And yet, while the Republicans spread
everywhere their shocking tales of murders of free-state
settlers, the Democrats made practically no use of this equally
shocking tale of the murder of slaveholders. Apparently they
were resolved to appear temperate and conservative to the bitter
end.
And they had their reward. Or, perhaps the fury of the
Republicans had its just deserts. From either point of view, the
result was a choice of evils on the part of the reluctant Whigs,
and that choice was expressed in the following words by as
typical a New Englander as Rufus Choate: "The first duty of
Whigs," wrote Choate to the Maine State central committee, "is to
unite with some organization of our countrymen to defeat and
dissolve the new geographical party calling itself Republican....
The question for each and every one of us is...by what vote can I
do most to prevent the madness of the times from working its
maddest act the very ecstasy of its madness--the permanent
formation and the actual triumph of a party which knows one half
of America only to hate and dread it. If the Republican party,"
Choate continued, "accomplishes its object and gives the
government to the North, I turn my eyes from the consequences.
To the fifteen states of the South that government will appear an
alien government.
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