BosToN, 20 August, 1861.
MY DEAR SIR, - I had great pleasure in receiving your letter
of the 26th July, and in your favorable opinion of my oration, which has also been
kindly spoken of here.1
You informed me some time ago that Lord John – no longer
Lord John2 — had read you a part of my letter to him of the 29th of
May. I have thought you might like to see his answer, of which I accordingly
send you a copy. I also venture to place under cover to you my reply to him,
unsealed, should you be inclined to read it. You will be pleased before sending
it, to seal it with some indifferent seal. I do not think I can add anything,
as to the progress of the war, beyond what the papers will tell you. The
Secretary of the Treasury has made satisfactory arrangements for the great
loan. The Boston banks take at once ten millions. Some significant remarks were
made at a meeting of the Presidents of our Banks, by Mr. Wm. Gray, to the effect
that the country desires a united and efficient cabinet; and Mr. Gray, W. T.
Andrews and another gentleman were chosen a committee to make this suggestion
formally to the President. It was supposed to be aimed at General Cameron and
Mr. Welles. A rather unpleasant impression was produced on the public mind
yesterday, by the call of the Secretary of War, to have all the volunteers,
accepted either by the Department or the State Governments, hastened on to
Washington, with or without equipments and arms.
We are so unaccustomed to war, that every little incident,
and especially every reverse tells upon the public mind, far beyond its
importance, and the pulse of the community rises and falls, like the mercury in
the thermometer.
Our newspapers are filled with the absurdest suggestions,
about the unfriendly interference of England and France. But I am confident,
that before the next crops of cotton and tobacco are ready for shipment, the
Southern Ports will be so effectually blockaded, as to put any such
interference out of the question. . . .
EDWARD EVERETT.
_______________
1 Probably the address on “The Questions of the
Day,” delivered in New York, July 4, 1861, and printed in Orations and
Speeches, IV. 345.
2 Lord John Russell had been raised to the
peerage, as Earl Russell, in July, 1861, the preceding month.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 45: October 1911 – June
1912, November 1911 Meeting, p. 76-7
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