(J. J. Crittenden to G. B. Kinkead.)

WASHINGTON, January 10, 1847. DEAR SIR,-I have received your letter of the 2d instant, and thank you for it. I may well feel some pride in the partiality and commendation of one known to me from his boyhood, and who is himself (I can say it in language of the simplest truth) esteemed and commended by all who know him.

I concur cordially with you in the patriotic sentiment, that principles are to be preferred to men, and that the triumph of a good cause ought not to be sacrificed or hazarded by the indulgence of any personal favoritism in the selection of a candidate. The selection of a candidate is a secondary consideration, and should be made with a due regard to all the circumstances that might render him more or less efficient in advancing the great cause that he represents.

And it is therefore that I think the nomination of a candidate for the Presidency ought to be forborne by the Whigs as long as possible, so that they may have the benefit of all intermediate occurrences, and all indications of the popular feeling and opinion to guide them in their choice, and may have the advantage of the last lesson that time can give them on the subject.

This is the general sentiment of the Whigs here. They think that it would be premature and impolitic for their party to bring forward, in any prominent or conspicuous manner, candidates for the Presidency at this time, or for some time to come; that those candidates would immediately become objects of attack by their political opponents, and enable the latter to divert the public mind from that attention to, and scrutiny of, the conduct and measures of the present administration, which is now bringing down daily condemnation upon it and the party that sustains it.

From all this you may readily infer my answer to your question, whether I am willing to consent that my Kentucky friends should place my name before the people of the United States as a candidate for the Presidency. I should very much regret it, and I do believe that such a nomination would be more prejudicial than favorable to the pretensions which you and other too partial friends are disposed to set up for me. My name, without the least agency on my part, has somehow or other gone abroad to the public in connection with the Presidency, and to an extent that has surprised me, and I find myself most unexpectedly set down in the grave list of personages out of whom it is supposed a President may possibly be made. If there is any "conjuration" in my name, it will be found out as well without any formal nomination as with it. My

opinion is, however, that no such discovery will be made. There will then be an easy end of the matter, so far as I am concerned, and my friends and I will be saved from any imputation of intrusiveness on the subject. In any event, it will be time enough to act next winter. By that time things will be developed, and we shall be able to see and act more clearly and understandingly. My opinion, my advice, my wish is that all action be postponed till then. I wish you to believe that I speak in all sincerity when I say that I not only feel no longing, no impatience, on the subject, but that I feel something more like alarm than gratification at being spoken of as a candidate for the Presidency. I do not know whether this indifference or shrinking results from my natural disposition or from the circumstances and relations towards others in which I have grown up. But if I was ever so anxious on the subject, if my feelings were ever so different from what they are, I, should think it very bad policy, considered in that point of view only, that I or my friends should appear even to push Mr. Clay aside. I grieve to be obliged to concur with you that his present prospects seem to me to be discouraging and gloomy. But a change may take place. If not, he will not desire to become a candidate, and his mighty aid will be then freely and nobly given to any other that may be selected as the standard-bearer of his principles and his party. I think that such a deference and such a delay are no less due to him than required by sound policy.

In my anxiety to secure your hearty concurrence in these views, and to satisfy you that it is best to postpone any movement on the subject of the Presidency, I find that I have been very tedious, and this acknowledgment, I fear, will be considered as but a poor recompense to you.

Believe me to be very sincerely, your friend,

G. B. KINKEAD, Esq.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

CHAPTER XXI.

1846-1847.

Letter of General Taylor to Mr. Crittenden from Monterey, Mexico-Reply of Mr. Crittenden-Letter of James E. Edwards to Crittenden-Webster to Crittenden-Letter of Mr. Clay to Mr. Crittenden, inclosing J. L. White's Letter to Mr. Clay.

(General Taylor to J. J. Crittenden.)

MONTEREY, MEXICO, January 26, 1847. Y DEAR SIR,-Your highly esteemed and very wel

November, favored by your son, Mr. Thos. L. Crittenden, was handed me on the night of the 25th ult. while on the march from this place to Victoria, the capital of the department of Tamaulipas, for which you have my sincere thanks, more particularly so for intrusting to my care my young relative, who I much fear, from the awkward and unpleasant position I have been placed in by those in high places, will be greatly disappointed in not having an opportunity to accomplish what he has made such great sacrifices to do, which was to have an opportunity to come in collision with the enemies of his country, as I have in a great measure been stripped of my commandlaid on the shelf; or, in other words, I am ordered to act strictly on the defensive, or it is expected that I will do so; so that I need not expect again to see the enemy in force or in battle during the continuance of the present administration. But let matters and things fall out as they may, I shall take the best possible care of him as long as he is disposed to continue in the country, and hope to restore him, if not covered with scars and laurels, to his family and friends in at least excellent health, as well as being gratified at many of the scenes he will have passed through while in this country.

On the 10th of October I received, by Lieutenant Armstead, dispatches from the War Department informing me that copies of the same had been sent to Major-General Patterson, authorizing him to organize a force to move on Tampico, if I approved it, giving as a reason for commencing a correspondence with my subordinates on such subjects was to prevent delays, which might occur in consequence of the distance between General

Patterson and myself, which reason was futile and without foundation, as, in the first place, General Patterson could not move without I approved the measure; and secondly, the distance between us could be readily overcome by express in twenty-four hours. As soon as the secretary commenced tinkering with my subordinates in my rear I was satisfied I was not to be fairly dealt by by that high functionary, and my suspicions have been fully verified. Again, on the 2d of November, I received by the hands of Major Graham, of the Topographical Corps, sent as an express, dispatches in answer to mine announcing the fall of Monterey, directing me to put an end to the armistice entered into with the Mexican commander, and to recommence hostilities with renewed vigor, when the same would have expired in five days by limitation after due notice was given to the enemy. This dispatch was followed by another brought by Mr. McLane, son of our late minister to England, directing me not to advance on San Luis Potosi, but to remain where I was and to fortify Monterey; at the same time suggesting a descent on Vera Cruz, which they thought might be taken with four thousand men, presuming I could spare that number from the lower Rio Grande; and, if I thought well of the measure, I could detach Major-General Patterson with the force in question on said duty. In reply, I informed the secretary that I thought not less than ten thousand should be employed on such an enterprise; that but little should be left to hazard so far from reinforcements, supplies, etc.; but that if he would organize an efficient force in the States of six thousand men and send them to Vera Cruz, with the necessary means to carry on the most active operations against the city and castle, which ought to be done by the Ioth of the present month, I would hold at or in the vicinity of Tampico four thousand men to join the six thousand, the whole to be under the command of General Patterson, or any other officer the department might designate. This communication was written about the 14th of November, to which I have, up to the present moment, received no answer, as well as to several other important ones.

Soon after sending the communication referred to, I received a private or unofficial letter from General Scott, stating he had addressed a memoir to the War Department on the subject of an attack on Vera Cruz, stating that it ought not to be made with a less force than ten thousand men, six thousand regulars, claiming the command of the expedition, which he did not expect would be given him, and objecting to its being given to Patterson on account of his being a foreigner. It appears, however, that he, General Scott, wormed himself into the same, which he effected, and which was determined on, on the 18th of Novem

ber, when he proceeded to New York, from where he wrote me another private letter full of professions, in which he states he was on his way to this country, charged with important duties, which he did not feel authorized to disclose or communicate by mail, for fear his dispatches might fall into the hands of the enemy; that he had no officer at hand to send with them, etc., in which I have no doubt he was entirely mistaken; that he would leave New York for New Orleans on the 30th of November, expected to reach the latter place by the 12th of December, Brazos by the 17th, and Camargo on the 23d, when he would communicate with me fully by letter, as he did not expect to see me, and he might have very properly said he did not wish to do so; that he was not coming to supersede me, but would take from me the greater portion of my command, both regulars and volunteers, leaving me to act purely on the defensive until Congress could raise an army for me to command, which he hoped they would do by adding to the establishment some eight new regiments, and by large bounties would fill the ranks, so as to enable me to move into the enemy's country by May or June, and meet him somewhere in Mexico; all of which he knew was out of the question.

From the middle of November to the middle of December I was busily engaged in occupying Saltillo and Parras, when I left here for Victoria, for the objects I stated to you in my last communication, with about four thousand men, directing General Patterson to move from Matamoras with two regiments of foot and one of mounted volunteers, to unite with me at Victoria, leaving Major-General Butler with a respectable force in command here, General Wool at Parras, and General Worth at Saltillo; all to be under the command of the former when united, which was to be the case in the event of Santa Anna's moving on the latter place. On the night of the third day's march from here, when forty-five miles distant, I received by express from General Butler information that a dispatch from General Worth had reached him stating that Santa Anna was marching on Saltillo with a large force, asking reinforcements, in consequence of which I returned here by forced marches, passing Monterey the second day a short distance with most of the regulars with me, directing General Quitman to continue on to Victoria with upwards of two thousand volunteers and one battery of regular artillery, to form a junction with General Patterson, with orders to drive a body of the enemy's cavalry at and near Victoria, about fifteen hundred strong, across the mountains, which was done. The third day, and the next after passing this place, I received a letter from General Butler, who had proceeded to Saltillo, that the report of Santa Anna's move