State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-03-15
LETTERS TO MIR. HALLETT.
No. 3.
FEBRUARY. 1896.
TO h. l.. 1ALLrrr, ESQ:

n national convention, will stop moment
To look at the policy by which you cndeav-
orcd to prepare the minds ofthc antiinasons
to support MIR Van Buren,.
Iou were as much determined to 90 for
MIR Van Buren, fifteen months ago, as you
were last September, when you threw of
your disguise and avowed your determine
ton to support him. Bit to have disclos-
ed your purpose ut once would have been
to ensure its defeat. An open and direct
proposition at that time, to the Antimasons
Of the United States to go in body for Mr.
Van Buren,, would have been regarded as
little short of madness. The first step was
to get up, in connexion with the Presiden-
cy, strong sectional feeling, and cndcavor
10 identify the opposition interest with the
Southern interest. Thus, as early us the Ist
of January, 1885, when no portion of the
Southern people or the Southern press was
indicating the slightest disposition to sup
port Mr. Calhoun for the Presidency, you
paraded him in your paper as the tuiliying
SlnUeh0Ldcr,' who was to be forced upon the
free States as the opposition candidate
You even charged the leading press which
brought forward Mr.. Webster in your state,
with doing it, Gas measure preliminary to
the design of supporting Mr. Calhoun at a
fitting time y and said, shat portion of the
political Wings of the North who are pre-
pairing to support Southern candidate
against Northern man, say amen to the
plans now in progress, to make portion of
New England, with all her manly indepen-
dencc, a secondary ally of a portion of the
slave States against the other flee States"
"The pretended friends of Mr. Webster are
using his name as stalking horse to cover
their ultimate movements, which are to
place Massachusetts in the position of
beaten ally to the minority Shareholders and
anti-tariff States"
Thus early was notification and slavery
reared up to excite the senstivencss ofthc
North not so much to prevent it from
going Tor MIR Calhoun, for every thoroughly
informed man knew he would not be
candidate, but for the purpose of getting up
Northern feeling, which should be made
SO strong and absorbing, as gradually to
produce entire indifference to the 'misrule
of Jacksonism," and reconcile the opposi-
ton to tie idea of taking up Mr. Van buren,
as the only alternative to save the country
from the dominion of slaveholding nullifi-
cation.
1t was nearly four months previous to
your taking this stand that a shrewd polti-
clan who had perfectly harmonizcd with
you in your course from the beginning,
suddenly put TO me the following questions,
"As between Mr. Van Buren, and MIR Cal
houn as candidates for the Presidency,
which would you support? 2" | was too
much astonished to make much reply, but
saw its bearing, and had no more doubt
then than when | saw the article in your
paper of January l, 1885, that the idea had
been conceived Of attempting to get up a
strong sectional feeling in aid of Mr. Van
Buren,, and upon the strength oft, to carry
the anti-masons to his support.
The same policy became more and more
apparent after Judge White was nominal
cd. lie was perpetually held up by you us
n STAKEHOLDER and mason, in opposition,
not to MIR Webster, or MIR Mclean, or any
body whom the antimasons would be like !
ly to prefer for the Presidency, but TO Mr.
Van Buren,, "non- stakeholder" and "no
friend ofmasonry;" and even as sometimes
intimated, rather favorable to Antimason-
ry!
In the mean time, you spoke well of Mr.
Webster, and wished he could be the anti /,
masonic candidate; but kept constantly
before your readers the difficulty of sup
porting him, and took care to give great
prominence to the fact, that distinguished
mason in the meeting al Boston, which
nominated him last winter, secuted the idea
of the cooperation of the antimasons, and |
said he "woud rather sec the country go to
ruin than have n President chosen by their
help" Changes without end were rung
by you upon this declaration of single
ultra-mason, among the wing friends of
Mr. Webster. The design of all this could
not he mistaken. 1t was, while you pro-
fesscd great friendship for that gentleman,
and even went so far as to call him an anti
mason, to prepare the way for his final
abandonment, and ] may perhaps say, de- :
nunciatien, for YOU have since unsparingy
denounced him.
CotemporaneousE with all this, you grad I
ually relaxed your opposition to the leading
measures of the administration, and seemed
TO see with much less cledrness than you did I
in the year 1899, the necessity of ''ridding
the country of the misrule of Jacksonism,"
while you gradually came to the conclusion !
that antimasonry had essentially triumph
ed, and that the choice of President must
turn manly upon other questions. The way
thus prepared, you come out, in September
last, openly for MIR Van Buren,.
10 this time, you had kept up the idea
that there would be q National Antimasonic
Convention, and had protested willing
ness to submit to its decisions and to sup
port its candidate. Now, you began TO
hesitate. The proposed conversion was
sometimes mentioned with an "iC it shall
be holden" and such language, perceived,
began to he used in certain quarters in Yer.
mont. 1t alarmed me, for thought un-
derstood what it meant. A few days elaps.
ed, and all doubt was removed. The pro-
ceedngs of Massachusetts State Anti
masonic Convention, holden at Boston, on
the LIST of October last, were published; and
the result of several months preparation by