. . . The news, my dear Charles, is from Heaven. I felt a
strange and tender exaltation. I wanted to laugh and I wanted to cry, and ended
by holding my peace and feeling devoutly thankful. There is something
magnificent in having a country to love. It is almost like what one feels for a
woman. Not so tender, perhaps, but to the full as self-forgetful. I worry a
little about reconstruction, but am inclined to think that matters will very
much settle themselves. But I must run to my tread-mill. Love and joy to all!
Ever yours,
J. R. L.
SOURCE: Charles Eliot Norton, Editor, Letters of
James Russell Lowell, Volume 1, p. 385-6
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