If it is mine I want the whole of it; if it is
not mine I do not want any of it."
He avoided controversies and often showed great tact in escaping from an
argument. What he had once published was of no consequence to him, and
he cared little whether others liked it or not. If people advanced
opinions or judgments with which he disagreed he made a plain statement
of the fact and then changed the subject of conversation. Opponents who
wished to corner him, and had perhaps set snares for him to fall into,
found themselves outwitted by his unfailing desire for peace and
harmony.
He went to the polls and voted; he attended town-meetings and political
caucuses, but never took an active share in them. The prohibition of
liquor, the tariff question, the woman suffrage movement, and other like
vexatious matters he left severely alone. I doubt if any one discovered
from first to last what his real opinions were on these subjects. At the
Boston Radical Club in 1868 he was asked to give an opinion on woman
suffrage, and he replied that he had no doubt that when all women had
agreed as to what they wanted, what was in fact best for them, they
could easily obtain it through the home influence. These he would say
are questions of judgment. The slavery question was a matter of
principle; and on that point he gave forth no uncertain sound. He did
not, however, engage actively in the controversy till the passage of the
fugitive-slave bill warned him how seriously the republic was in danger.
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