Monday evening, 3
March, 1862.
. . . On the day you left us I had a long and most
entertaining talk from Emerson about his experiences in Washington. Two things
he said were especially striking. “When you go southward from New York you
leave public opinion behind you. There is no such thing known in Washington.” —
“It consoles a Massachusetts man to find how large is the number of egotists in
Washington. Every second man thinks the affairs of the country depend upon him.”
He reported a good saying of Stanton, when the difficulty of making an advance
on account of the state of the roads was spoken of, — “Oh,” said he, “the
difficulty is not from the mud in the roads, but the mud in the hearts of the
Generals.”
Emerson said that Seward was very strong in his expressions
concerning the incapacity and want of spirit of Congress, — and that Sherman
and Colfax confirmed what Seward said, ascribing much of the manifest weakness
to “Border State” influence.
And much more. . . .
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 251-2
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