[1850 ALS from Robert J. Walker, U.S. Secretary of Treasury under President James K. Polk, writing about his Disenchantment with Public Office].

“...the illusion is gone—I am disenchanted…”

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Autograph letter signed by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Senator from Mississippi, Robert J. Walker (1801–1869), author of the 1846 Walker Tariff enacted during his secretariat in the administration of President James K. Polk.

Walker here writes to influential clergyman, New York University professor, and editor, Rev. Dr. Caleb S. Henry (1804–1884), about his disenchantment with being in public life:

I look forward with great pleasure to your visit here. We will talk over the organ [periodical?] to which you refer. As regards the high office which you so kindly mention in connection with my name, the illusion is gone. I am disenchanted, & it is the last thing I would desire. I can do more good as a private citizen, than in any public station. Besides I have never been so happy as now when out [of] office & intending so to remain.

Was Henry urging Walker to run for president?

In any event, Walker says that he’d rather do something else “...than send a report or even a message to Congress.” Walker would later return to politics, in 1857, when he accepted the appointment from President James Buchanan to become the fourth governor of the Territory of Kansas.

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