depends the tranquility of the country", says an anonymous writer
from Charleston, a native of Massachusetts and former pupil of
Webster.[82] Poinsett and Francis Lieber, South Carolina
Unionists, expressed like views.[83] The growing influence of the
speech is testified to in letters from all sections. Linus Child
of Lowell finds it modifying his own previous opinions and
believes that "shortly if not at this moment, it will be approved
by a large majority of the people of Massachusetts".[84] "Upon
sober second thought, our people will generally coincide with
your views", wrote ex-Governor and ex-Mayor Armstrong of
Boston.[85] "Every day adds to the number of those who agree with
you", is the confirmatory testimony of Dana, trustee of Andover
and former president of Dartmouth.[86] "The effect of your speech
begins to be felt", wrote ex-Mayor Eliot of Boston.[87] Mayor
Huntington of Salem at first felt the speech to be too Southern;
but "subsequent events at North and South have entirely satisfied
me that you were right . . . and vast numbers of others here in
Massachusetts were wrong." "The change going on in me has been
going on all around me." "You saw farther ahead than the rest or
most of us and had the courage and patriotism to stand upon the
true ground."[88] This significant inedited letter is but a
specimen of the change of attitude manifested in hundreds of
letters from "slow and cautious Whigs".[89] One of these, Edward
Everett, unable to accept Webster's attitude on Texas and the
fugitive slarve bill, could not "entirely concur" in the Boston
letter of approval. "I think our friend will be able to carry the
weight of it at home, but as much as ever." "It would, as you
justly said," he wrote Winthrop, "have ruined any other man."
This probably gives the position taken at first by a good many
moderate anti-slavery then. Everett's later attitude is likewise