Boston, July 2d, 1852.
My Dear Sumner:
— There is a scattering of our forces here, or there has been, but I think now
we begin to settle down to this conclusion — that we cannot vote for Scott,1
and that we have only to prevent as many Democrats from voting for Pierce as
possible. What do you say? Shall you not write to the Worcester Convention, or
a letter to a friend that may be used there? Speaking for myself alone, I must
say the course seems clear; to go for the abstract right and disregard the
consequences. We must teach all parties that there are some men (and they are
becoming more numerous) who will not be bought and sold and handed over by any
conventions.
I have always had an instinct in me which I have never been
able to body forth clearly — which tells me that all this manoeuvering and
political expediency is all wrong, and that each one should go for the right
regardless of others. If every man, or every third man, would do so, an
unworthy candidate, or an unworthy platform, would never be put up; and is it
less one's duty to do so because only every three-thousandth man will follow
his example? Why is it deemed necessary to go on with great parties, and to
twist principles until they all but break — why but because there are so few
men who will be inflexible? Let us make those few more, and all will be right.
Can you not foretell about when you shall speak? If you can,
with any degree of certainty, I shall be strongly tempted to go on there to
hear. Great things are expected of you.
I was in at Mills's to-day; one or two desperate Hunkers
were there: they caught eagerly at my expression of a firm belief in Scott's
anti-slavery tendency, and Mills swore he would publish what I said. I believe
they still cling to the hope of bringing the old man, their man, [Webster] upon
the ring yet. They do not know how, or when, but hope for a contingency.
Do write me; and
believe me ever faithfully,
S. G. Howe.
_______________
1 Winfield Scott.
SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and
Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 380-1
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