Washington, July 17th 1842 (Sunday evening)
My dear friends, Your joint letter of the 9th and 11th
Inst was received yesterday morning, being Saturday, and of
late your letters get here so that I have them on Saturdays, regularly.
I am very much grateful to hear that yourselves, as well as our
particular friends are in a comfortable state of health, and I
fervently pray I may find you so on my return. When I left
you I had no expectation of being separated from you so long.
I thought it probable I should
be
with you again in seven or eight
weeks. But week after week passes away, and it is still as difficult
to fix the time of adjournment, as it was the day I arrived here.
I find by your remarks that I had fixed the middle of August,
as the time you might expect me home. If I had mentioned
that time in some of my letters, it was meant for the first of August.
Yet it is very uncertain when we can adjourn; it will depend
very much upon the course the President may take with our
tariff bill, (if we send him one as I expect we shall.) The House
of Representatives have, after more than a fortnight of severe labor,
sitting from ten oclock in the forenoon until dark and sometimes
until twelve o'clock at night, have passed a bill, with which,
if it can be permitted to go into opperation [operation] as a law, the whole
country ought to be satisfied. The whigs in the House deserve
great credit for their untiring perserverance. They have had
the whole body of Locofocos, with but one or two exceptions, and
about a dozen Southern whigs, (who are horizontal tariff men,)
to contend with; besides a threatened veto hanging over their heads.
yet the bill was passed last evening by a small majority,
being 116 ayes and 112 noes. About a dozen members were absent,
some of whom have been detained by indisposition. It is supposed
if every member had been present, the majority would have been
two or three larger. Tomorrow the bill will come before the Senate,
and I think we can pass it. The Senate consists of twenty Locos and
thirty whigs; but five of those are Southernn whigs and opposed to
the distribution, and some of them to a protection tariff. The Locos
are all opposed to the distribution, which the bill provides for, and
part against protection. These will go in a body against the bill.
We are in hopes one or two of our Southern whigs will not vote on
the passage of the bill: if so we can pass it. It is probable that
the Senate will not be able to take the final question short of eight
or ten days to come. Then if the President shall sign the bill, we
may adjourn soon after. If he does not we may be detained another
week or two. So you see that it is very uncertain when I shall
return. If my health remains as good as it has been since I came
here, I shall feel it to be my duty to tarry until we can accomplish
something that shall tend towards relieving the country from its pre-
sent embarrassment.
I have received an account of the doings of the State Convention,
their resolution, &c. and think, all things considered, they have adopted
the best course. I believe if there should be a general rally, our
State would be safe. Gov. Paine has done well, in a firm whig
and tariff man, and ought to have another election; and, accord-
ing to the accounts from different parts of the State will receive
a much stronger vote than he did last year. I saw by the
returns that Orleans, Grand Isle, and Essex were not represented
at Middlebury: the Court being in session might excuse Orleans.
I shall be glad to hear what you have done at your County Cong-
vention. Inform me in your next. You mention your wishes as
to Mr Clay. He appears to be taking the lead, at present, of all other
candidates. I believe if he lives he will be very likely to obtain the
election. The country universally are becoming sick of Capt Tyler,
and if he should veto our tariff bill, which I expect he will, it will
do more to wake up the whigs in Vermont, than anything else could
do. I am much obliged to judge Royce for his friendly feeling towards
me. As to the question whether it would be agreeably me to be elected
for the remainder of Judge Prentiss' term, I have not definitively
made up my mind. The subject has been mentioned to me in letters
received from Vermont, and by our Delegation here. It will depend
upon whether I get home in good health, whether my health shall
be good next fall, whether our next Legislature be whig, and whether
I shall think I can be elected if I am a candidate. So you see
that there are a good many things in the way of making up
my mind; besides one more which I have not noted; that is I am
far from being decided whether I would come again if I had the offer.
You mention that my mammoth document had arived [arrived]. I shall
send several more large and valuable Documents, besides smaller
ones, and speeches, all which I hope you will preserve. You say
that you got the Adams miniature print. I was pleased wiht it, and
procured half a dozen, and sent one to Mrs Corbins, one to Mrs Clark
one to Mr Hall, one to Mr Wilson, and one in a letter to Pliny M Corbin.
I have had a letter from him since his return to Lansinburgh, but
written before he received mine. He got home safe, and says they
were very much pleased with their visit at Craftsbury.
I am glad to hear that James and William have with their two
Marys ventured of a short tour of pleasure. They have done right,
and it may be of benefit to the health of the Marys, particularly,
to Mary William. I hope James as he grows older will become
more inclined to go from home and mix with the world.
I suppose you have not done much at haying, the season was
so cold that I expect your grass as well as other crops are later
than usual. The weather is not very warm here at present, not
more than is common at this season in Vermont. We had two or
three weeks, the latter part of June and beginning of July, quite
warm; the rest of the time it has been very comfortable weather.
The report about the change in the Cabinet does not appear
to be strictly true; altho' it is said all things are there is some
want of harmony in their councils. You ask me about Mr Webster.
I have not seen him to speak with him since I came here. He was
gone several weeks to Boston and Maine; since that he has been engaged
with Lord Ashburton- and it is said there is a prospect of a settlement
of our disputes with England. But I cannot vouch for its truth.
I have filled up my paper without leaving room to say any thing
particularly to Mary besides thanking her for her part of the letter,
and assuring her that her letters add very much to my happiness.
Give my love to all friends, and accept my sincere prayers for your joint
health and happiness.
S C Crafts
July 17 -42