Mt. Savage, [maryland,] Jan. 27, '61.
Living in a border
state, politics are personally too interesting for me to enjoy the papers. It
is hard to see clearly, but I fear Phillips was more than half right in his
denunciation of Seward's speech; it was certainly a stultification of his
previous course, more worthy of a political dodger than a statesman. The best
explanation I have seen of it, is that it was the change of foot from offensive
to defensive. The speech may save the Union, but I will never give its author
my vote for any high office. We want higher thinking than that in times like the
present. I fear the London “Times” is right in saying that the salt and savour
of the Union is gone out of it, no matter how the event turns. One thing is clear,
that the South have struck a blow at their Cotton King which he will never
get well over. The mischief is already done. Cotton must and will be raised
elsewhere, too. Whether or no the agitators succeed in their political game of
brag, it is certain they will repent hereafter the damage to their material
interests in the Union or out of it. Have you seen South Carolina's tax-laws?
they are as ruinous to trade or manufactures as Duke Alva's laws in Holland.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 192-3
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