John Tyler, Sherwood Forest, Charles City County, Virginia, to Alexander Gardiner, New York, New York

Sherwood Forest. Feb. 4. 1850

My Dear Sir;

Your most acceptable letter reached
me in due course of mail, and the assurances of
your continued affection for our beloved Julia and
your unabated interest in her health and welfare
did not fail to furnish to both of us unalloyd
pleasure. She has sufferd much since I last wrote you
first from painful attacks of head ache and since from
bad cold. Under the effects of the last she still
labors notwithstanding she has resumed her do-
mestic employments. We have had but little
more than a week of cold weather since the win
ter commenced, but a continued series of warm
days accompanied, for much of the time, with
heavy rains. The very weather to produce in-
fluenza which prevails extensively in this coun
try. However the first rays of the sun of spring
will dissipate the vapours, and then for a bright
and healthy atmosphere. We have experienced
great regret at the continued indisposition of
[Phobe], and believing that a change of climate
and scenery might produce beneficial results
Julia requested Mrs. Gardiner, being at the time
too unwell to write herself, to address you a
letter upon the subject of her coming here, and
I pray to be considered as endorsing all that
Mr. G's letter contained. The trip might prove

of the greatest importance to her. I need not add
how much pleased we should be to have her with
us.
The present condition of public affairs is
well calculated to excite apprehension and
concern for the future. The slave-holding states
are deeply and profoundly excited by the constant
annoyance they have experienced and continue to
experience, upon the slavery question. They have
seen the compromises of the Constitution in regard
to fugitives from labour, despised and trampled
upon in some quarters, and but imperfectly recog-
nized by the Judges on these benches, while every con-
cievable impediment is cast in the way of recover-
ing their property. The loss annually, is esti
mated at a large sum and each new case
adds fresh fuel to the flame. The sentiment uni-
versally prevails that if the States were not asso-
ciated in Union, and treaties existed between
those Southern and non slave holding States
with stipulations as plain as those in the
Constitution, and the same shifts and evasions
had been resorted to in order to avoid a full
fillment of the treaties, that the casus belli
would long since have arisen, and it is regard
-ed as a deep reproach that the faith of confe
derated States is no better observd. A loss
of confidence in the non slave holding states is
the consequence of this and a feeling of insecurity

possesses the public mind. When however all this
is back'd up by an effort on the part of the non
-slave holding States to [engage] the whole territory
acquired by the sacrafices of all, and paid for
out of the money of all, a sentiment of revolt
arises in the breasts of all men among us,
and the public indignation admits of but few
restraints. When to this is added the effort
constantly threatened to be made, in violation
of all faith, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, without
the acquiescence either of Maryland and Virginia
or of the people of the District, men begin to cal
culate the value of the Union and prefer any
state to one of absolute insecurity. They can
set no bounds to the encroachments hereafter
to be made, and look forward to the near ap-
proach of the day, when notwithstanding the decision
of the Supreme Court upon the point, the slave trade
between the States is to be forbidden. It is
this feeling of insecurity which has united all
men in the South, and if things are not
made to assume a different aspect, six months
will not pass by before all party distinctions
will have ceased to exist among us. For my-
self you know that my ties are equally divided
between the South and the North, but I cannot do
otherwise than acknowledge the views herabout
entertained. I regard the South as acting entirely

on the defensive. She has to defend her hearths
and altars against constantly increasing as-
saults. She wants nothing but peace and
security and she can obtain niether. I regard
the Northern politicians as pursuing, at the
hazard of the Union, a mere abstraction in
regard to California and New Mexico. Both
of those territories will, if the question be
left to the inhabitants, be non slave hold
-ing quite as certainly as if the abolitionists
had it all their own way, but their proviso
while it is an abstraction to them is a gross
insult to the South. It proclaims inequality
and is founded in injustice. If the provi
so was abandoned and an act passed more
stringent than existing laws on the sub-
ject of fugitives from labour. The South might
rest in some security on the decisions of
Congress and the Supreme Court touching the
District of Columbia and the intercourse
between the States and contentment and
harmony once more prevail. The first is
with the North a mere abstraction, and the last
is demanded by good faith, and yet how
difficult it is to quiet the [semagues?].
Hoping that "out of this thistle danger will come
the flower safety" and wishing you health and
happiness
I am Dr Sir Yrs
John Tyler