New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1846-02-02
For The Tribune
Latter 10 Jane. Watson Webb.

To Col Jd11tf Te<sO't ""
SIR: Being temporary resident with you IN
this City, and having some Of the means OF acqnr-
ing information upon public subjects which You pro-
fess to have trust that you win not cons'oef II
impairment If take the same liberty 10
views which YOU 20 often claim for yourself
l. yo,, have seen f, 10 leave your proper sphere oil
-, % 1--WE ND the peculiar duties OF your pro-
e,..ion-,nd 10 come to this place as the avowed
ID viser of the Wing Members of Congress. shall
not dwell upon the modesty your pretenslons' or
the undue assumption OF authority which you norc
so publicly profess TO exercise. say nor, because
up TO within very few Gays, you have denied that
such was your business here. and had not your van
ty gotten the better Of your sagacity, you would
have continued in your denial. shall not question
YOUR right TO be here, although II may be tar
question for discussion how far the people OF the
United States have delegated to you the power OF
ren,esen,atiou. Indeed l do not know that you
pretend 10 represent even informally, the smallest
portion of them perhaps, however you arrogate for
o.l self the right OF supreme censorship over tne
acton OF Congress- and this view OF your position
is siren sthened by the tone Of your recent iucu-
bratons
for YOUR paper which are less remarkable Tor
their insolence, dictaon and abuse than 10Y tne su
perla,ive ego,ism which Pervades them You nave
seen M in those precious epstles 10 brand all those
gentlemen who chose TO differ from you on the Ore
eon question as knaves and fools, while you have
read homilies tos,he Senate of the United States,
upon subject where your opinion would not weigh
down feather with any FIVE OF its members You
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course of action which you ought TO have known no
Wing Senator would pursue, and TO dictate course
which YOU already knew most OF the wing Sena-
tors had previously agreed upon
In your letter of the 25h inst. after giving histo-
nv of the embarrassment Of the Wings upon the
subject OF Notice. you say
MY mission here one OF peace-not That be-
iicved could any way influence or direct the votes
of Senators but in the belief upon Information orioord
ed to me, hs, could hasten an interchange OF senl'
ments and views and by doing aid in arriving at some
measure calculated to the embarrassment which
Loco management and abolition Intrigue had Gre
ated."fy
How grateful honorable Senators must have been
for your patriotic and disinterested services How
much relieved must have been their anxiety when
they learned that the embarrassment Of their wide
separation from each other was 10 be overcome by
lobby telegraph Why, Colonel, you should file
cayeat in the Patent Office take out right for
nicalion But my dear Colonel, you have fallen IN
10 small error in your statement You say you did
NOT expect to "intiuence direct the votes OF sen
ators." Now in all charity. the least that can be
said is that your memory is very treacherous. DID
Won nor tell some gentlemen in Wall-st before you
left New York that you scould direct the votes of
Senators? Did you not come here for that pur-
nose And after you came here and found out that
WING Senators were going to give the Office I'M
less it was surrounded with such professions of de-
sire for an amicabe adjustment Of the question as to
av old war did you not then alectto read them
lesson in order 10 appear 10 your Wall.s friends
performing the duty for which they sent you here
And yet in succeeding part OF the same letter you
very adrotly intimate that atter you had conferred
with prominent Wing Senators, a scheme was de-
viscd and was 10 be presented TO both Houses OF
Congress-
And here leone TO another portion of this letter,
where your modesty in inierrng credit for yourself
in assisting to originate Messrs. Mangum and Kings
resolutions il only surpassed by your atlectation 10
appear to be exclusively in the confidence OF certain
Wing Senators. You speak through
%, this portion Of your letter of what ac'H take
place-what is the nature Of certain resolutions TO
be presented, and by whom they are to be present
ed. &c Now these resolutions and everything per
tanning to them were agreed upon more than week
before they presented, and all the circumstan-
ces connected with them were known to many
Wings in the city several days before their pre-
sentation. Yet none. beside you, chose TO make
snCh flourish of trumpets about their prescience
What is more all this knowledge might have con-
sistenily been known you with the publication Of
your letter, after their presentation. 1t could not
nave been an impossible thing for you to have writ
EN- the last part ofyour letter ofpredction although
lated The 25th on the day in which you wrote
your letter of talflment, announcement of their
,b.,D ctl, tho1,o bOyJ
published in the Courier of the 2sth.
| trust this simple statement of facts will neither
diminish in the minds of your Wallst. friends the
importance of your services 10 them the amount
of your compensation. affect the just estimate
OF your patriotism by the country.
But | have been addressing you on your own
story and you well know that 10 all stories there
are two sides.
Your mission here was. emphaucally. one OF
peace No one ever doubted that such was your
obiec,-no one could doubt il who has known the
of your past life, the intimate
iation in which you stand 10 those great interests in
Wall.s,; interests whose very existence depends
upon the continuation of the peace OF the country
But are YOU aware that your bearing IN this city
does not pass wholly unnoticed You cannot be so
ob,use as TO suppose that when you take Members
bv the button hole in the lobbes the streets, or
obtrude yourself into their messes and lecture them
upon the evils Of war, its disastrous consequences
upon the commerce OF the country and upon like
subjects, they do not know that your eloquence is
all barney and your seeming devotion 10 the nation
is nothing more less than devotion 10 its fancy
trade. Do not deceive yourself by supposing that
because YOU are invited to the dinner parties OF
prominent Wings YOU are therefore canonized by
them as Wing saint, and are to be placed in the
calendar of immaculate patriots. C!vility is one
thing confidence is another. Do not suffer yourself
10 be BETRAYED into the belief that your dctation
some Members is more observable than your syco-
phancy to others Do you expect 10 elevate your
self in the estimation OF eminent men here by open
gross and unnecessary Aa,,ery of them, either TO
their faces or in your correspondence Your lauda-
tons may impose upon chem the necessity of addi-
tonal courtesy, but they never can impress them
with any additional respect FOR you.
But why do you seek 10 divert war by holding up
to view its results? Men are supposed 10 learn in
their childhood that war is evil. II have not
been deceived you have heretofore inculcated the
doctrine in your paper that national honor was par.
amount to any consideration of the consequences OF
war. Why not now pu, the issue upon that
ground If Oregon is ours and our exclusive pos
session ofitis necessary for the preservation OF our
national honor, certainly by Your own principle we
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