Memoirs of John Adams Dix; comp. by his son, Morgan Dix.

1845-1853.] A DIFFICULT COURSE TO STEER.

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the defeat of General Cass, whose name, apparently, was
odious to them; yet the idea possessed them that the defeated candidate of 1848 would undoubtedly be victor in 1852.
No doubt General Dix saw through the cloud of deceptions thus raised; and perceived the end of these fond expectations. H-is reason could not have been convinced; nor was
it possible to intimidate him by threats, as some attempted to
do. But he was very closely bound to his political friends,
and devoted to them; personal ties were even stronger than
political, and he could not have broken off his intimate relations without great pain. Added to this, however, was the
fact that Mr. Morgan, his father-in-law-to whom he was indebted for a constant sympathy, a generous assistance, and an
affectionate devotion-was committed to the movement, and
intensely interested, or rather violently excited, on the subject. Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Morgan were on terms of the
closest intimacy; the ex-President and he were warm friends;
while it was to Mr. Morgan that my father owed the means
of releasing him from army life, of establishing him in his
profession as a lawyer, of enabling him to maintain his fainily in comfort and ease while out of public office, and of innumerable advantages enjoyed by him in the varied experiences of his career. When all these circumstances are taken
into consideration it will be better understood how hopelessly
my father was involved in a movement which his judgment
disapproved, and under what peculiar pressure he yielded to
what must have sounded to him like the mandate of a dominant and irresistible fate. I see not how he could have done
otherwise without the risk of trials from which a man of
sensibility instinctively shrinks, and in which others more
dear to him than himself are sure to become involved. The
sentiments which actuated him were such as no good man
need be ashamed of; the guiding motive was self-sacrifice.
The Southern politicians never forgave General Dix. For
this I do not blame them; but they deserve censure for their
systematic misrepresentation of his motives and his principles.
I. -16