Monday evening, March 3, 1862.

MY DEAR GEORGE: On the day you left us I had a long and most entertaining talk from Emerson about his experiences in Washington. Two things he said were especially striking. 'When you go southward from New York you leave public opinion behind you. There is no such thing known in Washington.' 'It consoles a Massachusetts man to find how large is the number of egotists in Washington. Every second man thinks the affairs of the country depend upon him.' He reported a good saying of Stanton, when the difficulty of making an advance on account of the state of the roads was spoken of. - 'Oh,' said he, 'the difficulty is not from the mud in the roads, but the mud in the hearts of the Generals.'

SHADY HILL, March 8, 1862. MY DEAREST GEORGE: - As I sit down to thank you for the note that came to me this morning, Jane is reading it aloud to Longfellow, and interrupts me to ask explanations. All you say is very interesting. But can I quite agree with you in confidence in Mr. Lincoln's instincts? His message on Emancipation is a most important step; but could anything be more feebly put, or more inefficiently written? His style is worse than ever; and though a bad style is not always a mark of bad thought, it is at least a proof that thought is not as clear as it ought to be.

1

1 The special message urging 'gradual abolishment of Slavery' was sent to Congress March 6.

How time brings about its revenges! I think the most striking incident of the war is the march of our men into Charlestown singing the John Brown psalm, 'His soul is marching on.'

As for Lincoln's suggestions, I am sure that good will come of them. They will at least serve to divide opinion in the Border States. But I see many practical objections to his plan; and I doubt if any State meets his propositions with corresponding action.

The Tribune is politic in its burst of ardor. Let us make out the message to be more than it is, and bring the President up to our view of it. . . .

SHADY HILL, March 19, 1862.

MY DEAREST GEORGE: .... I am not as critical as Iago, but I do not like McClellan's address to his troops. It is too French in style and idiom. He 'loves his men like a father'? 'A magnificent army.' 'God smiles upon us.' How does he know? And 'victory attends us'? This last phrase is plainly a mistranslation from the French La Victoire nous attend,' - which means, what our General ought to have said, Victory awaits us.

But I am more than content with our progress. Wendell Phillips in Washington! The new Article of War! The slaves running away in Virginia! Frémont reinstated in command! Freedom cannot take any backward steps-and it looks as if she would soon begin to move forward with faster and more confident steps than heretofore.

What a fine fight that was in Hampton Roads! Honor to the men of the Cumberland. I heard a most interesting and deeply moving account of the incidents of the fight and the sinking from Dr. Martin, the surgeon of the ship.

And how splendidly the Monitor was managed! . .

er is very beautiful; such a sunshiny, showery, green, shady summer as it is! But we have no days finer than the 17th. That was fine every way. Your Oration1 lasts in the minds of men. Its praises come to me from all sides. Last Saturday at the Club there was a general expression of hearty admiration of it which would have pleased you to hear. Everyone who had heard it said it was one of the most effective pieces of oratory that had been heard here by this generation, and that its sentiment and doctrine were as noble as your eloquence. Even the 'conservatives' give in to its power. 'Detestable opinions, Sir, but overwhelming eloquence.'

Here we have given up McClellan as a general, and have renewed our original faith in Stanton. It seems to me certain that the President and the Secretary of War have not interfered with McClellan's plans, but have done everything to forward them. I fear the President is not yet quite conscious of the spirit of the people, and aware of the needs of the time. I have no doubt of his good intention, but I doubt if his soul is open to the heats of enthusiasm for a great principle, or his will quick and resolute enough for a great emergency. I do not believe in any palliatives at present. Will Lincoln be master of the opportunities, or will they escape him? Is he great enough for the time?

Do you think the army 2 on the James River is safe? If it is forced to surrender I think the people generally would be excited to make the cause good, rather than depressed by the calamity. It looks to me as if Eman

1 The Phi Beta Kappa Oration at Harvard. The Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, after the disastrous Seven Days' battles.

cipation might come very soon in Kentucky. But what a pity that the President should not have issued a more distinct and telling Proclamation. I think this a great misfortune. However it is not a mere piece of commonplace faith that everything is best, when I say I believe that the issue of the war will be as we desire. What a lot of capital I's I have put into this note. . . .

SHADY HILL, September 7, 1862. MY DEAR GEORGE: - I have not written to you in these past ten days because I have been writing much at my lectures, because Susan 4 has been ill with a slight touch of chills and fever, caught originally years ago on Long Island, because, in fine, the times have been so bad that there was no comfort to be found even in you. - I am hopeful still, but less confident than I have been. I think these days since you left us have been in some important respects the most disheartening that we have yet been through. They have been worse than days of more serious disaster, for they have betrayed alike the incompetence of our generals and the vacillations of our administration, at a time when there was special need of good generalship, and of vigorous purpose. It is poor comfort to find Pope such a failure that the reappointment of McClellan, apparently to chief command, seems better than to leave the army in Pope's hands.

The people as usual have behaved splendidly. We are perishing for lack of that unpurchasable article - genius. The men are fine, what we want is a man, — and our times do not produce in quantity men who deserve

A course of Lowell Institute lectures on the characteristics of the twelfth century, delivered in the following winter.

In May, 1862, Mr. Norton and Miss Susan Sedgwick had been married.

to be spoken of in the singular number. And yet I feel that we do not know enough to form a positive judgment as to the conduct or abilities of any one of our generals. All are unsatisfactory, but they may, some of them, be less unsatisfactory than they seem to be. It is no use to get big armies if no one of our leaders can set them in the field. It is no use to send our men or to go ourselves to the war, if we are to be shot and not do any shooting.

All which, dearest 'He of Harper's Weekly and the Nile,' is a mystery. I reveal my hidden, partial thoughts to you. There is much to be said (and which I say) on the other side. Our cause remains the same. It will not be lost in the end, and it is a good thing (perhaps) for the nation to have no leaders, but be forced to make its own way. But, after all, I believe similar troubles attend almost all great wars; ours only seem aggravated by the gossiping intelligence of every fact, and the reiteration of every falsehood by the newspapers.

The

Have you lately read Carlyle's account of the battle of Dunbar? - if not, pray read it now. And read too any good account of Hoche's campaign in La Vendée. Hoche was a man of sense and his policy makes one doubt the advisableness of our advancing army's living on the enemy. best thing for our cause at the present time would be, I believe, a few days' invasion of Ohio or Pennsylvania. Our people would really feel war then, and I think the Administration would have to carry on war with vigour after that. But I fear the enemy is not strong enough to invade us.

SHADY HILL, September 23, 1862.1 MY DEAREST GEORGE: - God be praised! I can hardly see to write,

1 The day after Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet.

for when I think of this great act of Freedom, and all it implies, my heart and my eyes overflow with the deepest, most serious gladness.

I rejoice with you. Let us rejoice together, and with all the lovers of liberty, and with all the enslaved and oppressed everywhere.

I think today that this world is glorified by the spirit of Christ. How beautiful it is to be able to read the sacred words under this new light.

'He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.'

The war is paid for.

Dearest George, I was very glad to see that your brother was safe, and to hear of his gallantry in the late actions.2

Love and congratulations from us all to all of you.

Ever yours,

C. E. N.

SHADY HILL, November 12, 1862. MY DEAREST GEORGE: Were it not for one or two ifs, I should feel much better about the state of affairs than I have for some time. The worst of the ifs is the one concerning Lincoln. I am very much afraid that a domestic cat will not answer when one wants a Bengal tiger. It is encouraging that Congress meets so soon again; the President will be helped by it.

Another if must go before Burnside's name. He may be able to command one hundred thousand men in the field, but is he? He, like our other generals,

2 At Antietam, where Lieut. J. B. Curtis's regiment was cut to pieces and driven back, he seized the colors, and shouted, 'I go back no further! What is left of the Fourth Rhode Island, form here!' For the rest of the day he fought as a private in an adjoining command. See Cary's Curtis, p. 161 n.

You are certainly right in your view of the elections. The Administraion will not be hurt by the reaction if the war goes on prosperously. If we have a vigorous, brilliant and really successful winter campaign there will be not much opposition left next spring; but if otherwise if we have successes that lead to nothing, and victories that are next door to defeats, if the influence of Washington air follows and paralyzes our armies, then I think it will be hard times for us and all honest republicans, who hope for the country and believe in its institutions and its people. .

SHADY HILL, January 30, 1863. MY DEAREST GEORGE:-One busy day has succeeded another since you were here till I am at last reduced to a condition in which I am fit for no work, and so set about writing a note and sending my love to you.

The Hero of one hundred ungained Victories, the conqueror in his own bulletins, is at present in Boston, and but a few people remain calm. Some are excited with enthusiastic admiration of their own imagination of McClellan; some busy with wire-pulling; some active to prevent others 'without distinction of party' gaining any advantage out of relations with the disgraced Captain and candidate for the next Presidency; and some very much disquieted by all this folly. So you see those who keep quiet and innocent minds are in a despicable minority.

I have just finished the volume of Russell's Diary that you left here. It is a very valuable and useful book; but he is a pretty small Irishman after all, and his style is as amusing sometimes as his ignorance. But I really like the book and have been greatly interested in it.

The new Army Bill is just what is

VOL. 110-NO. 5

to be doing its work well. The Negro Soldier bill must pass, and I trust it is an efficient one. The getting ready a Negro army is the need beyond all others of this moment; and I am afraid from what I hear that the inexplicable President 'does n't see it.' Mr. Sedgwick writes that he wishes two hundred good men would come on to Washington to press the matter forward, and to labour with Mr. Lincoln. As to the Potomac Army I wish it could be sent South and West, and that Richmond could be captured by successes not in Virginia.

We are making arrangements here to secure the circulation of good telling articles from foreign and our own newspapers, to influence and direct public opinion. We propose to secure from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand readers for two articles per week, and perhaps more. I shall be the 'editor' so to say, with John Forbes and Sam Ward as advisers. Please bear this in mind and send to me, marked, articles which you think should be thus circulated. I shall have frequent occasion to borrow from Harper, or rather from you in Harper.

SHADY HILL, June 28, 1863.

MY DEAREST GEORGE: I want very much to talk over public affairs now with you. The course and the prospects of the parties no less than of the war seem likely to be very much determined by the events of the next few weeks. I trust solicitously. — The President's letter struck me just as it had struck you. It is eminently characteristic of his better qualities of mind, those which he shows when pushed hard, or really touched. It is a pity that he does not sustain himself at this height. He will not, I trust,

1 The first allusion to the work of the New England Loyal Publication Society.

I am glad that the lines are being so clearly drawn. We had best understand the real amount and character of the Northern force against us. . .

SHADY HILL, February 1, 1863. MY DEAR GEORGE: Here is our prospectus. If at any time you want to secure a still wider circulation for any one of your articles than their appearance in Harper affords, please send me from one hundred to five hundred slips, which can be cheaply enough struck off if done before the form for the paper is broken up.

McClellan is still here, and has been causing people to break the Sabbath to-day. Agassiz is a devoted admirer of his, and said yesterday that 'he was a great but not a towering man.' Dr. Holmes, studying him physiologically, talks of 'broad base of brain,' 'threshing floor of ideas,' no invention or original force of intellect, but compact, strong, executive nature, 'with a neck such as not one man in ten thousand possesses," muscular as a prize fighter,'

etc. etc.

...

SHADY HILL, February 26, 1863. MY DEAREST GEORGE: . . It was pleasant to hear from you of your visit to Philadelphia, and to hear from John, on the same day, his glowing account of it. What a loyal place Philadelphia has become! We should be as loyal here if we had a few more out-and-out secessionists. Our Union 'Club' we have dropped the offensive word 'League'-promises welltwo hundred members already, and Mr. Everett and his followers pledged to principles which suit you and me. We are proposing to take the Abbott Lawrence house on Park St., and to be

Their common friend, and later their Ashfield neighbor, John W. Field of Philadelphia.

bers. But nothing will do for the country, neither Clubs nor pamphlets nor lectures, nor Conscription Bills (three cheers for the despotism necessary to secure freedom), nor Banking Bills, nor Tom Thumb, nor Institutes, - nothing will do us much good but victories. If we take Charleston and Vicksburg we conquer and trample out the Copperheads, but if not?

I confess to the most longing hope, the most anxious desire to know of our success. I try to be ready for news of failure: indeed I shall be ready for such news if it comes, and we must all only draw a few quick breaths and form a sterner resolve, and fight a harder fight.

Where is the best statement, in a clear and quiet way, of the political necessity of the preservation of the Union, its vital necessity to our national existence? Seward has done harm by keeping up the notion of the old Union,

but who has seen clearest the nature of the new Union for which we are fighting?...

SHADY HILL, September 3, 1863. MY DEAREST GEORGE: - It is pleasant to think of you as so near us. It would be much pleasanter to have you with us, especially this morning, that we might congratulate each other on the extraordinary excellence of the President's letter.2 He rises with each new effort, and his letters are successive victories. Indeed the series of his letters since and including the one to the Albany Committee are, as he says to General Grant of Vicksburg, 'of almost inestimable value to the country,' - for they are of the rarest class of political documents, arguments se

* Presumably Lincoln's letter of August 26, 1863, to J. C. Conkling, in answer to an invitation to attend a mass-meeting of unconditional Union men at Springfield, Ill., on Sept. 3.