Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-11-06
Gen. Wilson'S Letter.


The following is the letter from Hon. Hen
ry Wilson to the Republican State Committee,
rendering his declination of the nomination
for Governor. At the meeting of the Com
mittee, on the I'd inst, the letter was read, but
the Committee adjourned without taking any
definite action upon il AT an adjourned
meeting held on Saturday, it was voted not to
accept the declination.
NAT1cK, Oct %, 1854.
CHARLES g. DAVIS, ESQ, Chairman Of The
Republican State Committee.
DEAR SIR:--I accepted in good faith, the
nomination as a candidate for the Office of
Governor, rendered to me by the Republican
Convention, which assembled at Worcester on
the 18th of September. Having accepted the
position assigned me, and pledged my sup
port to the principles and measures embodied
in the Resolutions of the Convention, princi-
pie duty, and honor, alike demanded that
should continue to stand in that position. By
no act of mine has that position been changed,
or in any degree compromised.
But have reason to believe that several
gentlemen with whom it has been my duty
and pleasure to act during the past few years,
imagine that by some act of mine they have
been compromised. Not choosing to occupy
a position which shall even seem to be an
equivocal one or which shall even seem to
any of my political friends to compromise or
embarrass them in the slightest degree, l very
cheerfully tender to you my defamation of the
nomination given to me by the party whose
agent you are. Gratitude and self-respect
alike forbid that l should for moment occu-
py a position which should occasion the slight
est apprehension or embarrassment to the po-
ltical friends whose generous confidence has
been SO often manifested towards me in past
years.
In placing my declination in your hands,
however, l wish to declare, in the most posi-
tive and explicit language, that l hav9 as
sumed no obligations inconsistent with the
strictest fidelity to the pledges l have publicly
given. l have i'll no way, either directly or
Indirectly, sought the nomination or support
of any party or body of men. have not been
a candidate before any convention, and if any
votes have been given for me, they were given
by persons who positively knew that l would
not accept their nomination if offered to me-
/ wish, also, to say that I belong to no or
ganization where l have been required to
modify OF qualify in any degree my anti-sla-
very sentiments, or to repress their utterance.
For more than eighteen years, on all fit occa-
sions, l have feerlessly uttered those anti. sla-
very sentiments, in the face of friends and Of
enemies, and shall continue to do so while ]
live.
From the day left the Wing National Con.
vention in 1913, to the present moment, th'
presses in the interest of that organized con
servatism, which haughtily assumes that all op
position to its supremacy in Massachusetts
an offence against principle, integrity ant
honor-a mere selfish struggle of discontentet
and ambitious men for office-have poured
upon my head their fercest denuncations.-
Nothing seems too absurd or too improbabl,
for these presses to assert III their persisten
and relentless warfare upon me. But few
days ago, they were charging me with the sir
of seeking the fKnow Nothing nomination
for Governor" Then had surely s.packed
the Senatorial nominations" and intended to
cheat Mr.. Henry j. Gardner in the Legisla-
ture. Now, the wonderful discovery is made,
that an arrangements bargain-has been en-
tered into between Mr.. Gardner and myself,
by which he is to be made Governor, and
am to receive a high office. l hope need
not say to you and the gentlemen of your
Committee, that this atrocious calumny has
not the shadow of foundation to rest upon
that no arrangement, understanding, or bar
gain, of any kind or degree, either expressed
or implied, between Mr.. Gardner and myself,
or between his friends and mine, was ever
made, suggested, or SO far as l am concerned,
even thought of. 10 Mr.. Gardner or his
friends, have never given pledges of any
kind; and from him or them, L have never re-
ceived any.
For some years, have hoped to see in Mas
saehusetts, the union, in one great progressive
party, of all those who, in the words of Mr..
Jefferson, share ssoorm, on the altar of God,
eternal hostility to every kind Of oppression
orer the mind or body Of man" have cheer
fully supported men of all parties, when
thought by so doing could promote that
union, or advance the cause of freedom.
haze often said to men of all parties, in pub
lie and in private, and | now repeat it, thai
my name should not stand in the way of the
union of men who are imbued with the spirit
of our democratic institutions; and l mean
now and ever to act up to this declaration.
may err in my Judgment, but l think see, in
the present chaotic condition of parties in this
Commonwealth, the elements that may here.
after be combined into one organization
"hostiie TO eUery kind Of oppression over TIL
mind or body of men,"
/ am, with respect,
Your obedient servant,
.IIl HENRY WI SON b.