Washington, June 29,1864.
I came to this city
last Friday, preached in the Capitol on Sunday, and have been seeing a number
of persons since then. I have had one or two good talks with Mr. Chase about
public affairs; also with Charles Sumner. As I am locum tenens of Chaplain
Channing, I have the entree of the Senate and House as I please, so that I can
go in and sit on one of the sofas behind the members, and talk to those I know
as they pass me. Our Mr. Boutwell made a very good speech a few days since. Mr.
Sumner has succeeded, within the past week, in getting through Congress laws to
repeal the laws authorizing a coast-wise slave-trade; to repeal the fugitive
slave laws; to allow colored people to testify before the United States courts;
and to establish a Freedman's Bureau.
To-day I am going
to the front as one of a Sanitary Relief Corps. I go to Fortress Monroe, City
Point, — the lines, — and Norfolk; stay three or four days, and return to
Baltimore on Monday. I hope to see and hear a good deal in these three days. I
wish I had you with me. We have never traveled much together, and I should
enjoy having you by me.
SOURCE: Edwin Everett Hale, Editor, James Freeman
Clarke: Autobiography, Diary and Correspondence, p. 289-90
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