Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862) to William L. Marcy
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC06689 Author/Creator: Van Buren, Martin (1782-1862) Place Written: London, England Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 14 March 1832 Pagination: 4 p. ; 24.9 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
Describes his resentment at the Senate's failure, for political reasons, to confirm him for a diplomatic post, and his reluctant agreement to stand for election as candidate for Jackson's Vice-President, despite his "strong aversion" to doing so and its expected negative impact on his "happiness and welfare."
Marcy was at the time a New York Senator, later served as New York Governor, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State.
London March 14t, 1832
My dear Sir
I have received your kind letter announcing the desire which has been manifested that I should be a candidate for the Vice Presidency, and suggesting the propriety of an expression of my feelings [inserted: on the subject] to some one of my friends at Washington.
Of the strong aversion which I have uniformly entertained to this measure you, as well as many others, are fully informed. my private feelings on the subject are unchanged. I can not regard the possession of that post as in any [wise] likely to promote my happiness or welfare. But whatever may be my individual repugnance, I cannot but feel the justice of the opinion expressed, as it appears, by a large portion of my Fellow Citizens that recent events have materially changed the [2] condition of the question.
The President in the recess of Congress had nominated me to a foreign and important trust; I had left my native land and entered among strangers upon the conspicuous function of that trust. a majority of the Senate have rejected the nomination of the Executive, and publicly divested me of my employ, when I was exercising it in the presence of the Representatives of Europe & America. In so doing they have sought to bring discredit upon the act of the President, and to degrade me personally in the eyes, not merely of my Fellow Citizens, but of foreign nations. If the Republicans of the U. States think my elevation to the Vice Presidency the most effectual mode, of testifying to the world their sentiments with respect to the act of the [3] President & the vote of the Senate, I can see no justifiable ground for declining to yield to their wishes.
Would the knowledge of this acquiescence on my part be deemed absolutely necessary to the harmonious operation of our friends, you are at liberty to State it - but not otherwise. I would sedulously avoid any act or agency, that might appear calculated or designed to bring about the result referred to. my paramount desire is that my future fate be left to the unbiased decision of the people.
overwhelmed as I am with the generous sympathy manifested by my country men I hope & trust, I shall not be thought to meet their confiding frankness with fastidious reserve. There is a degree of reserve forced upon me however by the [4] nature of the question, by the peculiarly delicate situation in which I have been placed in regard to it, and by the wanton and persevering misrepresentations of the whole subject, with which the public ear has been deceived.
I am dr. Sir most
truly yours
M Van Buren
The Honble
William L Maury -
U. S. Senator
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