You inquire about
Eliot.1 He is an honest and obstinate man, but essentially Hunker in
grain. In other days and places he would have been an inquisitor. He dislikes a
Democrat, and also a Free Soiler, as the gates of hell; still he is not without
individual sympathies for the slave. I doubt if he can be a tool; besides,
personally, he has little confidence in Webster. The attack here is just now
most bitter upon Horace Mann. The substance of his “Notes” they cannot answer;
but they have diverted attention from them by charging him with personalities,
and then by criticism of his classical criticism of Webster. Now, in this
matter two things are to be said: first, Webster was the first offender in
personalities; and, secondly Webster is clearly wrong in the classical matter.
_______________
1 Samuel A. Eliot, elected to Congress as
successor to Winthrop.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 217
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