Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-09-15

domestic concerns, I was struck with the sin
gularity of your having transferred (what, l
presumed, YOU believed to be- the substance
ola private, unofficial conversation, to a pub
lie official document, without consulting me
70 know whether your recollection OF that
conversation was accurate-whether | would
consent to be brought before the Legislature
IN that manner-or, in fact, giving me the
slightest intimation of your intention thus to
present me to the public. When, subse-
~quently, a call for information was maae on
me by the Chairman ola Committee of the
House of Representatives, l was forced to the
conclusion that you had given my name to
that Committee, and, in my reply, written at
the instant, after mentioning this impression,
proceeded to make brief statement of what
hadsid Ifthat letter was shown to you, as
from reference to some circumstances, it
seems may have been the fact, before your
statement ofthe 9th Of June was made, Ihave
then to complain that YOU should have perse-
yered in that statement, after my explanation
TO Mr. Lumpkin, and with the disposition in
relation TO me which such Il measure would
manifest on your part, l should of course be
relieved from the feeling towards YOU which
now embarrasses me. | prefer to adopt the
contrary conclusion. lam unwilling, perhaps
unable, at the moment, to shake off the feel
imrs springing from a friendship of more than
twenty wears; and | cannot forget, that, under
the operation Of these, and from 4 belief that
the public interest would be promoted by
voir success, l omitted no honorable e~xertion
10 aid vour election TO the Office which you
now GIl. Under the combined influence of
these conSiderat ons, am extremely unwilling
to do any thing Of which your enemies might
avail themselves to your injury But the sit
uation in which | ann placed before the public
bv your communication, and subsequent state
ment, is one in which Icannot consent to re-
main. lhave made no such assertions as may
be Inferred from that statement. On the con,
trarv, YOU have misunderstood both the tenor
and object of my observations.
The African case, in which | am of Counsel
for the State, hvnS been the subject OF
conversation between us, | was naturally led
to advert to the disposition to interfere with
our domestic concerns of that sort, which
thought had been manifested during the last
winter at Washington. considered the re-
solution of Mr.. King as strongly ~eyincing such
a disposition, and thought that the senti-
ments which I heard expressed, and those
which | understood were expressed in the
case ofthe Ramirez, and the conversations out
of doors, To which the argument ct that case
rave rise, were calculated to excite a restless
ness among our coloured ~popuLtion, which
might be productive OF the most awful conse-
Quenccs. |, therefore, suggested to YOU, AS |
had done to others, my opinion, that these
consequences ought 70 be met, and would be
most eiiectually ayerted, by concurrent reso-
buttons of the Legislatures OF the South
ern States. declaring this subject to be ex-
c~lusively within their own particular cogni-
sance, and asking from Congress to abstain
from in~termeddling with it. Ispoket to you of
the purport OF the arguments OF Counsel, so
far rs I had heard them, and OF those which
had been aScribed to the Counsel which did
not hear. | told YOU that I considered the
doctrines advanced as alarming, and that,
with the feeling which, as a Southern man,
they excited in me, 1 should have been glad
of an opportunity of replying. which the or
der of the discussion did not allow to me; but
Itold YOU, also, that | was not present when
the argument of the Attorney General was de-
hvcred; that the Supreme Court did not sus-
tain these doctrines; and | expressed TO you no
OPINION that the Government q the U. States
had any concern in urging this discussion. i
coal entertain no such opinion, as ! had been
informed that the Attorney General had, at a
previous term, given up the case on the part
of The Government, and that it was retained
at the instance ofa member of the Colonial
ton Society. had not the most distant con-
ception that any observation of nine could
have led you to think of intimating to the Le-
g~islature that an appealt to arms might become
necessary. l had in view, simply, a decisive,
but temperate, expression by the Legislatures
ofthe Southern States, oftheir feelings on this
subject; and so little did | anticipate such a
course, that when you suggested the inquiry,
whether YOU ought not to communicate the
subject to the Legislature at their extra ses-
sion, I told you | thought it was unnecessary,
As the regular session would occur before the
meeting of Congress, and the Legislatures OF
ether States would then be convened.
With this view of the conversation which
I had with you, and without insisting, as, |
think, | might do, that you should not have
drawn me before the public, unless with my
own consent, I now simply repeat, that | can
not agree TO stand before that public in the at
titude in which | am placed VI you can sug-
gest any mode which | can with propriety 4
dept, BY which can retire from it, without in
Jury to you, l shall be gratifed Acquiring
YOU, as | do, unhesitatingly, of any intention
to misrcpresent me, | regret very much that
this misconception should have occurred at a
moment when the circumstances may, by per
version, be used to your injury; but the views
which YOU have received from this converse
ton, and have communicated to the Legisla-
tlre. are so varient from those which l enter
tanned, and which I have thought, and still
think, best calculated to rally the Southern
States around q cause which is common to
them all, that | cannot consent TO diminish the
little prospect which | have of being in any
degree useful in the national councils, by be-
ing considered as having originated them.
PRAY let me hear from you soon, and believe
me yours, truly,
JNO. MACPHERSON BERRIEN.
Governor TRoUP.
Letter from Cor. Tiroup, TO Iha Macpherson
BeYren.
MILLEDGEyILLk, I'd JuLr, 1926.
NV Dear Sir: 1 received your letter OF the
2Sth ult. this morning, and am sorry that any
misconception of the conversation IN relation
- HILL -. .. ~,