Crawfordville [Ga.], July 24th, 1860.
Dear Smith, Your letter of the 20th inst. came to hand last night. It gave me some trouble on your account. When I saw as I did the extensive circulation that was given to your letters and the marked impression that they were making on the public mind everywhere, I thought the writer would be hunted up. I felt the embarrassment of your situation in that event. All these things I thought of some weeks ago. Now I am at a loss on the question of the advice I should give you. I do not know what to say to you; and in this state of mind the best thing I can say perhaps is to follow your own sense of duty. Where duty leads there we may never fear to tread. If I wrote, I would be respectful to all persons in my language. I would not confine my letters to the Confederacy; I would write for the Constitutionalist, and I would write for other papers. Perhaps if you should be turned out you could make as much by correspondence as you now do. Gardner[i] ought to pay you well for such letters as you could write. Hampton I suppose can pay nothing. His paper moreover has no influence. If you write you ought to appear in a paper of more character. I have not time to say more today. The drought continues—crops ruined. Let me know the prospect. How will Pa. go? Do the seceders stand any chance there? Has Douglas any hopes in N. York, New Jersey, Ohio or Indiana ? Let me know your opinion from the best lights you have on the subject. I had heard of Garland’s[ii] running away. I saw Mr. Toombs last week. Did not talk politicks with him except in a very general way. We differ widely and radically on present issues; but as I do not intend to take any active part again in public matters, I have made up my mind never to let such things interfere with my private relations.
[i] James R. Gardner was editor of the Augusta Constitutionalist ; Hampton was editor of the Southern Confederacy, published at Atlanta.
[ii] Body-servant of Robert Toombs.
From Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911.
Alexander Hamilton Stephens was an American politician who served as the vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. After serving in both houses of the Georgia General Assembly, he won election to Congress, taking his seat in 1843. After the Civil War, he returned to Congress in 1873, serving to 1882 when he was elected as the 50th Governor of Georgia, serving there from late 1882 until his death in 1883.
J. Henley Smith was a Georgia journalist.