Sunday, October 19, 2014

James Russell Lowell to Thomas Hughes, September 9, 1863

Harvard College, Sept. 9, 1863.

My dear Hughes, — Will you do anything that lies in your way for my young friend Mr. Lincoln, and very much oblige me thereby? He wishes particularly to see you, and would like a few hints about employing his very short time in London well. He has been one of our tutors here.

To almost any other Englishman I should think it needful to explain that he is not President Lincoln, you are all so “shady” in our matters. The Times, I see, has now sent over an “Italian” to report upon us — a clever man, but a double foreigner, as an Italian with an English wash over him. Pray, don't believe a word he says about our longing to go to war with England. We are all as cross as terriers with your kind of neutrality, but the last thing we want is another war. If the rebel iron-clads are allowed to come out, there might be a change.

If you can give Mr. Lincoln any hints or helps for seeing Oxford you would be doing him a great kindness, and adding another to the many you have done me.

Cordially yours,
J. R. Lowell

SOURCE: Charles Eliot Norton, Editor, Letters of James Russell Lowell, Volume 1, p. 372-3

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