Details
TYLER, JOHN, President. Autograph letter signed in full TO HIS SON ROBERT TYLER, Sherwood Forest, [Virginia], 27 August 1860. 3 pages, 4to, recipient's docket on verso. Very fine condition.
"THE DEFEAT OF LINCOLN IS THE GREAT MATTER AT ISSUE"
An exceptional content letter from the aging former President, whose sympathies lay decidely with Southern interest in the growing sectional dispute brought to a head in the 1869 elections, which took place a few months later. Tyler expresses his candid view of Lincoln's candidacy and chances for election. (See notes to the preceding lot for additonal background.) Colonel Withers of Mississippi has recently visited Tyler: "...and as the condition of the times is the fruitful subject of conversation it came soon to be introduced. I expressed to him the gratification I had felt at the fusion between the [Stephen A.] Douglas and Bell men in New York and expressed the hope that all conservatives would unite on the same ticket. That in my view the defeat of Lincoln was the great metter at issue, and that all others were subordinate -- and probably said that if I lived in New York, altho' I was decidedly a Breckinridge man, I would advocate the fusion ticket. This it seems, he [Withers] reported to Genl. Foote..."
"There can be no possible doubt of Lincoln's election unless some of the so called Free States is [sic] snatched from him. I presented also another idea to Col. Withers and that was that to defeat Lincoln was to elect Breckinridge or Lane, I cared not which, by throwing the first before the House, the last before the Senate. This has called forth the letters of my old friend Genl. Foote who is a Douglas man. I enclose it to you, so that if you should see any reference made to my opinions by Genl. Foote, or any other which may call for explanation, you may be in proper position to make it by the publication, if necessary, of my letter. I said to Col. Withers....that I regarded [William H.] Seward [an abolitionist candidate for the nomination] as the Cataline of our day and that to reach the Presidency he would quaff the blood of his fellow as did Catiline of old and expressed the hope that there would still arise a Cicero to denouce him in the Senate chambers.....Do give some account of Pennsylvania [Robert Tyler lived in Philadelphia]....If I deceive not myself, Breckinridge will carry pluralities in a large majority of the Southern States so as to present Lane to the Senate, should Lincoln not be elected by the popular vote. I live in the hope that a defeat of the Negro-men [anti-slavery politicians] now will dissolve this party...."
"THE DEFEAT OF LINCOLN IS THE GREAT MATTER AT ISSUE"
An exceptional content letter from the aging former President, whose sympathies lay decidely with Southern interest in the growing sectional dispute brought to a head in the 1869 elections, which took place a few months later. Tyler expresses his candid view of Lincoln's candidacy and chances for election. (See notes to the preceding lot for additonal background.) Colonel Withers of Mississippi has recently visited Tyler: "...and as the condition of the times is the fruitful subject of conversation it came soon to be introduced. I expressed to him the gratification I had felt at the fusion between the [Stephen A.] Douglas and Bell men in New York and expressed the hope that all conservatives would unite on the same ticket. That in my view the defeat of Lincoln was the great metter at issue, and that all others were subordinate -- and probably said that if I lived in New York, altho' I was decidedly a Breckinridge man, I would advocate the fusion ticket. This it seems, he [Withers] reported to Genl. Foote..."
"There can be no possible doubt of Lincoln's election unless some of the so called Free States is [sic] snatched from him. I presented also another idea to Col. Withers and that was that to defeat Lincoln was to elect Breckinridge or Lane, I cared not which, by throwing the first before the House, the last before the Senate. This has called forth the letters of my old friend Genl. Foote who is a Douglas man. I enclose it to you, so that if you should see any reference made to my opinions by Genl. Foote, or any other which may call for explanation, you may be in proper position to make it by the publication, if necessary, of my letter. I said to Col. Withers....that I regarded [William H.] Seward [an abolitionist candidate for the nomination] as the Cataline of our day and that to reach the Presidency he would quaff the blood of his fellow as did Catiline of old and expressed the hope that there would still arise a Cicero to denouce him in the Senate chambers.....Do give some account of Pennsylvania [Robert Tyler lived in Philadelphia]....If I deceive not myself, Breckinridge will carry pluralities in a large majority of the Southern States so as to present Lane to the Senate, should Lincoln not be elected by the popular vote. I live in the hope that a defeat of the Negro-men [anti-slavery politicians] now will dissolve this party...."