SENATOR SILAS WRIGHT TO TILDEN
"Senate Chamber, Washington, April 11, 1844.
"My dear Sir,—Having labored in vain during the whole of yesterday to find time to write to you my promised letter, and not having approached the probability of such leisure between 8 o'clock A.M. and 12 o'clock P.M., I now take my seat for the purpose.
"I have conversed as extensively as I could with our Western friends upon the subject of the paper of which we take,[6] and all I can say, as to the result of my conferences, is that no dependence can be made upon them, beyond a reasonable effort to extend the subscription, in case we shall conclude to take the hazard of making the attempt to establish the paper. The same feeling of which I spoke to you has produced the influences I supposed it would, and it, together with the efforts we are making here to distribute documents, has cooled the anxiety formerly expressed for such a paper, and especially so when a suspicion arises that the man's own pocket may be connected with the effort to establish the paper.
"Still, I confess, I have not been able to diminish, to my own mind, the importance of such a paper to our cause. I think our State press, as a general remark, in a very bad state for the pending contest. The country press has been, time immemorial, accustomed to look to the Argus for lead and tone in these great fights, but the Argus, during the whole time we have been here, appears to me to have been insensible of the pendency of the contest, as perfectly unaware of what appears to me to be its true character. It is not my object to complain of the Argus, and I doubt not that the singular and very unfortunate state of things at Albany has embarrassed its cause, and perhaps presented reasons for its silence upon national questions, of which I am ignorant. In any event, the Argus furnishes no lead to the country press; we have no weekly general paper, and the Whigs, through the showers of the Tribune which they are pouring over the State, are doing much to get the start of us and to turn the current of feeling with the impulsive and unthinking against us. At least these are my fears, and it seems to me that these must be the natural consequences of constant effort and allegation and falsehood on the one side, and comparative silence upon the other. Of this, however, our friends at home can judge much better than I can, and I therefore renew the advice I gave you before we parted here, to go and make Mr. Van Buren a leisurely visit, and take his counsel and advice about the whole matter, and act as he shall think best.
"You will not be surprised when I tell you that the news from your charter election[7] has thrown everything here, for this morning, into that state of excitement and confusion which renders it troublesome for one to keep cool and good-natured both. After some months of constant session, the atmosphere becomes so thoroughly tainted here, and the members of Congress themselves become either so far corrupted, or so lost in their remembrances of home and what the people really are, that they are really more childish and more excitable than so many children, and it takes more patience than I can command to bear up against their whims. In the result of your charter election I have experienced little disappointment, and see no great cause of alarm. If our press would improve the advantages it presents, it appears to me it could not fail to fix the Irish and other emigrant vote throughout the country; but in this, as in other things, I fear we shall feel the want of some paper which is recognized as having a lead and giving the facts and the aims of the whole party. The Post is well edited for its place and circulation, but its exchange-list, I suppose, is not the broadest, and it never has been looked to for the party lead. I say this in no disparagement to Mr. Bryant, for no one holds him in higher estimation than I do, and it is our own fault and not his that his paper has not held the leading place.
"But I must return to the subject of my letter, and writing, as I do, in my seat, and in the hearing of an excited debate, I can say little more, even upon that. You can tell Mr. V. B. all our views about the proposed establishment of a paper as fully as I could repeat them to you as to him if I had the time, and if he shall think that we overestimate our need, or the utility of such a paper, if established, I shall be perfectly content that any farther movement be abandoned. If he thinks it best for you to consult any of our friends at Albany he will tell you who and how. You will let him know, too, that the reason we did not think of Albany, rather than New York, was that we supposed the state of things and state of feeling there to be such, and the relations to our two papers there, those which would be likely to defeat any movement made there with this view, or compel it to be made either against active opposition from our own friends or under dissatisfied feeling on the part of those connected with one of those papers.
"It appears to me that if anything is to be done it should be done quietly, so that the paper may commence with the nominations. I do not doubt, if subscribers are sent here to be distributed, that many, very many, subscribers will be obtained from without the State, and especially from Indiana and Illinois, and probably from Ohio and Michigan, but to that end all the time which can be given will be desirable.
"I must close, for I have been listening to speeches, while writing, until I do not know what I have said or what I wanted to say. After your return let me know the result of your mission as soon as you shall find leisure.
"I am, most truly, yours,
"Silas Wright."
"Private.
"N. B.—I shall write to Mr. V. B. upon this subject by this mail, and I think it not best for you to go up until after my letter can reach him. May it not be best for you to drop him a note, saying that you propose to make him a visit, naming the day, and telling him the subject is that of a paper, about which you suppose I have written to him?
"S. W."