Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Congressman Horace Mann to Samuel Downer, September 24, 1850

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 1850.

MY DEAR DOWNER,

I have but time to say a word. . . .

There has just been another desperate attempt to get a tariff. Messrs. A—— and G—— were put forward to pioneer the measure. Mr. G—— moved to reconsider a bill from the Committee on Commerce, giving Canada vessels a right to lade and unlade in our ports, &c., so that it might be sent to the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, to be there amended by a tariff. So the motion prevailed. Then a motion to lay the subject on the table failed. Then came the question about committing with instructions, which failed by a large vote. So the whole thing slumped. We are surrounded by lobby members from Pennsylvania and New England. The men who have been ready to barter away liberty and blood and souls for profits have failed again miserably. Mr. Webster's promise made at the Revere House, that, if the North would go for conciliation (that is, the surrender of liberty), they could then have "beneficial legislation" (that is, a tariff), has not been fulfilled.

I regret as much as any one the suffering of our laboring classes; but there is a retribution in all this which gratifies one's moral sense.

Good-by to you, my friend!

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 335

No comments: