To Charles Palmer, Esq.:
Home, near Richmond, October, 1861. MY DEAR SIR,-By your letter of yesterday, I am informed that the French consul has applied to you for such information as you can furnish or obtain for him respecting the origin and progress of the doctrine of Secession, together with whatever else may be deemed important or interesting, as connected with the purposes and designs of the authors of this great Southern Rebellion; and, as one more familiar with the subject than yourself, you appeal to me for the information required, to which I answer.
It has generally been supposed that this doctrine of Secession had its origin with the famous "Hartford" Convention that was held in Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1814, during the last war with Great Britain; but, with all the research I have been able to make, I have not succeeded in tracing this wild and pernicious assumption to that body. That it embraced a large degree of disaffected and disloyal spirit to the government of the United States, is undoubtedly true; that the authors of its creation were suspected and charged with entertaining such a design, is also beyond question; but it does not appear, by its published proceedings, to have claimed such right, or to have resorted