WEST ROXBURY, Sept. 9, 1850.
DEAR SIR, I suppose that any word of commendation which I could utter would seem to you as a very doubtful compliment; for, if it is a desirable thing laudari a viro laudato, it is undesirable to be praised by a viro odioso. Still, I cannot help saying to you how much I honor and esteem you for the services you have rendered to your country and mankind since you entered Congress. I thought, at the time you first went there, you would find more trouble there than with the Boston schoolmasters and such poor things as Matthew Hale Smith. It seems to me, not only that you have done a great service by your speeches on slavery, but by what you have done in opposition to Mr. Webster. Excuse me for saying so; but there are some things in your Notes which it grieved me to see there. They weakened your position; they gave your doubtful friends an opportunity to pass over to Webster's side; and to your real foes they gave an opportunity of making out a case before the public. Still, to candid men, it must be plain, from your Notes, that Mr. Webster is exceedingly base. In doing this, you have done a great service. Webster has often been attacked, but almost wholly by political rivals or mere partisans, neither of whom were sincere in the charges against him. You attack him on moral grounds. I think your attack must disturb him more than all ever written against him before now. But, in the mean time, you are continually or often attacked yourself, your language misinterpreted, your motives assailed. There is nobody to defend you. Some cannot; others dare not. Then some of the men you have relied upon were never worthy of your confidence, and will do nothing. You have crossed the path of some selfish men by your theories of benevolence, and mortified them by your own life; and they will pay you for both. Some men would gladly have written in your defence; but they would only bring you into trouble. You saw how “Codus Alexandricus,” in the “Advertiser,” tried to couple you with me; and you doubtless appreciated the benevolence of the attempt. I write to you chiefly to suggest to you, whether it would not be a good plan for you to write another letter to your constituents, on the state of the country, the conduct of public men (above all, of Webster), and your own relations to the wicked measures of the past Congress. It seems to me you might, in this way, orient yourself before the public, and give them a good deal of information which they need and want. I suppose, of course, you knew the attempt made in Boston (and by a few in New York) to defeat your election this autumn. Marshall P. Wilder is thought of by some men for your successor. Such a letter as you might write would settle that matter.
I beg you not to answer this letter, which will only occupy your time; but believe me truly your friend and servant,
THEO. PARKER.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 324-5
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