task?

Adams has shown in the last Congress his scholarly, classical
narrow-mindedness. Sanford cannot favorably impress anybody in Europe,
neither in cabinets, nor in saloons, nor the public at large. He looks
and acts as a _commis voyageur_, will be considered as such at first
sight by everybody, and his features and manners may not impress
others as being distinguished and high-toned.

Every historical, that is, human event, has its moral and material
character and sides. To ignore, and still worse to blot out, to reject
the moral incentives and the moral verdict, is a crime to the public
at large, is a crime towards human reason.

Such action blunts sound feelings and comprehension, increases the
arrogance of the evil-doers. The moral criterion is absolute and
unconditional, and ought as such unconditionally to be applied to the
events here. Things and actions must be called by their true names.
What is true, noble, pure, and lofty, is on the side of the North, and
permeates the unnamed millions of the free people; it ought to be
separated from what is sham, egotism, lie or assumption. Truth must be
told, never mind the outcry. History has not to produce pieces for the
stage, or to amuse a tea-party.

Regiments pour in; the Massachusetts men, of course, leading the van,
as in the times of the tea-party. My admiration for the Yankees is
justified on every step, as is my scorn, my contempt, etc., etc., of
the Southern _chivalrous_ slaver.

Wrote to Charles Sumner expressing my wonder at the undecided conduct
of the administration; at its want of foresight; its eternal parleying
with Baltimoreans, Virginians, Missourians, etc., and no step to tread
down the head of the young snake. No one among them seems to have the
seer's eye. The people alone, who arm, who pour in every day and in
large numbers, who transform Washington into a camp, and who crave for
fighting,--the people alone have the prophetic inspiration, and are
the genuine statesmen for the emergency.

How will the Congress act? The Congress will come here emerging from
the innermost of the popular volcano; but the Congress will be
manacled by formulas; it will move not in the spirit of the
Constitution, but in the dry constitutionalism, and the Congress will
move with difficulty. Still I have faith, although the Congress never
will seize upon parliamentary omnipotence. Up to to-day, the
administration, instead of boldly crushing, or, at least, attempt