The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-20

mr.. BrOOke's Position.
The following letter from Mr.. BROOKE, the
recently elected United States senator from Mis-
sissippi, appears in the New Orleans Della:
STEAMER MAGNOLIA, March 2, 1852
Eds. Delta Gentlemen: have just observed
an article in your paper of the 26th ult., which
unintentionaly does me great injustice, and as
have many valued friends in your city whose
good opinion would not willingly forfeit by an
appearance Of bargain for the sale of office,
you will do me n Kindness by permitting me,
through the medium of your paper, to correct
any erroneous impression that may have been
made by the article referred to. That nv un-
fortunate letter was liable to Misrepresentation
is not to be wondered at, since it was written
while suffering under remarkable painful dis
ease, (the dengue) and which was we'll calcula
ted to prevent anything like accuracy both of
thought and expression. | simply meant to
express an intention | had formed in common
with nine tenths Of the Wings of Mississippi, to
support the nominee of the Democratic party,
provided he was sounder on the compromise is
sue, and the slavery question in general, than the
Wing candidate
This intention was openly avowed by myself
and others during the canvass, and was the COM
mon sentiment of the Wing party of our State
The contingency we thought likely would hap
pen from the course of political events and the
individuals who were pronounced before the
country as competitors for the nomination by
their respective parties. General Scott and Mr..
Webster seemed most likely to be the only
competitors before the Wing convention. The
former was well known to be under the patron
age of the infamous Seward and as to the lat
ter, we could not forget the cold support he
gave to Mr.. Clay, in 1874, and to Gen Taylor,
in l848. Nor could we forget his repeated as
serlions that the Wilmot proviso was his "thun-
der" by "patent right" stolen from him by Will
mot and his Freesoil associates. In Mr.. Fill
more we had and have every confidence, but we
considered him as retired from the arena, or at
least, as having but small chance of obtaining
the nomination. In coming to this determine
ton we considered that we were yielding no
principle, but simply sacrificing, temporarily,
our party predictions on question that we
conceived to be above mere party considera-
tons, and involving not only the welfare but
the very existence of our common country
So far from my letter being written for the
purpose of securing votes, it was written twelve
hours after had been nominated in caucus, and
before had any intimaton that there would be
any difficulty in the legisl tive convention. 1t
was written at the request of a friend, to enable
some two or three Union Democrats who wished
to vote for me- and intended so to do, to Justify
themselves before their constituents. NV views,
as herein expressed, were well known in Jackson
long before the election, and do not know that
they differed from those of any of the gentlemen
who were considered as aspirants for the station.
Some of my Wing friends went much further
than have gone, by actually participating in the
proceedings of the Union Democratic convention
which met at Jackson on the 9th of January.
This ! did not and could not do-for while |
expected, on a certain contingency, to support
the Democratic nominee, | expected to do it in
dependently as Wing, on one issue alone,
which considered of more vital importance than
all others.
Having thus, hope, set myself "rectus in
curia," remain, very respectfully, your obedient
servant, w. BROOKE.