WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 1850.
I must say, my dear Downer, for the friendliness of
your letters turns the esteem and regard which I have always had for you into
affection.
Your view of the
difficulty of my case corresponds exactly with mine. The sentiment of the old
catch, "I cares for nobody, and nobody cares for me," is perfectly
true when applied to parties. No party has felt that I was in full communion
with it. The "communication," as the magnetizers say, has not been
established. They may have believed, what always was and always will be true,
that, while ready to do any thing for their principles, I would not sell myself
to their partisan schemes. Hence, in a crisis like this, they feel that I am
not the man for them.
From all that I
learn, I am led to suppose, that, while every thing is done against me that can
be done in the lower part of the county, there is a state of entire quiescence
in the upper. From those parts of the district which are in Plymouth and
Middlesex Counties, I hear almost nothing. I have letters from different parts
of the State which are as complimentary as my most partial friends could
desire. They speak of the universal disaffection there is towards Webster, and
of the sympathy there is for me. But these are away from commercial and
manufacturing localities. In such resorts, and among men engaged in business,
who are susceptible on the Mammon side of their nature, I suppose Webster is
all powerful. Never was a greater influence exerted than his friends are
exerting now, here as well as at home; and I think that the Territories have as
good a chance to come in without the proviso as California has to be admitted
as a free State.
It is impossible for
the friends of freedom at home to take any but the most general positions now.
Within the coming
month, there will be developments which will have decisive influences upon
parties and individuals. No conventions should be held till after the
adjournment of Congress. We shall then see what foe we have to meet, and what
weapons we have to fight with.
On the Texas
Boundary Bill I may have an opportunity to say something, though not much at
length. Texas has been allowed to slide or steal into possession of a great
extent of territory to which she has no right,—all, or almost all, between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande, from the Gulf up to New Mexico. The New-Mexicans, by
fixing the boundary in their constitution at 32° on the east side of the Rio
Grande, have cut their friends off from all attempt to give them any thing
below. My impression is, that if the Texan Boundary Bill were amended so as to
adopt the compromise line, -that is, starting from twenty miles above El Paso,
and going north-east to the south-west corner of the Indian Territory,—and if
the provision were stricken out which gives Texas a right to an additional
slave State, it would be best to vote for it. Please to tell me what you think
of this, as soon as convenient.
I do not know
exactly on whom to rely in these times. . . . I will send you one or two
letters, that you may see what people say to me. . . . Please return these
letters to me. I receive any amount of this kind, —paper abuse, much more than
the amount of the news
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 317-9
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