MY DEAR SIR,—Nothing
is more agreeable to me than your letters. I feel, on seeing them, that the
whole world has not abandoned me, which many other things that I see would
almost make me believe.
In yours of the 8th
inst., you suggest that I should present myself before the public again, and,
as I understand you, without delay. But, in the first place, have I any chance
to be heard in such a storm? I fear not. . . .
And again the new
leaves of the history of the country are turning over so fast, that comments
upon the text on one leaf are almost superseded by what the next suggests. It
is impossible to say what is to be the result of the session which must now be
drawing to a close. Suppose, which is not impossible, that California should
not be admitted: in that fact, there would be thunder enough to frighten
Jupiter. Suppose, if California should be admitted, Territorial Governments
should be formed without the proviso that single fact would put more weapons of
war into one's hands than Vulcan could forge in a twelvemonth. When the session
closes, however, things will have, at least for a time, more of a fixed
character.
Aug. 12. Since
writing the above, I have seen the "Dedham Gazette" of Saturday,
which has a very strong article against Webster and his body-guard, and
therefore indirectly in my favor. There is one peculiarity about that editor's
articles on this subject. He never approves my course or defends me, unless
when, by so doing, he can put the Whigs in the wrong. Such defence is almost as
bad as a direct condemnation; for when any Whig finds his own party placed in
the wrong, and me in the right, for no other reason than because I differ from
them, it prejudices him against me more than any thing else could. It turns
out, therefore, that my standing on independent ground, and not pledged to any
party, leaves me without any support whatever arising from partisan feeling,
and exposed to all the violence of opposition which can arise from that source.
This is the political misfortune of my position; but conscience got me into the
scrape, and conscience must sustain me through it.
The “Norfolk-County
Journal" of Saturday contains a very pointed article on me. It says
nothing about the future; but I should not be surprised if it meant as much as
the "Courier" has expressed. . . . But this thing occupies my
thoughts too much, and I am afraid it does yours. . . .
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