December 22.
Your letter was
quite welcome. In these times I am glad to get an encouraging word, especially
from calm and moderate men, for I fear sometimes that indignation may get the
better of my judgment.
We have troubles
and rumors of worse to come. If the Southern gentlemen are to be believed, one
half the slave States are already out of the Union, and the rest are sure to
follow. In our committee-room, for instance, Mr. Toombs says his State now
feels no interest in the tariff, but he votes to postpone it to the 4th of
March in order that no harm may be done the country while Georgia does remain a
part of it. Even Mr. Hunter fears that by the middle of January the
Republicans will be strong enough to pass any bill they like. There is much of
this kind of flourish, but there is great anxiety to have the Republicans do
something, make some proposition, and not stand still and see the country go to
destruction. “They don't think there is much hope, but if the Republicans would
tender sufficient guarantees, perhaps the thing might be deferred a little
longer.” Any man with half an eye can see what all this means. It was begun for
the purpose of frightening us into an abandonment of our position, thus
strengthening the South and disgracing the Republicans. Unfortunately, however,
the public mind had been so excited and poisoned that the leaders soon lost
control of the movement, and they are now pushed on in their own despite. They
are not happy. Jeff. Davis says as little as possible, and there is an
affectation of ease about most of them which indicates concern of mind. We
cannot conceal from ourselves that the country has suffered and must suffer
still more. But I regard this as the crisis of our fate. Concession under
menace would be fatal to us as a party; and what is vastly more and worse, it
would prostrate the North forever at the feet of slavery. It is only by
preserving a firm and uncompromising attitude that we can rescue the government
from its downward tendency and place it upon the side of freedom where the
fathers designed it should stand. While, therefore, perceiving and fully
appreciating the danger, I am not disposed to avoid it by timidity or by
qualifying in any way the platform of principles on which we stand. If the
Union can only be saved by acknowledging the power of a minority to coerce the
majority through fear of disruption, I am ready to part company with the slave
States and trust God and the people for reconstruction on narrower ground, but
on a sounder and safer basis.
SOURCE: Francis Fessenden, Life and Public Services of
William Pitt Fessenden, Volume 1, p. 117-9
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