WASHINGTON, July 27, 1852.
MY DEAR DOWNER, —
What is said about the Pittsburg Convention? From what I see and hear, I
apprehend the current of feeling in Massachusetts sets in favor of nominating
Hale, rather than Chase. For any genuine Free-soiler this would be the worst
policy. That nomination should be such as to cut into the Democratic party.
Notwithstanding all that some of the Free-soil papers say about the equal
proslaveryism of Scott and Pierce, it is not at all improbable there is the
whole difference between the annexation and the un-annexation of
Cuba, between the division and the non-division of California, in these
candidates. How, then, can any real lover of liberty fail to give the scales
such a turn as shall check slavery, and hold it at bay? Are not our Free-soil
friends, in their zeal to help the fortunes of the coalition, misled on this
point? You, who have great influence with them, ought to make that influence
felt. I wish you were to be at Pittsburg. The nomination there made may bar
slavery, or help it on. To-morrow, Sumner means to speak. He needs
combativeness, which he has not got. Don't you think I could spare him a little
of mine, with advantage to us both? He will make a great speech, be assured of
that. He has all the material of all who have hitherto argued the question;
and, besides, the greatest speech can always be made on the right side.
I am awfully
homesick. The summer is dull: nothing is upon the tapis in
which I take any special interest, and my heart is with my family.
With affectionate regards to you and yours,
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 377-8
