MY DEAR SIR, — I
hope you did not think the two queries which I put to Mrs. Mann imposed any
necessity on you to write an answer; though I am so glad to hear from you, that
I might be tempted to use means a little irregular for that end.
I sent the question
about Gen. Scott's supposititious policy because I think justice to
be the highest policy. I know you think so too. It being my belief that Scott
is an anti-war man and an anti-annexation man, I think it wrong, or rather it
would be very wrong in me, to intimate the contrary. Besides, the tendency of
all such statements is to put the two Presidential candidates, Scott and
Pierce, upon the same ground; whereas I think their principles, desires, and
purposes are very diverse. I know there is little if any difference in the
platforms; but there may be all the difference there is between life and death
in two pilots, though both profess to steer by the same chart. One may wreck
you, while the other may get you safely into port.
A strong effort is
made, by men who care more for democracy than for antislavery, to make it out
that freedom has more to hope from the success of Pierce than from that of
Scott; but this I believe to be a great mistake, and I do not think the
argument ingenuous.
As to the amount of
the Free-soil vote, it must be remembered, that, in 1848, New York alone gave
one hundred and twenty thousand votes for Van Buren. Now, if she gives fifty
thousand, I shall be agreeably disappointed.
Our loss of Rantoul
is very great. I am also struck with exceeding sadness, because this is the
second blow that our cause has received. Taylor's death let in the whole pack
of slavery bloodhounds, and they have wantoned in their power ever since. Will
not Rantoul's death unleash another pack? I fear so. Nothing but my faith in
God saves me from despair; for just now I can hardly "walk by sight."
H. M.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 373-4
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