The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

APPENDIX. 453
New York, April 4th, 1840.
Thomas Earle, Esq., Philadelphia.
My Dear Sir : Mr. Leavitt returned last evening from attendance
on the Convention at Albany. From his account it was a dignified,
judicious assembly, of from one hundred to one hundred and twenty.
A nomination was made. My name is to be held up for the
Presidency ; yours for the Vice-Presidency.
The Convention was not informed whether you would accept the
nomination or not. The expectation is that you will. I entreat, my
dear sir, if you have doubts about accepting, that you will dismiss
them. This is surely not the time for men, selected by a wise and
discreet Convention of their fellow-citizens to stand forth as the rep-
resentatives of their principles, to draw back. You and I both have
borne and suffered enough, in the struggle that our friends are
making for the establishment of equal liberty, not to be afraid of
assuming the new position to which they invite us.
If the independent movement is to be wholly unsuccessful, the
anti-slavery enterprise is in my opinion at an end. The Whig
Abolitionists who constitute, perhaps, five-sixths of the whole num-
ber, will become merged in their party. The Van Buren Aboli-
tionists will follow their example. Abolitionism will be acknowl-
edged to be but secondary to any and everything that the parties
may think essential or convenient for them. Its distinctive character
will be forgotten, and the whole movement will sink into contempt.
There will then be no ground of hope left for the slave, or indeed, as
I view it, for the country, except in the exterior influence of other
nations on us. It may be, that when France and Spain shall emanci-
pate in their colonies, the collisions to which their condition will
then give rise may, sometime or other, make it necessary for us to
emancipate. It is possible.
I have decided on going to London. Sail about May 1st. Were
it not that I am more than usually engaged in making preparations
for so long an absence from my children and affairs, I would go at
once to see you, but this forbids.
I cannot close this letter without renewing my entreaty, that you
will accept the nomination. I pray you, though I suppose that is
unnecessary. * * * Should you not accept, I fear it will throw the
whole movement out of joint. Much as I dislike the attitude in
which accepting the nomination will place me, I shall for the noble