Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-03-19
Gen. Cass's Nicholson Letter.

The Washington Union revives the discus
sion of the Nicholson letter with the view of
defending Gen. Cass against the charge of not
having dealt fairly and candidly with the South
in that celebrated document. 1t publishes
letter from Col. jefferson Davis which origi-
nllly appeared in Mississippi paper on the 9th
of last January, and which, according to the
Union, furnishes complete refutation of the
charge to which we have referred. We find,
upon.a perusalof Col. Davis letter, that it
throws no new light whatever upon the subject,
the facts contai ned in it having been elected
two years agoi in discussion between himself
and Gen. Cass on the floor of the Senate
1t appears that during the late gubernatorial
canvass in Mississippi pamphlet was published
giving sketch of Col Davis life, in which the
following paragraph occurred:
The principal difficulty with Col Davis however |
grew of his distrust in the sincerity of Gen Casss
avowal of principle. The Nicholson letter. he felt sa-
tsted intended to deceive the South, and that Ge
neral Cass well apprlzed that Southern Demo-
cras were placing construction upon which, when
lit should favor his in erests, he would disavow The
doctrine OF 'squatter sovereignty which the Wing
party charged contained in that letter. and at war
with all nights IN the territories he knew true
from confidential conversation which he was not per-
nitted to disclose. He acted however upon the prin
clpte OF choice OF evils and resolved stand by his
party principles.
it's in reply TO this paragraph that COL Da-
Wis appears before the public He states that
the author is mistaken in attributing to him the
opinion that Gel. Cass intended to deceive the
South by his letter to Nicholson, and proceeds
to say that he always understood that letter as
maintaining the doctrine that the inhabitants of
territory have the right to prohibit slavery
therein. Il considered his meaning quite plain,
the says) when he proposed. in the letter refer
red to, to limit the act of Congress- in relation
to territories. to the creation of proper govern
ments, land to the necessary provision for their
eventual admission into the Union learning in
the mean time to the people inhabiting them to
regulate their oarR concerns IN their oacn acdq.
But was doubly assured by a conversation with
Judge Mclean, Of the Supreme Court of the
United States, as TO the meaning of General
Cass. That, / presume, is the conversation to
wh'ch the author OF the pamphlet REFEREED
Thus learn that General Cass consulted Judge
Mclean ID relation to the position taken in his
Nicholson letter, aud what his own interpreted
ton OF that. part of it which afterwards, during
the presidential canvass of l945, received such
opposite construction. The conversation was
private, and l did not consider myself at liberty
to refer to 1t when, in the canvass of lS48, nv
construction of General Cass's meaning excited
no little feeling against me among my political
friends In Mississippi, and when, therefore,
mad the strongest mptdtion to produce authori-
ty to sustain my position.
'tien. Cass, Oh the goth of February. 1850
by speech in the United States Senate, gave
publicity to the fact of his having consulted
Judge Mclean. thea stated that i Knew of
the conference 10 which he had alluded, very
soon after it occured; and, since the publicity
thus given to it, have spoken Of it whenever |
deemed it proper TO 10 So
In regard to what occur ed in the Senate on
the goth February, 1850, the Union says that
ten Cass, on that occasion, repealed the impu-
tatlon OF having deceived the South by showing
that the obvious meaning of his language in his
Nicholson letter was, that the people of the ter
tltories had the right to prohibit slavery either
before or at the time of their admission as States
and, by way of fully relieving himself from the
1mputation, he called on the Southern Senators
then present to know if they had not understood
his Nicholson letteras he himselfthen explain
ed it. In response to this CALL Mr. Butler, of
South Carolina, Mr.. Davis, of Mississippi, aud
Others assented to the correctness of his deca-
ration. and thereby furnished the strongest evil
dence of the want of foundation in the charge
that he had deceived the South.
Such Is the defence which the Union and
Col. Davis now set up against the charge which
some OF Gen. Casss party are seeking to
fasten upon him. leeber and more patry at
tempt to screen public man from the lust
consequences ofequivocation and double dealing,
1t has never been our lot to witness 1t a no.
torous fact, that throughout the last Presiden-
tlal canvass, the friends of Gen. Cass in the
South denounced what Col. Davis calls the doc
trlne OF "squatter sovereignty as worse than
the Wlmot Proviso itself, and Indignantly de-
MED that the Nicholson letter could be fairly
construed to favor that doctrine. 1t is an impos-
slble suppositon, that Gen. Cass was not aware
OF the Interpretation which his Southern sup
v,11f1, l.,
been ignorant OF the importance that was at
tached to his views upon this subject. Indeed,
II our memory does not misead us, he was on
several occasions appealed to by his Southern
partisans to expound his own oracular revela- ,
tons, single word from him would have re-
movedSall misrepresentation and put the contro-
Versy at rest forever; but he obstinately refused
10 speak that word. He permitted the South
ern people to vote for him, with a full and dis
tlnct knowledge on his part, that they did SO I'M
DER total mlsconception of his opinions on a
question vitality affecting their Constitutional
rights and domestic institutions If this was
not Wlilul deception we are at loss to UNDER
stand In what deception consists. The only de- !
fence which Gen. Cass and his friends make
against this charge is, that Col. Davis and some
two or three other Southern senators understood
what his realviews were. These gentlemen were
the chosen depositaries of the secret and prov
ed themselves in every way worthy of the trust
conhded to them' by keeping it faithfully until
the election was over. Col. Davis. it is true,
expressed his belief during the canvass that the
Wing construction of the disputed passage in
the Nicholson letter the true one, but he did
not Inform the people that he had the authority
OF Cen Cass himself for saying 50. As to Nh
Butler and others, to whom Gen. Cass appealed
IN tne Senate to say whether they had not al
ways understood HIM advocating the doctrine
OF ''squatter sovereignty" we never heard a
syllable from them Oil the subject during the
CANVASS Like Col. Davis they appear to have
regarded their knowledge of Gen. Cass's opin-
vuge.