Shady Hill, 8 March, I862.
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 Emancipation1
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.
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 ardour. Let us make
out the message to be more than it is, — and bring the President up to our view
of it. . . .
_______________
1 The special message urging "gradual
abolishment of slavery" was sent to Congress March 6.
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 252-3
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