Edward William Johnston to James Henry Hammond, March 24, 1836

[Edward William Johnston at Columbia, South Carolina, to James Henry Hammond at Washington City, March 24, 1836. See glossary of names following letter. My rough transcript. Original in James Henry Hammond Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.] 

Columbia [South Carolina], 24th March 1836

My dear Hammond[,]

I have just received yours of the 18th, and am much rejoiced at your resurrection. I trust you will take care of yourself and make it permanent. Pray don't eat much. That and too much stroking cannot be borne, unless we were gods -- especially when that which they are pleased to call our immortal part is working hard at the same time. All the nobler functions overtasked at once, it is impossible that one should not become "entennated" [attenuated] of his strength.

For a man just out of the obscurity of a sick room, you seem to me to gaze at the political suns about you with a pretty undazzled eye. But you have only counted the spots of one side of them. Wait a full year, till you have seen the opposite side. Clay, god help us, is only an honest man by contrast and out of power. His principles -- by which I only mean the habitual inclinations that most direct him -- are certainly worse than even Van Buren's. As to Calhoun, he is a man against whose faults of temper and of mind -- not of honesty -- one must be perpetually on the watch. Genius, he may certainly be said to possess, and patriotism. Could he mix, with the first, a slight grain of calm, even sense and of well-formed steady purpose or could he join, with the second, a little less of that visionary ambition which continually wishes to put itself at the head of affairs, he might do the country a service and win perhaps ultimate success, which no man is at present less likely to achieve. 

You do not speak of Preston, and naturally enough. He makes men speak of him no longer. His laziness has finally mastered his ambition, huge as that was, and he is now content with indolently performing a secondary part. Yet, I hold Preston's little finger to have more capacity in it, more real ability, more wisdom, than the whole bodies of a dozen Calhouns and Clays. But what of abilities that will not work to the full measure of their strength? [O]f what account is Wisdom, that wants a great & persevering & steady aim? Preston is there, to dazzle the country. by an occasional display; perhaps to do it an important service, in some sudden conjunction. But this is all. Affairs are to be directed, and public wants controlled, not by the man who can pull a horse about by the tail, but by him who has steadiness enough to pluck out each hair of that tail, singly.

As to the schemes of Distribution, I dislike them all equally. Gen'l Jackson's, of bribery by fortifications &c, vary little more than Clay's or Calhoun's. I am for letting the country take the mischiefs which its own faults or follies have brought upon it. If a cure is to come, let it be from Nature herself. Driven to her own resources instead of being aided by drugs, she may throw off the disease. But your quack salvers, that can chase away no malady, unless by creating another, are not the thing for the present time. Mind, I am not talking of the Steam-doctors, for whom I have, in comparison with those folks, great respect. A little red-pepper-tea might really help the body politics, but Distribution & the like can only change the form of the disease. 

As to Van Buren's letter, I entirely differ from you. It has, you will observe, a substantial part, and a formal part. An additional authority thrown in the seal of the Constitutional claim of Abolitionism, is entirely the first. An argument against the exercise of the power conceded is a mere shadow. It is a claim at law, where the Judge gives you a delightful disquisition on morality, for one side, and a charge to the Jury upon the law, for the other. Besides, what is the effect of any such thing from a man whom will believe sincere -- whom all will suppose equally ready to have argued on the other side?

But enough. We are drifting here, perfectly the sport of the winds. In Charleston, the course of Pinckney's friends will do, I think, great mischief. It has paralyzed the State, as to that fateful movement. Unhappily, McCord was a party to the consultation held there, which settled this mode of proceeding. He & Nott(!) [Dr. Josiah Nott, possibly] stood for the opinion of our quarter.

I regret, very strongly, the unusual policy, which keeps McDuffie away from all intercourse with us. Were he here, we should have a head. I wish, most heartily, you would all urge him to come to stay here till the adjournment of Congress. Events are certainly quite likely to happen, that will make it increasingly dangerous to remain as we are -- without any concert throughout the state -- without any point from where the impulse may be given. I know that it is somewhat natural for you all to wish in some sort to direct things here yourselves. But this cannot be. The State can have no councils, which you try to carry on such a system. Pray take what I suggest into consideration among you. I think it of great & pressing importance. Butler will probably arrive in a few days. His influence will do things good. I do not speak to you of McCord (tho' distinguished of the part he is playing) because we have fallen out. Judge of him by his own correspondence with you.

Pray send me a reply of Preston's Report on the Bouterlin Library. Also Clay's & Calhoun's Distr. Bills. Commend me to all friends. What am I to praise Grayson Campbell & Griffin about? For I know they deserve it, and I am anxious to [?] . I want to have some visible fact to hang their praises on.

Glossary of South Carolina names:

The Columbia Telescope, 1828-1839. Weekly, semi-weekly. Algernon Sidney Johnston was one of its publishers. 

Pierce Mason Butler, Governor of SC, December 1836-1838
John C. Calhoun, US Senator (Nullifier)

William Campbell Preston, US Senator (Nullifier)
Thomas Cooper (1759-1839), ex-President of SC College
Henry William de Saussure (1763-1839)
Franklin Harper Elmore, US Rep (States Rights Democrat)

William J, Grayson, US Rep. (Nullifier)

James Henry Hammond, US Rep. (Nullifier)
Robert Young Hayne, Intendant of Charleston, 1836-1837

Richard Irvine Manning (Jacksonian)

David James McCord (1797-1855), editor of The Telescope in its earlier incarnation
George McDuffie, Governor of SC, 1834-1836

Frances W. Pickens, US Rep. (Nullifier)

Henry C. Pinckney, US Rep. (Nullifier)

James Rogers, US Rep (Jacksonian)

Robert Barnwell Smith (later Robert Barnwell Rhett)

Waddy Thompson, US Rep. (Anti-Jackson)