Boston, January 24, 1862.
. . . Barren proclamations to those beyond our reach will
just now hurt Kentucky and the Northern harmony more than it will help the
cause; treating slaves well that we do reach is the best preparation, and best
proclamation to others. I saw in New York one of the blacks (yellow), [who was]
carried off and sold from the Star of the West when captured. He said the
slaves knew in the most distant plantations how we used those who came to us,
and that much stress was laid upon the return by our soldiers of a few
fugitives! He says intelligence runs fast through the plantations, and he
thinks a proclamation of freedom, following up well-attested good faith to
those who had come in, would have great effect. In the same “Post” you will
find an editorial upon the sinews of war: containing much good financial
doctrine.
We were just going over the dam into an irredeemable
currency about a week ago, when a few of us made a rally for the doctrines of
that editorial! and we saved it for the time, brought Chase over half way,
where he would by the logic of events have been soon forced to come all right,
but the horde of debtors, and gamblers, and fools, with the “Herald” at their
head, are at it again, and the result is still doubtful. With such leaders,
what but a sturdy Anglo-Saxon people, or a miracle-dealing God, can save us
from destruction! If we survive the military and diplomatic and financial
blunders, it will be because we are the strongest people and have the strongest
government on the face of the earth! I was in New York last week seeing Will
off to the war, — to Beaufort with his regiment, the First Massachusetts
Cavalry; a hard trial for his mother — but we must do our share, and if he goes
to the Spirit Land, we may not be long behind. . . .
SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and
Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 287-8
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