New York, May 8, 1864.
While the great battle is deciding, or when it may just have
been decided, I, who must “stand and wait,” will say this one word to you: that
since I wrote last I have read Goldwin Smith's letter to a Whig member of the
Southern Independence Association. You have doubtless received a copy, but you
may not have had time to read it; I write, therefore, to beg you to take a copy
to the President and beg him to read it, — to find time for reading it. I
believe that so honest and, almost throughout, so sound a paper, by an
Englishman, against the manifesto of the Southern Independence Association,
should be read by the chief magistrate of our commonwealth, even at this
anxious period, when his time must be occupied with the highest aflairs. The
last two thirds of this small publication are peculiarly straightforward for an
Oxford professor. I heartily wish I knew some way of having our acknowledgment
expressed to that manly advocate of ours.
I observe that you have brought in your bill, which may be
designated as the Anti-Jackson-rotation measure. I wish you joy for having made
the first step. I dare say you will not carry it this time, but possibly you
remember what I said on perseverance in my “Political Ethics,” and of the
history of nearly all great or searching measures, such as the Reform Bill, or
the Catholic Emancipation. A beginning must be made, and it is always a great
gain when first a principle has been boldly pronounced, if that principle
pricks one of the most cherished and widely favored traditions or modes of
action. I recollect how John Quincy Adams was fiercely attacked by the
Democrats because one postmaster had been removed. It was just when I
first landed here; and I remember, too, how we were shocked when President
Jackson announced his rotation doctrine. Your measure involves great
difficulties. ...
SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and
Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 345
