Shady Hill, 26 February, 1863.
. . . It was pleasant to hear from you of your visit to
Philadelphia, and to hear from John,1 on the same day, his glowing
account of it. What a loyal place Philadelphia has become! We should be as
loyal here if we had a few more out-and-out secessionists. Our Union Club — we
have dropped the offensive word “League” — promises well: two hundred members
already, and Mr. Everett and his followers pledged to principles which suit you
and me. We are proposing to take the Abbott Lawrence house on Park Street, and
to be strong by position as well as by numbers. But nothing will do for the
country, — neither Clubs nor pamphlets nor lectures, nor Conscription Bills
(three cheers for the despotism necessary to secure freedom), nor Banking
Bills, nor Tom Thumb, nor Institutes, — nothing will do us much good but
victories. If we take Charleston and Vicksburg we conquer and trample out the
Copperheads, — but if not?
I confess to the most longing hope, the most anxious desire
to know of our success. I try to be ready for news of failure, indeed I shall
be ready for such news if it comes, and we must all only draw a few quick
breaths and form a sterner resolve, and fight a harder fight.
Where is the best statement, in a clear and quiet way, of
the political necessity of the preservation of the Union, its vital necessity
to our national existence? Seward has done harm by keeping up the notion of the
old Union, — but who has seen clearest the nature of the new Union for which we
are fighting? . . .
_______________
1 Their common friend, John W. Field of
Philadelphia, with whom Norton had travelled in Sicily.
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 260-1
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