Vienna,
September 22, 1863.
My dearest Mother:
Here in this capital the great interest just now is about the new Mexican
emperor. The Archduke Maximilian is next brother to the Emperor of Austria, and
about thirty years of age. He has been a kind of Lord High Admiral, an office
which, in the present condition of the imperial navy, may be supposed to be not
a very onerous occupation. He was Governor-General of Lombardy until that
kingdom was ceded to Victor Emmanuel, and he is considered a somewhat restless
and ambitious youth. He has literary pretensions, too, and has printed, without
publishing, several volumes of travels in various parts of the world. The
matter is not yet decided. It is, I believe, unquestionable that the archduke
is most desirous to go forth on the adventure. It is equally certain that the
step is exceedingly unpopular in Austria. That a prince of the house of
Hapsburg should become the satrap of the Bonaparte dynasty, and should sit on
an American throne which could not exist a moment but for French bayonets and
French ships, is most galling to all classes of Austrians. The intrigue is a
most embarrassing one to the government. If the fatal gift is refused, Louis
Napoleon of course takes it highly in dudgeon. If it is accepted, Austria takes
a kind of millstone around her neck in the shape of gratitude for something she
didn't want, and some day she will be expected to pay for it in something she
had rather not give. The deputation of the so-called notables is expected here
this week, and then the conditions will be laid down on which Maximilian will
consent to live in the bed of roses of Montezuma and Iturbide. I still
entertain a faint hope that the negotiations may be protracted, and that
something may interrupt them before they are concluded. The matter is a very
serious and menacing one to us.
Fortunately our President is as honest and upright a man as
ever lived, and there is no Minister of Foreign Affairs living to compare in
ability with Seward. I think he will steer us clear of war, and a foreign war
is the only thing which can save the rebellion from extermination. No paper
published of late has given me such unalloyed pleasure as the President's
letter to the Illinois Republican Committee. The transparent honesty and
unsophisticated manliness of his character breathe through every line. Happy
the people who can have so homely and honest a chief, when others live under
Louis Napoleons and Jeff Davises!
Good-by, my dearest mother. All send best love to father and
yourself and all the family, and I remain
Ever your
affectionate son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume
2, p. 341-2
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