Thursday, August 14, 2014

Francis Lieber to George S. Hillard, June 12, 1861

New York, June 12,1861.

. . . My morning papers have not yet arrived. Is this delay connected with the unsuccessful fight at Newport News? We shall have many such news yet. Napoleon speaks very frequently of troops that are or are not yet aguerris. It is a fine term, full of meaning, and it will require many losses, blunders, — yes, and punishments of the commissariat, — before we have une armée bien aguerrie. If only two things be clearly carved out by this struggle, — the distincter nationalization of this country, and the wiping off of slavery from Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, and Missouri, — all the struggle and heart-burning would be like a breeze. But if and only. . . .

SOURCE: Thomas Sergeant Perry, Editor, The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 320

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