I do not want the nomination, and could only be induced to consider it by the circumstances under which it might possibly be made. If the call upon me were an unequivocal one, based upon confidence in my character, earned in public life, and a belief that I would carry out in practise the principles that I professed, then indeed would come a test of my courage in an emergency; but if I am to be negotiated for, and have assurances given that I am honest, you will be so kind as to withdraw me out of that crowd. .... If the good people who meet at Cincinnati sincerely believe that they need such an anomalous being as I am (which I do not), they must express it in a manner to convince me of it, or all their labor will be thrown away.
The Tribune was quick to make use of this letter. Its Cincinnati despatch the next day said that it had created a flutter; “the Missouri and Kansas delegates say it ruins his [Adams's] prospects for the nomination here.” Its despatch dated April 26 said that, according to a leading Pennsylvanian, the delegation from that State indicated a willingness to sustain Greeley, “whose presence on the ticket should be a guaranty to the ”
