Washington, July 25, 1850—Friday, twelve o'clock.
MY DEAR SIR,—I thank you for all the good wishes and kind expressions in your letter, and hope my transfer to this position may be in some measure useful to the country.
If we could only get the measure now pending in the Senate passed into a law, we should have a glorious prospect before us indeed. But you see how decided is the hostility of the Massachusetts members. With their consent, it would become a law in a week. If it fail, we must try something else.
An eminent Northern Senator came to me last night to know what he could do to insure the passage of this bill. He was ready to do any thing but to vote for it. Half a dozen others are in exactly the same condition. They became committed to a favorite measure of the late President before his death. All that holds them to it now, is the notion of consistency. I was not without hopes last night that the bill would pass the Senate.
SOURCE: Fletcher
Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol.
2, p. 379-80
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