Cin. Apl. 30, 1849.
Gent. Your note by your
nephew Saml. was recd. this morning. As I know nobody in California, the best I
could do for him was to give him a letter of general introduction, which I did
in such terms as I thought would do him most service.
The Whig Papers keep
up their attacks on me and my friends, and I keep on never minding. I am
satisfied that what was done last winter in the way of martial cooperation
between Freesoilers and Democrats was right, and will be attended by the
happiest consequences to the great cause, to which eight of the last years of
my life have been devoted. I care little therefore for the railing of the
Taylorites, or even of the Beaver & Chaffee Freesoilers, so called.
The worst that I wish to these last, or even indeed to the first, is that their
eyes may be opened, and their hearts purged of the old leaven of Whigism, that
they may sec the truth of Free Democracy & love it.
I have sometimes
thought of writing an exposition of my position and action, but have been
withheld by considerations akin to those which influenced Dr. Beecher under
similar circumstances. You know the story, perhaps; but lest you may not
have heard it I will tell it to you. On one occasion the Doctor was going home
to Walnut Hills and saw a suspicious looking animal by the roadside. The Dr. is
a little abstracted, and, the sight of the animal stirring up his combative
propensities, he, at once, launched at it a quarto volume which he was carrying
under his arm. The skunk returned the salutation with compound interest,
and the Doctor was glad to beat a hasty retreat. Soap and water did their best
for him and his garments, but some time elapsed before either he or they were
tolerable again. Years, afterwards, the Doctor was asked why he did not reply
to some scurrilous pamphlet put forth against him. “I have learned better,” was
his pithy reply: “I once issued a whole quarto against a skunk and got the
worst of it.”
Give my best regards
to our friends in Warren, particularly, Judge King & Hoffman & Hutchins
& believe me
_______________
* Original lent by
Mr. Homer E. Stewart, of Warren, Ohio. These brothers, Milton and C. E.
Sutliff, were among the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical
Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 170-1
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