Tyler has produced the strangest sort of distraction and inaction that was ever seen. He sits in the midst of it, mighty busy and bustling,-the Tom Thumb of the scene,-thinking himself the admiration of the world and the favorite child of Providence. Take it altogether, it is the most severe burlesque on all human ambition and government that was ever witnessed. I know, however, that I can add nothing to your conception of the full merits of the scene. You have a quick taste for the perception of such rare exhibitions, and to your imagination I leave them. We understand here (and certainly the Madisonian gives signs of wrath) that the President is very angry with the poor Senate for its rudeness in rejecting some of his nominations, and especially that of Mr. Tyson, and threatens to turn out of office all "Clay Whigs and ultra Democrats," and to appoint none but "moderate men," alias Tyler-men.

VOL. I.-12