Litchfield enquirer., 1851-02-27
From the Ndtiom0I Enfelbgenetv. Letter from tho Hon. John M. R0tis.

LoItcr from tho Hen. JOhn M. Bolts. We have been desirous for several days past to find room for the subiuined letter from the Hon. John M. Bolts, of Virgin ! ia, breathing as 1t does a manly and honorable spirii, and abounding with just and patriotic sentim ents, forcibly ex- pressed. It was written. as the render will perceive. in answer to an application. to Mr Bolts from num- Der of the vo> ters of his district to suffer himself Co be put up as q cand idate for Congress
 , .eo RIcMoND, Jan. 1851. Gentlemen You, letter of this date has just been received. in which you de- sire to know whether I am. willing to be considered q candidate for this Congress sion.l district, subject to the decision of q District Convention. 'l Di4
 With the highest respect for tho;e whose names are attached to the letter. and with d due sense of gratitude for their partiality, I must be pareone6 for withholding my consent to being consid, cred as d candidate in any sense. ol on an J conditions short of an invitation 10 become 50 by the Whig party of the en- tire district, through the instrumentality of a Convention. ,.-..... 's'.'74.@ In justification of this course, if any be necessary, need only say that my pre- sent position is ve. 5 different from that which occupied on another occasion, when some difference arose among my own friends in regard to the necessity of convention. The circumstances that surrounded me then were altogether dis similar from those which surround me now. The selection of no one gentleman Tn the district at this time would be con- strued into condemnation of or detrac. tion from another. No effort has been directed against any particulAr individu- al; no inaamatorJ appeals have been made 10 the excited passions of party to elect one of their own number as vic. tim for sacliice upon the altar of in. temperate enthusiasm; consequently no necessity has arisen fer any one among us all to stand up before the district, to in dicate the purity and unselfshness of his motives. or make manifest the pro- priety of his conduct. The field now is not only upoccupicd, but open to all. without disparagement to any, and I have no wish to place myself in the way or, through any agency of my own, pre-. vent, iobstruct, or retard the fullest and freest expression of preference on the part of tho entire Whig party of the dis trict. '~ @a''f' s This was the position assumed sub- staniially in my speech delivered in the county of Pownatan in June last. and have seen no reason to depart from 1t since. .... E9a &1'@i
 To consent that you should announce me as a candidate, even with the condi- ton annexed that it was to be subject to the decision of q convention. would be in some sort to re-occupy the ground. ard might. to some extent. forestall that un- trammclled freedom of action that I ee. sire to see, prevail throughout the diss ;rict; it might be the means of exciting sympathetic chord among some of my warm and jealous friends flor whose cons.ancy I can never be sufficiently gratefully whose support in Consequence thereof might he withheld or given wi,l, indifference to any other candidate upon
 whom the choice of the district might ultimately fall. Such n state of things r cannot be instrumental in producing, by conscnting to have my name placed be-
 fore the district as sand date for the office, nor by marifesting any desire to
 be rcinslated as the representative of the district. . # AS 2Fq isT 8as
 At such lime as this, when not only the superstructure but the foundation of the Government has trembled. as if by great conyulsion of nature. and the rumb. lings of the earthquake have not yet died away upon our ears; when threats of Ratification and Disunion are still heard q in the distance when even in our midst men of intelligence, responsibility, and influence stand up in open day, the bold unabashed advocates of that leas. and last>to- be-forgiven political heresy of tho South Ca' Olina school of politicians. 8 l (among whom are some of my warnest and sincerest friends,) to wit, the right oi Secession, not us a revolutionary right from which none would dissent, but as . constitutional remedy for every i'll. real or imsgihary; or in other words. lhe right of any one State to withdraw from the Union whenever it may suit her whim. fancy, or caprice. and thus des> troy the whole withou. violating her constitutional obligations to any when public prints have been establish ed. and arc supported, IS the organs of this DO. litical school. to pull down this only re. maining fabric of human liberty in the I world. to which the oppressed Of ali \ nations are Hooking as the only haven of safety; when the friends of the Union are by them and their prints, denounced as i" tame and degraded submissiOnists.' v
 there should be a united co operation among all ce.oving. lae-loving. Unioa loving men of all parties, to crush