I take advantage of
the leisure of this retreat [Newport, R. I.] to acknowledge the kindness of
your note of sympathy.1 I should have done it earlier. Be assured
that it was most acceptable as a present consolation and as a token of your
friendship. There would be a hardness of heart which I will not charge upon our
opponents if they were otherwise than touched by a domestic bereavement
befalling us But they forbear to testify the sympathy which at other times
would have been profusely offered. There are not a few now who avert their
faces from me. You were right, therefore, in supposing that your words would
come with a welcome increased by the coldness of others. I owe you thanks also
for your letter in reply to Moses Stuart. It was a complete refutation of the
reverend defender of Mr. Webster's new faith.
All the dogs of the
pack are now let loose upon Mr. Mann. His thorough exposure of Mr. Webster has
maddened the “retainers,” and they are diverting attention from the substance
of his criticisms by comments on the manner, and some of our weak brethren have
been carried away by this cry. If he has erred in tone, he caught the infection
from Webster himself, who dealt at him some bitter personalities. You saw
doubtless that I was a candidate at our last election. With infinite reluctance
I consented; for I dislike to see my name connected with any office, even as a
candidate; but I hoped to serve our cause by taking that position in the
forlorn hope. A leading and popular Whig said to me on the morning of the
election: “I must go and vote against you, though I will say I should rather at
this moment see you in Congress than any person in Boston; but I stick to my
party.” There is the secret, party, party, party! Would that this could be
broken down!
_______________
1 On Horace Sumner's death. Ante, vol. i. pp. 33.
34.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 217-8
No comments:
Post a Comment