He was wont to laugh at the New England
conscience which could swallow the tariff and the growing factory
system, and yet reject with such holy loathing cotton and slavery. He
could not handle statistics, but he was a master of principles.
As my grandmother was writing me regularly of affairs in England, of the
progress of events, of the building of railroads, of Charles
Wheatstone's electric telegraph, and of the new books of moment, I on my
part was attempting to keep her informed of my life, and of the swiftly
moving panorama of Illinois life. And here I insert one of my letters to
her because it covers so much of the ground of this time of my life.
"Dear Grandmama: I have before written you of my friend Mr. Douglas who
came to Illinois just a little while before I did, and who has had such
a phenomenal rise in life in this new country. He is now making ready to
go to Congress, and I am to be one of the delegates to the convention
which is expected to nominate him. Having resigned a very lucrative post
in the Land Office, he has gone into the practice of law and the pursuit
of politics. For the latter he has a positive genius, as his whole mind
is taken up with visions and plans for the development of the country,
and for the aggrandizement of the United States. He is honest and
outspoken, courageous even to audacity; but he is sometimes accused of
devious ways, and of taking up anything that has a stomach in it.
Pages:
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157