Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, July 24, 1863

Centreville, July 24, 1863.

I must protest against your theory and Mr. Smalley's,¹ though I know the danger of opposing a newspaper: historically, I am sure it is not probable the war will end yet, by victories or otherwise; speculatively, I believe it is not desirable it should end yet; our opinions as to what the war was for are not distinct enough, our convictions of what it has done, are not settled enough — i. e. I do not see that we are ripe for peace, I do not read that nations are wont to ripen so quickly, — I do not feel in myself that either people is prepared to stop here and give up, — ergo, I look for a long war still. But I cannot assent to your Jewish doctrine that it is not desirable this chosen people should have peace yet, or victories yet, and therefore, it will not have them: that seems to me to be arrogating too much for ourselves. I agree with George² that when a nation, or a man, has to learn a thing, it is clutched by the throat and held down till it does learn it: but I object that not all nations, and not all men, do have to learn things. It is only the favoured nations and the favoured individuals that are selected for education, — most fall untaught. Why may not we? Why may not we fall by victory? May it not be the South that is being taught? May it not be some future nation, for whose profit our incapacity to learn is to be made conspicuous? No, I object entirely to your theory. Many nations fail, that one may become great; ours will fail, unless we gird up our loins and do honest and humble day's work, without trying to do the thing by the job or to get a great nation made by any patent process. It is not safe to say that we shall not have victories till we are ready for them; we shall have victories, and whether or no we are ready for them depends upon ourselves: if we are not ready, we shall fail, — voila tout. If you ask, What if we do fail? I have nothing to say; I'm an optimist (if the word can be used with that meaning) as well as yourself. I shouldn't cry over a nation or two, more or less, gone under. I find I haven't half stated my case, so if you answer, you must expect a great deal more cogent reply. Am I not an arrogant reasoner?

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¹ George Washington Smalley, a graduate of Yale, and lawyer by profession, was the war-correspondent of the New York Tribune. He was for a time on General Fremont's Staff. He was correspondent for the same journal in the Austro-Prussian war, and then in London established the European edition of the Tribune. Still later, he was connected with the London Times.

² George William Curtis, good citizen, patriot, writer, and orator, had married Miss Shaw's older sister.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 280-1, 429-30