GLC00011
Salmon Chase to Judge A. Lankey Latty
Columbus, Ohio, 26 January 1856.
Autograph letter signed, 2 pages.
Columbus, Jany 26, 1856
Dear Latty,
I have not time to write you as I wish: but I must take a moment first to express my regret
that you came to the conclusion you did in respect to the Secretaryship, which I have given to
M
r
. Rice a gentleman certainly as unacceptable as you could be to the class of illiberals you
thought might be offended by your appointment, and secondly to say that the very object, as I
understand it, of the informal Convention on the 22
d
. Feb. is to secure the Republican
organization against the possibility of being absorbd or neutraliz'd by the K.N. order. If the
meeting had been postponed I fear disastrous results would have followd. As it is I hope for the
best. You [2] may depend upon it, that there is no danger from any movement which that
Convention may originate, to any of any proscription on account of birth or creed. We work
now to overturn the Slave Power. For that we want the Union of all Liberty-loving men, native
or foreign born. While engagd in that work there can be no proscription. When that work shall
be accomplished better there will be no proscribers or they will be powerless for evil. At this
moment I believe that there are few of the Americans who went with us last fall, who desire any
extension of the naturalization terms or who would not readily and zealously sustain any good
real
man for office of ^ Republican principles without reference to the accident of birth. And my
confidence in this respect is not shaken by the resolutions of the 3
d
Jany.
In
haste
yours
faithfully
S. P. Chase
