a single term, and the non-appointment of members of Congress to office-was ever any thing more incongruous with the practice! The President acts as if he supposed the Constitution enjoined a double term and the appointment of members, and as if he required a constitutional prohibition to prevent him from doing what he declares to be wrong in principle. The Constitution leaves him free to practise upon his own principles,-why does he not do it, if he deems them so sacred and vital to the public purity and happiness?-But we are to be blessed with his fair words and foul weather for another term."

CHAPTER XIX.

1832.

HIS ILLNESS. HIS DESIRE TO WITHDRAW FROM THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS.-LETTER TO JUDGE CARR ON THIS SUBJECT.-TRIAL OF THE CHEROKEE MISSIONARIES, WORCESTER AND BUTLER-THEIR APPEAL TO THE SUPREME COURT.-DECISION IN THEIR FAVOR.-COURSE OF GEORGIA ON THE SUBJECT.-FAMILIAR LETTERS. THE CHOLERA.—LETTERS TO JUDGE CARR.-LETTER TO LOMAX, EXPLAINING MR. WIRT'S MOTIVES IN ACCEPTING THE NOMINATION.THE ELECTION.-MR. WIRT DEFEATED.-DIFFICULTIES OF HIS POSITION IN THE CONTEST.

A VERY severe illness, during which, for a time, his life was thought to be in peril, had confined Mr. Wirt, for some weeks, at the close of the last year and the beginning of the present, to his bed. It was an attack of erysipelas, produced by cold. His constitution had become visibly impaired, of late years, by the frequent access of disease, induced often by his rigorous application to his professional duties. His recent sickness, at this period, it will be seen, did not wholly divert his mind from the solicitude produced by the late nomination. The determination to hazard the fortunes of the election upon Mr. Clay, with the irreconcilable division of the Anti-Masonic party in the field, he regarded as decisive of the result. His strong wish, therefore, in this condition of affairs, was to retire from the contest. The only impediment that stood in the way of this purpose was the difficulty of obtaining the consent of the Anti-Masonic party to the act. We shall find this subject adverted to and discussed in more than one of the letters which I have selected for this chapter.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

TO JUDGE CARR.

BALTIMORE, January 12, 1832.

Be it known to you and all whom it may concern, that on this day, being the first day of the fifth week since I was taken sick, I put on, for the first time, my pantaloons and waistcoat, with my

new crimson, embroidered wrapper from Paris, said to be lined with eider down,-and which looks so regally purplish and crimsonish, that I call it my Tyrian, Sidonian and Phoenician wrapper,— and supported only on my cane, left my bed-chamber, mea sponte, and sallied up to the room above me, to see my dear C— and E-, who are both sick in bed, the former with a sore throat, which I hope is getting well, and the latter, of the same debility which, you may remember, made her so shadowy at the Springs last summer. My wife was up there with them at the time, and started, on opening the door to my rap, as if she had seen a ghost. The girls were greatly amused at the various antics I cut for their entertainment.

And now, having made my boast, I thank you, my beloved friend, in the first place, for your very interesting letter enclosing a copy of your's to Mr. W.

I cannot tell

you how much I am amused at the simplicity and single-heartedness of your proposal to the Anti-Masons to go over to Clay. I do most devoutly wish they would do it ;-but there is no more chance for Clay with the Anti-Masons "than for the Pope of Rome," as poor old J used to say. I should like to see

W

-'s answer to your letter;-for it may give me a clue, I am puzzled to find, that is, how to find my way out of the labyrinth of this nomination, with honor to myself and without any offence to the Anti-Masons. W called to see me on his way through Baltimore, and I expressed to him a wish that it were possible for the members of Congress, representing the various interests in the opposition, to unite on some one candidate and give him the whole vote of the opposition. I told him I wished the Anti-Masons to understand that I had no desire for the office of President-that my paramount wish was to see the government rescued out of the hands that now held the reins; and I begged that, in endeavoring to fix on a candidate, they would consider me and the nomination I had received, as entirely out of the question. "That is,” said G——, who was present, "that you wish the Anti-Masons to consider you as entirely in their hands, to dispose of you as they please," to which I assented, though, in truth, I wished W-to understand something more by what I said, to wit:-that, perceiving the object I had in view in accepting the nomination (that of uniting the whole opposition,) not likely to be accomplished, I

should be personally relieved in being withdrawn. The only answer I recollect W. to have made was, that if the AntiMasonic party was dissolved, there were not Clay men enough among them to touch New York nor Pennsylvania, nor consequently to elect Mr. Clay.-From which it was manifest that he considered it impossible for the Anti-Masonic party to support Mr. Clay, and that nothing less than their dissolution could carry any of their members to him and these only the Clay members.

Clay's friends, I am told, have a project of dissolving the Masonic Lodges in the spring, and thus putting an end to AntiMasonry, by destroying its antagonist. But the same consequence would follow, that is, the Jackson men, now among the AntiMasons, would relapse upon Jackson, not upon Clay, and thus render the election of the latter hopeless. How can Pleasants suppose, that if I renounce (as he calls it) the Anti-Masonic nomination, the Anti-Masons will all go in a body for Clay? It proves how extremely unobservant he has been, and consequently how ignorant he is of the rise and progress of the Anti-Masonic party. He seems to suppose that my nomination holds them together and in opposition to Mr. Clay. They rose upon their principle without any leader, and by their principle alone have attained their present formidable size, without the support or assistance of any individual name. I am persuaded that my name has tended rather to retard than to increase their progress. The party not having been formed upon my name, my withdrawal or death would produce no more effect upon them than the fall of a single leaf in October. They would still exist in all their integrity upon their principle, and that principle, of itself, places them in opposition to Mr. Clay. How foolish, therefore, as well as unjust is it, to suppose that my name keeps them banded together, and banded in opposition to Mr. Clay! It would be quite as sensible and just to accuse me of having originated the party. There is not a party in the United States which is so purely a party of principle, in contradistinction to a party of men, as the Anti-Masonic party. And it is for this reason that I think they might safely withdraw their candidate for the Presidency, and rest the influence and increase of their party on their local elections.

I cannot conceive a rational or patriotic motive they can have for continuing me in the field. They cannot say that withdrawing me would dissolve or even weaken their party, for this would be admitting it to be so far a party for a man, and having no vital and conservative principle in itself;—which is, certainly not the fact. It existed in full vigor when it had no presidential hoop around it, and shewed its power in the local elections. Why can it not do the same again? And if it can, what utility is there in keeping a presidential candidate in the field? What legitimate purpose of patriotism is answered by it?

The only sensible or reasonable purpose of nominating a man for an office is, the hope of his election;-the only sensible or reasonable purpose of agreeing to be nominated is, that the person may be submitted to the consideration of his fellow-citizens for the office. But after this has been fairly done, and the people have given the most conclusive demonstrations that they do not choose the individual proposed, but prefer another, what dignity, what propriety, what decency, even, is there in continuing to press him? The effort becomes ridiculously foolish, and subjects both the candidate and his supporters to the most ludicrous and disagreeable constructions. In my case, I thought I had no right to object to the Anti-Masons proposing me to the consideration of the people for the office of President. Every other chance of uniting the opposition had vanished. This alone remained, and, faint as it was, I considered it my duty to permit the offer to be made. It has been made, and refused. My only motive, therefore, for accepting the nomination is at an end. That motive was an honorable and patriotic one. It justified me in permitting the nomination to be made. But this having been done, the National Republicans having declared against the union, which alone I had in view, I can perceive, as I have said, neither dignity nor decency in continuing the nomination.

It is true, that, when I accepted the nomination, I knew that this state of things might arise. But it is not true that I knew, if it should arise, the Anti-Masons would still persist in the nomination. It never entered into my imagination that they could wish to do so vain and foolish a thing. What end can it answer to themselves? It will only expose their weakness. They cannot carry a single State, except, perhaps, Vermont. They cannot