I was a member,
and a Whig, and was delegated to communicate the facts to Grymes. I
knew the Senate had been his ambition for years. I knew he felt his
powers would give him a position with the greatest of that body, and
an immediate national reputation, and had no doubt of his cheerful
acquiescence. To my astonishment he assumed a grave and most serious
manner. "I am grateful, most grateful to you," he said, "for I know
this has been brought about by you, and that you sincerely desire to
gratify me; but I cannot consent to be a candidate. Most frankly will
I tell you my reasons. I admit it has been my desire for years. It has
been, I may say to you, my life-long ambition; but I have always
coupled the possession of the position with the power of sustaining it
reputably. I was never ambitious of the silly vanity of simply being a
senator and known as such; but of giving to it the character and
dignity due it. Louisiana is a proud State, her people are a noble and
a proud people, they have a right to be so--look at her! With a soil
and a climate congenial to the production of the richest staples now
ministering to the luxuries and necessities of man--with a river
emptying into her commercial mart the productions of a world, her
planters are princes, in feeling, fortune, and position.
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