Shady Hill, 5 December; Thursday evening.
. . . We are very
serious over the President's Message. We think it very poor in style, manner
and thought, — very wanting in pith, and exhibiting a mournful deficiency of
strong feeling and of wise forecast in the President. This “no policy” system
in regard to the conduct of the war and the treatment of the slavery question
is extremely dangerous, and must at the best produce very unfortunate divisions
of opinion and of action among the people; — it is truly a very sad thing to
see each successive opportunity for great, decisive, right counsels thus
thrown away and worse than lost. The chances of true success for us are
diminishing with alarming rapidity. The Sibyl has burned three, — six, — seven
— of her books. How many has she left to offer us? And shall we not have to pay
more than we can get, for what are left? . . .
SOURCE: Sara Norton
and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton,
Volume 1, p. 246
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