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send.
But this cannot be done except by thinning the Whig ranks.
I fear that the course in Middlesex1 will jeopard Palfrey's position and our whole movement.
I wash my hands of it.
To
Horace Mann, October 30:—
The enemy has done his work, by skill, determination, will, backbone.2 It is as I have feared.
On your account and for your personal comfort, I regret this; but in this act I see the madness which precedes a fall.
The Whigs will certainly be overthrown in the State.
There is an earnest desire now that you should at once take the field.
You can speak ten or twelve times before the election, and everywhere will rouse the people.
In what you say be careful not to disturb the Democrats.
They are desirous of an excuse for supporting you. Speak directly to the slavery question, and vindicate its importance, and the constitutionality of our opposition.
The Free Soil committee here wish to see you, in order to arrange a series of meetings without delay.
Sumner's saddest experience at this time was his broken friendship with
Felton.
No two of the old ‘Five of Clubs’ had been more bound up in each other.
They had been for years most intimate and confidential, calling each other by their Christian names, ‘Corny’ and ‘Charley,’ and writing to each other rather as lovers than as friends.
Acknowledging a gift from
Sumner, Sept. 27, 1846, on his second marriage,
Felton wrote: ‘I read your note with feelings that I cannot find fitting words to express.
I cannot say with what pride and happiness I cling to your friendship, with what joy I receive the suggestion that I may have strengthened any good impulse in a heart every beat of which comes from impulses that angels might own, or added anything to the ardor for scholarly pursuits in a mind enriched with the best learning of other lands, and capable of pouring its accumulated treasures into forms of the most commanding eloquence.’
They exchanged all sorts of friendly offices.
Felton read
Sumner's addresses in manuscript, was always ready to test his classical references, and received him at his house to dine or lodge with a welcome such as awaited no other guest.
Sumner was fond of
Felton's children, and remembered them with
Christmas gifts.
Felton, however, with all his liking for
Sumner's personal qualities, had no natural affinity
