James Buchanan.

P.S.—I should esteem it a personal favor to hear from you as soon as may be convenient.

From the important character of this letter and the earnest and reiterated request which I made for an early answer, I did not doubt but that I should receive one, giving me definite information, with as little delay as possible. I waited in vain until the 23d June; and having previously ascertained, through a friend, that my letter had been received by the President, I wrote him a second letter on that day, of which the following is a copy.

[TO HIS EXCELLENCY, FRANKLIN PIERCE.]

Wheatland, near Lancaster, June 23, 1853.

My Dear Sir:—

Not having yet been honored with an answer to my letter of the 14th inst., I infer from your silence, as well as from what I observe in the public journals, that you have finally changed your original purpose and determined that our important negotiations with England shall be conducted under your own eye at Washington, and not in London. Anxious to relieve you from all embarrassment upon the subject, I desire to express my cordial concurrence in such an arrangement, if it has been made; and I do this without waiting longer for your answer, as the day is now near at hand which was named for my departure from the country.[[8]] Many strong reasons, I have no doubt, exist, to render this change of purpose entirely proper and most beneficial for the public interest. I am not at all surprised at it, having suggested to you, when we conversed upon the subject, that Mr. Polk, who was an able and a wise man, had determined that our important negotiations with foreign powers, so far as this was possible, should be conducted at Washington, by the Secretary of State, under his own immediate supervision. With such a change I shall be altogether satisfied, nay, personally gratified; because it will produce a corresponding change in my determination to accept the English mission.

I never had the vanity to imagine that there were not many Democratic statesmen in the country who could settle our pending questions with England quite as ably and successfully as myself; and it was, therefore, solely your own voluntary and powerful appeal to me to undertake the task which could have overcome my strong repugnance to go abroad. Indeed, when I stated to you how irksome it would be for me, at my period of life and with my taste for retirement, again for the second time to pass through the routine and submit to the etiquette necessary in representing my country at a foreign court, you kindly remarked that you were so well convinced of this that you would never have offered me the mission had it not been for your deliberate determination that the negotiations on the grave and important questions between the two countries should be conducted by myself at London, under your instructions; observing that, in your opinion, better terms could be obtained for our country at the fountain of power than through the intermediate channel of the British minister at Washington.

At any time a foreign mission would be distasteful to me; but peculiar reasons of a private and domestic character existed at the time I agreed to accept the British mission, and still exist, which could only have yielded to the striking view you presented of the high public duty which required me to undertake the settlement of these important questions. You will, therefore, be kind enough to permit me, in case your enlightened judgment has arrived at the conclusion that Washington, and not London, ought to be the seat of the negotiations, most respectfully to decline the mission. For this you have doubtless been prepared by my letter of the 14th instant.

With my deep and grateful acknowledgments for the high honor you intended for me, and my ardent and sincere wishes for the success and glory of your administration and for your own individual health, prosperity and happiness, I remain, very respectfully,