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Dear Sir, Your obliging favor of the 9th inst., dated at Saratoga, and those subsequently at New York, have all safely arrived. They reached Lexington during my absence on a short excursion to one of our watering-places, from which I am but just returned.
I concur with you in thinking that, considering all the combinations that may arise, and the contingences that may happen, my friends ought to persevere in their support of me. That, I believe, is the course which they have determined on generally. And I think the six States heretofore supposed to be disposed to support me, may still be relied on. You have no doubt heard from Louisiana. Your Governor elect passed through Lexington, and I presume you will have seen him. The information derived from him and other sources, assures us of the unaltered state of Louisiana, although in the city of New Orleans, the Jackson ticket prevailed in the greater part. Those opposed to me in that State, admit a plurality of the Legislature to be for me, while my friends confidently claim the majority. What is most to be apprehended, is, that my friends in the West, or at least in some of the more doubtful States, may become discouraged by the little prospect of my being supported to any extent in the East, and especially by the statements in the "National Intelligencer," and other papers, according to which it would seem that I have not a friend in the New York Legislature.
The anticipated coalition in New York, I should suppose was very probable, unless it should be prevented by the apprehension of the imputation of corruption, bargaining, etc. Perhaps there may be nerve enough to encounter all the odium of those imputations, considering the quarter from which they must emanate. If there be a majority of the Legislature who prefer either of two candidates to a third, there is surely reason in an equal division of its vote between those two. The effect of such a division would doubtless be to exclude the third from the House of Representatives, and it would lead to the election of one or the other of them most certainly. In the actual state of the circumstances of the election. New York would have two strings to her bow by dividing her suffrage, and more certainly secure influence in the new administration, than by risking her whole vote upon one of the candidates, since, if she were so to concentrate it, she could not be sure of effecting his election.
What about the Vice-President? Is New York desirous of electing Mr. Sanford? Has he any, arid what interest there? In Ohio there is a strong disposition to elect a Vice-President from New York, and Mr. Sanford has been favorably brought forward there. Here, also, his name has been advantageously announced to the public, and there would not be the slightest difficulty in his obtaining the votes of both States, and probably of the other States inclined to give me their suffrages.
Be pleased to present my respects to Mrs. Johnston, and believe me faithfully and cordially your friend.
