No. IV.

EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTERS OF MR. TAZEWELL RESPECTING PUBLIC OFFICE.

Mr. Tazewell kept no copies of his letters to his friends, and I make the subjoined extracts, explanatory of his views respecting public office, wholly from those in my own possession. I may state here that when a commissioner was appointed to Kentucky, in 1823, Mr. Tazewell was consulted on the subject by some of his friends in the General Assembly, and he agreed to undertake the office; but when he heard that the friends of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, his warm personal friend, desired the appointment of that distinguished jurist, he sent a peremptory withdrawal of his name, and urged the nomination of Mr. Leigh. When he believed that the arbiters of the dispute between Kentucky and Virginia would be chosen at large, he suggested the names of Jeremiah Mason of New Hampshire, William Hunter of Rhode Island, and Langdon Cheves of Philadelphia.

In a letter, dated January 1, 1823, he says: "I ask nothing from my country, but there is nothing she should ever require of me in vain.... As a citizen of Virginia, I hold myself bound at all times to render any aid which it may be within the compass of my poor abilities to offer in furtherance of the rights, the interests, and even the wishes of its government.... Proud as I should be at being selected as the advocate of my country's rights by the unsolicited voice of her legislature, I could not purchase even this gratification at the expense of any whom I love, esteem, or admire."

Under the date of December, 1822, he writes: "If I know myself, there is no situation within the power of government to bestow which I covet or desire, nor is there one which I would not accept, if the discharge of its duties by me was deemed necessary or useful to my country. I have no ambition to gratify, although I have duties to fulfil."

Under the date of December 9, 1824, he says: "The public interest shall never be postponed to my individual concerns, although ruin to myself may result from it."

When once asked for something like a defence of some parts of his political career, which he declined to give, he said: "There is no act of my whole life, public or private, which I regret; none that I am solicitous should not be scrutinized; none the motives or objects of which I cannot instantly explain, in a way which candor will approve."

On the 1st of December, 1824, he writes: "If I know myself, there is no office, place, or appointment within the gift of man which I wish, and none I would accept save from my native State. To her I have never felt myself at liberty to refuse myself under any circumstances, when she thought proper to call me to her side. But even from her I want nothing but that protection which she affords in common to all her citizens. My gratitude would constrain me to sacrifice everything to obey her wishes." On another occasion, when his creed was called for, he wrote: "As a Virginian, I would willingly suffer this inconvenience and make this sacrifice, and much more, for Virginia; but I should feel myself unworthy of her name, if I did not scorn to stoop to the meanness of blazoning to her view my own merits, which, if they exist at all, none ought to know so well as my countrymen, or to vindicate myself against suspicions which, if without foundation, they ought not to entertain. I cannot, therefore, humiliate myself, or degrade my friends, so far as, at this time of day, and under the circumstances in which I am placed, to furnish you or any other with a confession of my political faith, to be read either in the Richmond church or elsewhere, to the end that I may propitiate its tutelary deity or his ministering priesthood; and as this seems to be the sine qua non of my success, I must, therefore, beg leave to decline the nomination."

On the 6th of December, 1826, he writes: "I want no office, place, or appointment under the sun, nor will I ever have any except from the gift of my own State."

It thus appears that, though he was not desirous of holding office, he was always willing and ready to perform at every sacrifice any duty which Virginia might require at his hands.

I wish it had been in my power to present even a brief glance at the labors of Mr. Tazewell, as one of the Commissioners under the Florida treaty of 1819, when, in conjunction with the late Judge Hugh L. White and Mr. King, some important questions were decided; but I had no materials within reach while engaged in preparing the discourse; and my recollections were too vague to be used on such an occasion.