seven thousand votes, that had been cast a short
time before against the party with which I was associated, was reduced
to less than one thousand.[10]

In this canvass, both before and after I became a candidate, no argument
or appeal of mine was directed against the perpetuation of the Union.
Believing, however, that the signs of the time portended danger to the
South from the usurpation by the General Government of undelegated
powers, I counseled that Mississippi should enter into the proposed
meeting of the people of the Southern States, to consider what could and
should be done to insure our future safety, frankly stating my
conviction that, unless such action were taken then, sectional rivalry
would engender greater evils in the future, and that, if the controversy
was postponed, "the last opportunity for a peaceful solution would be
lost, then the issue would have to be settled by blood."

[Footnote 10: The following letter, written in 1853 to the Hon. William
J. Brown, of Indiana, formerly a member of Congress from that State, and
subsequently published, relates to the events of this period, and
affords nearly contemporaneous evidence in confirmation of the
statements of the text:

"Washington D.C., _May 7, 1853_.

"My dear Sir: I received the 'Sentinel' containing your defense of me
against the fate accusation of disunionism, and, before I had returned
to you the thanks to which you are entitled, I received this day the St.
Joseph 'Valley Register,' marked by you, to call my attention to an
article in answer to your defense, which was just in all things, save
your too complimentary terms.

"I wish I had the letter quoted from, that you might publish the whole
of that which is garbled to answer a purpose. In a part of the letter
not published, I put such a damper on the attempt to fix on me the
desire to break up our Union, and presented other points in a form so
little acceptable to the unfriendly inquirers, that the publication of
the letter had to be drawn out of them.

"At the risk of being wearisome, but encouraged by your marked
friendship, I will give you a statement in the case. The meeting of
October, 1849, was a convention of delegates equally representing the
Whig and Democratic parties in Mississippi. The resolutions were
decisive as to equality of right in the South with the North to the
Territories acquired from Mexico, and proposed a convention of the
Southern States. I was not a member, b