Martin Van Buren Signed 9.75x15.75 1828 2 Page Handwritten Letter BAS #AB77794
This Autographed 9.75x15.75 1828 2 Page Handwritten Letter has been Personally Signed by Martin Van Buren. This item is 100% Authentic to include a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) / hologram by Beckett Authentication Services. The authenticity can be verified on Beckett Authentication Services website.
Complete Transcript
Private
My dear Sir
The relation of warm personal friendship & mutual confidence existing between Mr Moore & myself renders it proper that he should be fully possessed of my views in relation to the subject of your conversation with him. Say to him therefore in positive & honorable confidence that it shall go no further than to himself & my friends Wright & Earle, that notwithstanding my great confidence in his judgment I differ with him upon the point proposed. If Genl Jackson should offer me the seat in the Cabinet he now thinks it would be inexpedient for me to accept & he the rest of my friends should upon more full reflection advise me to take it I could not but enter upon the discharge of its duties with the most painful distrust of my capacities. For either of the other places I am peculiarly unfit & nothing would be mortifying than to place myself in a situation in which I was entirely conscious that I could not render any real service to the public. To remain where I am would in such a state of things be a determination which I would not for a moment hesitate to make.
In reference to the future I have the strongest repugnance to say any thing. Having solemnly determined that no act of mine shall have a tendency or be at least designed to bring prematurely before the public a question yet remote & which must be very disturbing when it comes I do not allow myself to talk upon the subject. To such discreet friends as you four I will say a word in regard to it. My respect for Mr Moores opinions will not admit of my doing less. I differ with him as to eligibility of the Treasury Department for a man whose friends entertain for him hopes of farther promotion. It has been the political grave of every public man who has remained in it long enough & will continue to be so unless the people of this Country change their character or the incumbent is blessed with a rare stroke of good fortune. Hamilton & Crawford finished in & Gallatin fled from it. No man has ever got beyond it. The facility of inciting jealousies agt the Keeper of the public purse is so great that no man can stand it, &c. It is true that there are at this time strong prejudices agt. the kind of Cabinet succession Mr Moore speaks of but that has grown out of & was founded upon particular facts & may not exist when the circumstances are changed. Mr. Monroes administration was not acceptable to the nation. his election was plainly attributable to his selection as Secretary of State & the public mind in consequence of the result began to grow dissatisfied with a course they had before cordially approved. Mr Clays selection as Secty was not only palpably made with a view to his future elevation to the Presidency but he had the unparalleled indiscretion to avow it himself. The circumstances aggravated the prejudice already existing & no doubt produced strong results in some portion of the Union although you & I know it did not weigh a feather here. But the people of this Country are very intelligent & adhere to substance rather than form in all their important conclusions. Would there be ground for the imputation as matters stand that Genl Jackson had his successor in view in his nomination. I think not, pretty certainly not. The nation entertaining the opinion it has of him & his views would not suspect him of such a design. If not would they proscribe integrity & capacity (whoever may be the possessor of it) because it was found in one branch of the public service for which it was better qualified than another. I incline to think not. I have not time to add more. Remember me kindly to Mr Moore & to my friends White & Woodbury not forgetting Mrs W.
Your truly
M. V. Buren
[Albany?] Decr 11 1828
P.S. [? ? ? ?] put off the selection of the commissioners &c until Decr or Jany 1830, so that we shall all have a resting spell. Burn this.
Complete Transcript
Private
My dear Sir
The relation of warm personal friendship & mutual confidence existing between Mr Moore & myself renders it proper that he should be fully possessed of my views in relation to the subject of your conversation with him. Say to him therefore in positive & honorable confidence that it shall go no further than to himself & my friends Wright & Earle, that notwithstanding my great confidence in his judgment I differ with him upon the point proposed. If Genl Jackson should offer me the seat in the Cabinet he now thinks it would be inexpedient for me to accept & he the rest of my friends should upon more full reflection advise me to take it I could not but enter upon the discharge of its duties with the most painful distrust of my capacities. For either of the other places I am peculiarly unfit & nothing would be mortifying than to place myself in a situation in which I was entirely conscious that I could not render any real service to the public. To remain where I am would in such a state of things be a determination which I would not for a moment hesitate to make.
In reference to the future I have the strongest repugnance to say any thing. Having solemnly determined that no act of mine shall have a tendency or be at least designed to bring prematurely before the public a question yet remote & which must be very disturbing when it comes I do not allow myself to talk upon the subject. To such discreet friends as you four I will say a word in regard to it. My respect for Mr Moores opinions will not admit of my doing less. I differ with him as to eligibility of the Treasury Department for a man whose friends entertain for him hopes of farther promotion. It has been the political grave of every public man who has remained in it long enough & will continue to be so unless the people of this Country change their character or the incumbent is blessed with a rare stroke of good fortune. Hamilton & Crawford finished in & Gallatin fled from it. No man has ever got beyond it. The facility of inciting jealousies agt the Keeper of the public purse is so great that no man can stand it, &c. It is true that there are at this time strong prejudices agt. the kind of Cabinet succession Mr Moore speaks of but that has grown out of & was founded upon particular facts & may not exist when the circumstances are changed. Mr. Monroes administration was not acceptable to the nation. his election was plainly attributable to his selection as Secretary of State & the public mind in consequence of the result began to grow dissatisfied with a course they had before cordially approved. Mr Clays selection as Secty was not only palpably made with a view to his future elevation to the Presidency but he had the unparalleled indiscretion to avow it himself. The circumstances aggravated the prejudice already existing & no doubt produced strong results in some portion of the Union although you & I know it did not weigh a feather here. But the people of this Country are very intelligent & adhere to substance rather than form in all their important conclusions. Would there be ground for the imputation as matters stand that Genl Jackson had his successor in view in his nomination. I think not, pretty certainly not. The nation entertaining the opinion it has of him & his views would not suspect him of such a design. If not would they proscribe integrity & capacity (whoever may be the possessor of it) because it was found in one branch of the public service for which it was better qualified than another. I incline to think not. I have not time to add more. Remember me kindly to Mr Moore & to my friends White & Woodbury not forgetting Mrs W.
Your truly
M. V. Buren
[Albany?] Decr 11 1828
P.S. [? ? ? ?] put off the selection of the commissioners &c until Decr or Jany 1830, so that we shall all have a resting spell. Burn this.
Martin Van Buren Signed 9.75x15.75 1828 2 Page Handwritten Letter BAS #AB77794
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