So I continued once more. At the end of that time I wrote
another peremptory refusal, and my successor was nominated
and elected.
I have been often charged with a blind and zealous attachment
to party. The charge is sometimes made by persons who consider
that I desire to do right, but think that my understanding
and intellectual faculties are guided and blinded by that
emotion. Others are not so charitable. One very self-satisfied
critic, Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, sometimes in prose and
sometimes,
A screechin' out prosaic verse
An' like to bust,
says that I differ from my honorable colleague, Mr. Lodge,
in that Mr. Lodge has no conscience, while I have a conscience
but never obey it. If any man be disposed to accept these
estimates, it is not likely that I can convince him to the
contrary by my own certificate. But I will say two things:
1. I have never in my life cast a vote or done an act in
legislation that I did not at the time believe to be right, and
that I am not now willing to avow and to defend and debate
with any champion, of sufficient importance, who desires to
attack it at any time and in any presence.
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