Excerpt from Mr. Benton's Letter to Maj. Gen. Davis, of the State of Mississippi: Declining the Nomination of the Conventional of the That State; Defending the Nomination of Mr. Van Buren for the Presidency; And Recommending Harmon, Concert, and Union, to the Democratic Party of the United States Washington City, January 1 st, 1835. Dear Sir, - We have learned that you have declined permitting your name to be used, as a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States, and that you have addressed a letter to that effect, some time since, to the Committee of the State Convention of Mississippi, by whom you were nominated for that high office. It will be a considerable time before your determination, communicated through that channel, can be known to the People of the United States; we therefore request the favor of a copy of your letter, if you retained one, for publication at this place, in order that your friends elsewhere, as well as in Mississippi, may have an early opportunity of turning their attention to some other suitable person. Yours, with great respect, Bobt. T. Lytle, (of Ohio, ) Henry Hubbard, (of New Hampshire, ) Ratliff Boon, (of Indiana, ) H.A. Muhlenberg, (of Pennsylvania.) Honorable Thos. H.Benton. Washington City, January 2d, 1835. Gentlemen, - I herewith send you a copy of my letter, declining the nomination of the Mississippi State Convention, for the Vice Presidency of the U. States. Fairness towards my political friends in every part of the Union, required me to let them know at once what my determination was; and this I have done in many private letters, and in all the conversations which I have held on the subject. The nomination in Mississippi was the first one which came from a State Convention, and therefore the first one which seemed to me to justify a public letter, and to present the question in such a form as would save me from the ridicule of declining what no State had offered. The letter to Mississippi was intended for publication, to save my friends any further trouble on my account. It was expected to reach, in its circuit, my friends in every quarter; and as you suggest that it must be a considerable time before it could return from the State of Mississippi through the newspapers, and that in the meantime, my friends elsewhere, might wish earlier information, that they might turn their attention to some other person, I cheerfully comply with your request, and furnish the copy for publication here. Yours, respectfully, Thomas H.Benton. Messrs. R. T. Lytle, H Hubbard, R.Boon, and H. A. Muhlenberg About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.