July 21. Four of the
seven members who compose the cabinet are from the slaveholding States: so, if
we consider Mr. Webster a proslavery man, they have five out of seven. But one thing
is very observable, though four are from the slaveholding States, yet one is
from Missouri, one from Kentucky, one from Maryland, and one from North
Carolina. All these are just south of Mason and Dixon's line; and they are from
the States that hold slavery in its more mitigated forms, and not one of them
is an intense proslavery State. The men selected are, I suppose, moderate men,
comparatively, on this subject. Therefore, though the South have no confidence
in Mr. Webster as an honest man, yet his late change of position on this
subject renders him less offensive to the extreme men, and more acceptable to
the moderate men.
If Mr. Fillmore has
taken this course to conciliate the South in the first instance, and, with his
Cabinet, eventually to subserve Northern feeling on this subject of slavery,
then the whole may eventuate well; but if it is a concession to the South, on
the surface, to be followed by an adoption of their views as to slavery
ultimately, then it deserves all reprobation. For myself, I shall not give my
confidence to this Administration, on this point, until it earns it. When it
does earn it, then, as a matter of justice, I shall no longer withhold it;
though, in the honesty of one of the members composing it, I have not, and
probably never shall have, the slightest confidence. I therefore await
developments. It has proved, so far, a godsend to Mr. Webster; for I do not
believe he could have withstood the opposition against him in Massachusetts.
Now, instead of being defeated, he escapes from the conflict. Still I can have
no confidence in his ultimate success; for no one can safely prophesy success
of a dishonest man.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 308-9
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