You have my best wishes, however, for a prosperous administration. I devoutly hope that you will be able to check the progress of sectional feeling. The policy of the present administration has greatly impaired (as you are well aware) the conservative feeling of the North, has annihilated the Whig party, and seriously weakened the Democratic party in all the free States.
Though much opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, we could have stood that, but the subsequent events in Kansas gave us the coup de grace. Those events, and the assault on Mr. Sumner, gave its formidable character and strength to the Republican nomination. You can do nothing directly to prevent the occurrence of events like the assault, but you may, even in advance of the 4th of March, do much to bring about a better state of things in Kansas, and prevent the enemies of the Constitution from continuing to make capital out of it.
I am, dear sir, with much regard and sincere good wishes,
Very truly yours,
Edward Everett.
[TO THE HON. JOHN Y. MASON.]
Wheatland, near Lancaster, December 29, 1856.
My Dear Sir:—
Ere this can reach Paris, you will doubtless have received my letter to Miss Wight. I shall not repeat what I have said to her, because such is the pressure now upon me that I have scarce time to say my prayers. This I can say in perfect good faith, that the man don’t live whom it would afford me greater pleasure to serve than yourself. In this spirit I have determined that you shall not be disturbed during the next year, no matter what may be the pressure upon me. I am not committed, either directly or indirectly, to any human being for any appointment, but yet I cannot mistake the strong current of public opinion in favor of changing public functionaries, both abroad and at home, who have served a reasonable time. They say, and that, too, with considerable force, that if the officers under a preceding Democratic administration shall be continued by a succeeding administration of the same political character, this must necessarily destroy the party. This, perhaps, ought not to be so, but we cannot change human nature.
The great object of my administration will be to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the slavery question at the North, and to destroy sectional parties. Should a kind Providence enable me to succeed in my efforts to restore harmony to the Union, I shall feel that I have not lived in vain.