name for the
Presidency of the United States, and associated with it that of
Andrew Jackson Donelson for the Vice-Presidency. This
unexpected communication met me at Venice on my return from
Italy, and the duplicate, mailed thirteen days later, was
received on my arrival in this city last evening. This must
account for my apparent neglect in giving a more prompt reply.

You will pardon me for saying that when my administration
closed in 1853, I considered my political life as a public man
at an end, and thenceforth I was only anxious to discharge my
duty as a private citizen. Hence I have taken no active part in
politics. But I have by no means been an indifferent spectator
of passing events; nor have I hesitated to express my opinion
on all political subjects when asked; nor to give my vote and
private influence for those men and measures I thought best
calculated to promote the prosperity and glory of our common
country. Beyond this I deemed it improper for me to interfere.
But this unsolicited and unexpected nomination has imposed upon
me a new duty, from which I cannot shrink; and therefore,
approving, as I do, of the general objects of the party which
has honored me with its confidence, I cheerfully accept its
nomination, without waiting to inquire of its prospects of
success or defeat. It is sufficient for me to know that by so
doing I yield to the wishes of a large portion of my
fellow-citizens in every part of the Union, who, like myself,
are sincerely anxious to see the administration of our
government restored to that original simplicity and purity
which marked the first years of its existence; and, if
possible, to quiet that alarming sectional agitation, which,
while it delights the Monarchists of Europe, causes every true
friend of our own country to mourn.

Having the experience of past service in the administration of
the Government, I may be permitted to refer to that as the
exponent of the future, and to say, should the choice of the
Convention be sanctioned by the people, I shall, with the same
scrupulous regard for the rights of every section of the Union
which then influenced my conduct, endeavor to perform every
duty confided by the Constitution and laws to the Executive.

As the proceedings of this Convention