Saturday, February 14, 2015

John Lothrop Motley to the Duchess of Argyll, May 16, 1861

31 Hertford Street, Mayfair,
May 16, 1861.

My Dear Duchess Of Argyll: I hope that you will kindly accept the accompanying volumes, in memory of the delightful days during which we had the privilege of enjoying your hospitality at Inveraray.

You were my first reader, or rather my first and only listener, for you may recollect that you allowed me to read a chapter from the proof-sheets.

I have just taken the liberty of writing a hurried note to the duke. I do hope that you will use your influence to persuade him and the English government and all England that the cause of the United States government is a righteous cause; that we are disappointed and mortified at the idea that there should be any party in England, least of all in the Liberal government, who should look coldly on the chance of our dismemberment, while we are struggling with the most gigantic rebellion with which a civilized commonwealth was ever called on to grapple. We are but in the beginning of the conflict. Of course we do not expect anything but neutrality; but why we are not as much entitled to moral sympathy as Italy ever was, I cannot understand. With the greatest regard,

Believe me very faithfully yours,
J. L. Motley.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 127

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