| Summary: | The committee was composed of seven men: Henry Semple, William Lowndes Yancey, S. Heydenfeldt, John A. Campbell, N. Harris, John A. Elmore, and Thomas S. Mays. In the letter they discuss the recent nomination of Lewis Cass as the Democratic candidate for president. The men, Democrats calling themselves "a portion of the republican party" are displeased with the selection: "The Convention which assembled in Baltimore, nominated as a candidate for the Presidency, Lewis Cass, a man whose opinions were then known to be diametrically opposed to the principles ordered in our resolution with regard to the Equal rights of the people of the several States in the enjoyment and occupancy of the Territories of the United States. For this reason as well as because the nominee is known to be false to the faith of the republican party, on the great question of the power of the General Government to carry on a vast system of Internal Improvements, as is abundantly shown by his votes as a Senator in Congress...his course has always been that of a weak servile worshipper of present expediency,acknowledging no constitutional limitation of the popular power as represented in Congress, we...have refused to recognise [sic] his nomination as binding on us, and are resolved to war against his election, as being the worse evil that could befall our beloved country." They ask Tazewell, one of the "distinguished Statesmen who have uniformly maintained the principles of the old republican party," to be a candidate for president of the United States. Following the letter is a rough draft. A transcription is included.
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