Woodland Hill, Sunday, July 21, 1861.
My Dearest Mary:
I have not the time nor the matter for anything but a hasty line. I am obliged
to write two days before the packet day, as I must go to Nahant to-morrow,
Monday, and the next day I have promised to dine with old Mr. Quincy, at
Quincy. I came up yesterday to dine with Mr. George Curtis and his wife,
Ticknor, Everett, and Felton. You will see in the “Daily Advertiser” the
proceedings of one or two public bodies by whom respectful tribute has been
paid to Mr. Appleton's character. His mind was singularly calm and lucid to the
last. On Wednesday I went to Cambridge, by invitation, to hear the exercises of
commencement and to be present at the dinner. The performances were very
creditable indeed, and I found at the dinner, at which there were some three
hundred of the alumni present, several members of my class, and passed a very
pleasant hour, the more so as Felton had faithfully promised me that I should
not be called out for a speech. As I had received an LL. D. at the previous
commencement in my absence, I could hardly refuse the invitation to the dinner.
But two degrees of LL. D. were conferred on this occasion — one on Governor
Andrew, and the other on General Scott. The announcement, which was made on the
platform in the church, after the conclusion of the college exercises, of the
governor's name was very well received, and there was much well-deserved
cheering, for he has been most efficient and intelligent in his exertions ever
since this damnable mutiny broke out, and it is much owing to his energy that
Massachusetts has taken the noble stand which she now occupies in defense of
the Constitution and the country.
But when the name of Winfield Scott was announced, there
arose a tempest of cheers such as I am sure was never heard before at any academic
celebration in Cambridge. I thought the church would have split to pieces like
a bombshell, so irrepressible was the explosion of enthusiasm. ’T is a pity the
old man couldn't have heard it with his own ears. He is used to huzzas from
soldiers and politicians; but here were grave professors and clergymen, judges,
young undergraduates and octogenarians, all hallooing like lunatics. And the
same thing was repeated at the dinner when his health was drunk. You will see
an account of the proceedings in the “Daily Advertiser” of the 18th of July. . . . You will also observe that I was
startled from my repose at the table, not by Felton, but by Everett, who made a
most complimentary allusion to me far beyond my deserts, in his after-dinner
speech. They insisted on my getting up and saying a few words of
acknowledgment; but I was too much moved to make a speech, and they received my
thanks with much cordiality.
Nothing can be better than Everett's speech at New York, — one
of the most powerful commentaries on this rebellion that has ever been spoken
or written, — and he has made several other addresses equally strong in tone.
We are now in an era of good feeling throughout the North, and we no longer ask
what position any man may have occupied, but where he stands now, and I am glad
that we shall henceforth have the benefit of Everett's genius and eloquence on
the right side.
Since I wrote last nothing very important has occurred; but now
important events are fast approaching. I don't use this expression in the
stereotype phraseology of the newspapers, because you must have perceived from
all my letters that I did not in the least share the impatience of many people
here.
The skirmish of the 18th was by detachments, only 800 men in
all, of Tyler's brigade, commanded by him in person, and they are said to have
behaved with great skill and gallantry. It is your old friend Daniel Tyler of
Norwich, who, you know, was for a considerable part of his life in the army and
was educated at West Point. He is now a brigadier-general, and, as you see,
commands under McDowell, whom I described to you in my last. Montgomery
Ritchie, by the way, is aide to a Colonel Blenker, who has a regiment in Tyler's
brigade, and James Wadsworth is aide to McDowell. The affair at Bull Run is of
no special importance; of course we don't know what losses the rebels
sustained, nor is it material. These skirmishes must occur daily, until it
appears whether the enemy mean to risk a pitched battle now, or whether they
mean to continue to retire, as they have hitherto been steadily doing, before
the advance of the Union forces. The question now is, Will they make a stand at
Manassas, or will they retreat to Richmond? Beauregard, who commands at
Manassas, is supposed to have at least 60,000 men, and Johnston, who was until
two days ago at Winchester, is thought to be falling back to join him. On the
other hand, while McDowell is advancing toward Manassas, Patterson, with 35,000
men (with whom is Gordon's regiment, Massachusetts Second), has moved from
Martinsburg to Charlestown, and, as I thought, will soon make a junction with
him, and McClellan is expected daily out of West Virginia. Thus some 120,000
Union troops are converging at Manassas, and if the rebels have sufficient
appetite, there will soon be a great stand-up fight.
If they retreat, however, there will be more delays and more
impatience, for it is obvious that the Union troops can gain no great victory
until the rebels face them in the field. This has not yet been the case, but
they have fired from behind batteries occasionally while our men were in the
open. Hitherto nothing of importance has occurred except the slow advance of
the Union and the slow retreat of the rebellion. Perhaps before this letter is
posted, two days hence, something definite may have occurred in the
neighborhood of Manassas. Day before yesterday I saw the Webster regiment
reviewed on the Common. On the previous afternoon Governor Andrew had invited
me to come to his room at the State House. I did so at the time appointed, and
found no one there but the governor, his aides, Colonel Harrison Ritchie,
Wetherell and Harry Lee, and Mr. Everett, who was to make a speech on
presenting the colors to the regiment. I saw them march along Beacon Street in
front of the State House, and thought they had a very knowing, soldierly look.
They had been drilling for months down at Fort Independence, and are off for
the seat of war to-morrow.
When the regiment had arrived on the Common and was drawn up
in the Lower Mall, we proceeded to review them. Governor Andrew, in his cocked
hat and general's uniform, took possession of Mr. Everett, and the two were
flanked by four aides-de-camp, effulgent in what the newspapers call the “gorgeous
panoply of war,” while I was collared by the adjutant-general and the stray
colonel, and made to march solemnly between them. What the populace thought of
me, I don't know, but I believe that I was generally supposed to be a captured
secessionist, brought along to grace the triumph of the governor. Well, we
marched on, followed by a battalion of escort guards and preceded by a band of
music, to the Mall, and then the Webster regiment went through its manœuvers for our benefit,
and that of some thousands of enthusiastic spectators besides.
Of course I am no judge of military matters, but they seemed
to be admirably drilled, and one or two army officers with whom I spoke were of
the same opinion, — one of these, by the way, was a Virginian, Marshall by
name, a stanch Union man and nephew of the General Lee of Arlington, who so
recently abandoned the side of General Scott for a high post in the rebel army,
— but I am at least a judge of men's appearance, and it would be difficult to
find a thousand better-looking men with more determined and resolute faces.
They wear the uniform of the regular army, and their officers are nearly all
young, vigorous men, of good education and social position. I had a little talk
with Fletcher Webster, who seemed delighted to see me. Everett made a
magnificent little speech on presenting the standard, and Webster a very manly
and simple reply. The standard bears for inscription the motto from Webster's
(the father's) famous speech, “Not a single stripe polluted, not a single star
effaced,” together with the motto of Massachusetts, "Ense petit placidam
sub libertate quietem,” i. e., “With the sword she seeks tranquillity under the
protection of liberty.” This has been the device of the Massachusetts seal for
more than a century, I believe; but it is originally a plagiarism from Algernon
Sydney.
I am delighted with all that you tell me of the Duke and
Duchess of Argyll and their warm and friendly sympathy; of Lord Granville; of
Lord de Grey; of Milnes and Forster and Stirling. I haven't time to mention all
the names of those whom you speak of as being stanch in our cause — the great
cause of humanity and civilization. To check and circumscribe African slavery,
and at the same time to uphold free constitutional government, is a noble task.
If the great Republic perishes in the effort, it dies in a good cause. But it
isn't dying yet; never had so much blood in it. Qui vivra verra.
You say that I have not mentioned Sumner in my letters. I thought
that I had. I saw him two or three times before I went to Washington. He is
very well in health and unchanged in opinions or expectations, except that,
like all of us, he has been made far more sanguine than ever before as to the
issue of the struggle. He came to Washington before I left it, but we did not
go together. He has of course remained there for the session. I have heard from
him twice or thrice; but as I now write from America, I never quote any one's
opinions, but send you my own for what they are worth. In this letter there is
little of consequence.
I am delighted with what you say about the sea-coast
arrangement with the Hugheses, and trust sincerely that it may be made. You
cannot but be happy with such charming, sincere, and noble characters, and I
envy you the privilege of their society. Pray thank Hughes for that most
sympathetic dedication to Lowell.
I am glad that the book is finished, that I may now read it
with the same delight which the first one gave me. I saw Lowell commencement
day, and promised to go out and dine with him some day next week. He is going
to send for Hawthorne. Alas! he meant to have had Longfellow. We shall have
Holmes, Agassiz, and others, and shall drink Hughes's health. I forgot to say
that I saw at Felton's house young Brownell of the Ellsworth Zouaves. He, you
may remember, was at Ellsworth's side as he came down-stairs at the Marshall
House, Alexandria, and was shot dead by Jackson. Brownell, who was a corporal
in the regiment, immediately shot Jackson through the head. He has since been
made a lieutenant in the army, and is here on recruiting service. He is a very
quiet, good-looking youth of about twenty-two. The deed has no especial claim
to distinction, except its promptness. You remember that it was at the very
first occupation of Alexandria, and Jackson supposed, when he came out of a
dark closet and fired at Ellsworth, that secession was still triumphant in the
town. Brownell took out of his pocket a fragment of the secession flagstaff
which Ellsworth had just taken from the housetop, and gave me a bit of it as a
relic. The reason why Ellsworth was so anxious to pull down the flag was that
it was visible at the White House of Washington, and therefore an eyesore to
the President.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 181-7
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