[TO B. CRISPEN, AND H. B. WRIGHT, ESQUIRES, AND OTHER MEMBERS OF
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN THE LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA.]
Washington, February 2d, 1843.
Gentlemen:—
Your letter of congratulation on my recent re-election to the Senate of the United States has inspired me with feelings of profound gratitude. To have been thrice elected to this eminent station by the Democratic senators and representatives of my native State is an honor which ought to satisfy the ambition of any man: and its value is greatly enhanced by your assurance that in selecting me for another term, you but acted in accordance with the united voice of the Democratic party of Pennsylvania. So highly do I prize their good opinion that I can declare with heart-felt sincerity I would not forfeit this for all the political honors which my country could bestow. Their unsolicited and continued support have conferred upon me whatever of distinction in public life I may enjoy; and if it were possible for me now to desert their principles, I should feel that I deserved a traitor’s doom. Instead of being elated, I am humbled by the consciousness of how little I have ever done to merit all their unexampled kindness.
Of all the political parties which have ever existed, the Democratic party are the most indulgent and confiding masters. All they demand of any public servant is honestly and faithfully to represent their principles in the station where they have placed him; and this I feel proudly conscious that I have done in the Senate of the United States, according to my best ability. I can, therefore, offer you no pledge for my future conduct except the guarantee of the past.
You have been further pleased to say that as Pennsylvanians you desire to see me “elevated to the highest office in the gift of the people,” and you tender me “to the Union as Pennsylvania’s favorite candidate for the next Presidency.” I can solemnly declare that I was wholly unprepared for such an enunciation from the Democratic members of the legislature, having never received the slightest intimation of their intention until after their letter had been actually signed.
Both principle and a becoming sense of the merit of others have hitherto prevented me from taking any, even the least part in promoting my own elevation to the Presidency. I have no ambitious longings to gratify, conscious as I am that I have already received more of the offices and honors of my country than I have ever deserved. If I know my own heart, I should most freely resign any pretensions which the partiality of friends has set up for me, if by this I could purchase harmony and unanimity in the selection of a Democratic candidate. Besides, however proper it may be that candidates for inferior offices should make personal efforts to secure success, I am deeply convinced that the highest office under heaven ought to be the voluntary gift of the only free people upon earth. It ought to be their own spontaneous gift to the most worthy; and this alone can render it the crowning glory of a well spent public life. This alone can prevent the danger to our institutions which must result from the violent struggles of personal and interested partisans. The principles of the man, whom the people may thus delight to honor, ought to have borne the test of long and severe service, and ought to stand out in such bold relief before his country as to place all doubt in regard to them at defiance. In my opinion, the candidate who would either intrigue or personally electioneer for the Presidency raises a strong presumption that he is unworthy of it. Whether it be probable that a man resolved, under the blessing of Providence, to act upon these principles, will ever reach the Presidency, you can judge better than myself. I ought however in justice to myself to observe, that whilst this is my fixed purpose, I do not feel the less grateful to those kind and partial friends who have deemed me worthy of the highest office, because I have never attempted to enlist them in my support.
With these views plainly presented before the Democracy of Pennsylvania, if they should resolve to offer my name to the National Convention as a candidate for the Presidency with that degree of unanimity which can alone give moral force to their recommendation, I feel that I ought not to counteract their wishes. Should they determine differently, this will not be to me a cause of the slightest mortification.
One remark I am impelled to make before closing this letter. The principles and the success of the party so immeasurably transcend in importance the elevation of any individual that they ought not to be jeopardized in the slightest degree by personal partiality for either of the candidates. Every candidate who has been named, and hundreds of individuals whose names have never been mentioned, would ably and faithfully administer the Government according to these principles. No good Democrat, therefore, ought to suffer his feelings to become so enlisted in favor of any one candidate, that he could not yield his cheerful and cordial support to any other who may be nominated by the National Convention.