There is a great
rush here of the Tariff party. Mr. Webster has held out the idea all summer,
that, if we would surrender liberty, the South would withhold their opposition
to a tariff. This is the idea that has worked such a wonderful change in
Boston, and in those parts of the State connected by business with it; and
almost all parts of the State are so connected. It is the pecuniary sensorium,
and the nerves reach to all the extremities; for it is within twelve hours of
every part of the State by railroads, &c. This idea, therefore, that money
is to be made by a settlement of the difficulties in favor of slavery, has been
the corrupting idea of the year, and it has worked its way with prodigious
efficacy. Several attempts have been made to get a tariff measure through; but,
as yet, all have failed. I suppose this to be the reason why there is such a flocking
here now from Lowell and Boston. How disgraceful it is! and yet, if these
motives were exposed, they would first be denied, and then the author of the
charge would be sacrificed. It is a corrupt state of affairs; but I think not
all who are engaged in it either see or feel how base it is.
It is this class of
people who are making the outcry against me.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 331
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