MY DEAR SIR,—Perhaps
you will think my prophesying is not from above, because I said the Compromise
Bill would pass on the very day that it didn't. But I was deceived, in common
with almost everybody else. At the time I wrote you, I had not seen the
"Morning Intelligencer" or "Union" of that day, but
observed afterwards that both of them anticipated its passage almost certainly.
It was a most extraordinary combination of circumstances that defeated it,
wholly unexpected by either friend or foe.
You have written me
a most excellent letter—your last—full of wisdom and truth. I suppose the issue
is made up in Boston, and that Websterism is to be triumphant. Of course,
“outer darkness must be the fate of all who do not bow down before the image
that he sets up. You speak of my defying it and assailing it. I feel just as
you speak; but is not the time now.
New events will
develop themselves before the adjournment of Congress; and we shall not know
where to plant ourselves until we see the results of present movements. If we
were to take any ground today, the chance is that some new event would change
the whole aspect of affairs, and render the application of the wisest counsels
ineffectual. When the session is over, we shall see what is before us, and what
is behind.
I shall not be
surprised even if California is not admitted this session, or, if admitted,
then admitted on such terms as would make us all prefer that it should remain
where it is. . . .
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 312-3
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