I would not affect a
feeling which I have not, nor have I any temptation to do it; but I should not
be frank if I did not say to you that I have no personal joy in this election.
Now that the office is in my hands, I feel more than ever a distaste for its
duties and struggles as compared with other spheres. Every heart knoweth its
own secret, and mine has never been in the Senate of the United States, nor is
it there yet. Most painfully do I feel my inability to meet the importance
which has been given to this election and the expectation of enthusiastic
friends. But more than this, I am impressed by the thought that I now embark on
a career which promises to last for six years, if not indefinitely, and which
takes from me all opportunity of study and meditation to which I had hoped to
devote myself. I do not wish to be a politician.
Nothing but
Boutwell's half-Hunkerism prevents us from consolidating a permanent party in
Massachusetts, not by coalition, but by fusion of all who are truly liberal,
humane, and democratic. He is in our way. He has tried to please Hunkers and
Free Soilers. We can get along very well without the Hunkers, and should be
happy to leave Hallett and Co. to commune with the men of State Street. The
latter have been infinitely disturbed by the recent election. For the first
time they are represented in the Senate by one over whom they have no
influence, who is entirely independent, and is a “bachelor!” It was said among
them at first that real estate had gone down twenty-five per cent!
I regret the present
state of things in New York [the absorption of the Barnburners by the
Democratic party, because it seems to interfere with those influences which
were gradually bringing the liberal and antislavery men of both the old parties
together. Your politics will never be in a natural state till this occurs.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 247-8
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