“If we do not cease our denunciations, we shall be a divided nation, Texas or no Texas. We denounce our friends with our foes, and we sacrifice a great many honorable patriotic men who have as much to contend with as they can bear up under without our contumely.”

Autograph letter signed by Elisha Whittlesey, prominent member of the Whig party. Canfield, Ohio, 24 February 1845. 3 pages, folio, With original seal and Canfield cancel. Docketed to verso. 

An impressive letter penned by Elisha Whittlesey (1783-1863) to his friend and fellow Whig party member, congressman John W. Allen (1802-1887), who had written a fierce attack on southern states under the pseudonym “Chenango” which appeared in the Cleveland Herald. 

Whittlesey, a prominent member of the Whig party, maintained an expansive elective career, serving in Congress as a National Republican and then as a whig from 1823-1838. Obtaining the nickname of “Watchdog of the Treasury,” Whittlesey was regarded as an example of official integrity within government, often acting as a conciliator in party rivalries and speaking mostly for the preservation of a unified nation. He would later serve as the controller of the Treasury in 1848. As an active member in the American Colonization Society, Whittlesey advocated for expatriation as an answer to slavery. 

Whittlesey writes elegantly, dissenting one of the letters written by Allen which Whittlesey believes is an “indiscriminate condemnation of the South under the designation of ‘slave holders.’” John W. Allen, who had also served a long elective career, heavily criticized the slave industry and slave states throughout his career. Whittelby, warns in a letter to his colleague that such language is divisive and will ultimately isolate friends in Southern states to that of enemies. While Whittelby holds views similar to Allen, he believes the issue is desirous of more sensitivity than is being exhibited “I think the South is in error in many particulars but they are a part of the confederacy and many of its citizens are our friends in feelings and interests…” Instead, he writes his solution “My belief is that we should expose any party, or men, who are hostile to the Union or whose measures endanger it.”

Whittlesey theorizes that “I am mistaken if we are not required to sustain ‘a martyr in the cause of human rights’ by an indiscriminate attack on the South,” mentioning previously the methods of the Liberty Party, which emerged in New York as a third party which confronted more directly than the Whig and Democratic parties. Whittelby notes the similarities of these ideals emerging within his own party, solidified by Allen’s rhetoric, and attempts to quell the fires and offer a way to ease tensions within Congress. 

An excellent letter regarding the political tensions that were emerging in the political theater of pre-Civil War America regarding slavery and the desire to prevent secession. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation][Texas, Republic of Texas, Sam Houston, Alamo, Texas Rangers] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]