Shady Hill, Thursday, 10 December, 1863.
. . . Last night we went to hear Beecher. He spoke
admirably, and it was a great pleasure to hear him. It was not great oratory,
but it was a fine, large, broad, sensible, human, sympathetic performance.
To-morrow we have a dinner of our Dozen Club for him.
Once more we may rejoice that Abraham Lincoln is President.
How wise and how admirably timed is his Proclamation.1 As a state
paper its naiveté
is wonderful. Lincoln will introduce a new style into state papers; he will
make them sincere, and his honesty will compel even politicians to like virtue.
I conceive his character to be on the whole the great net gain from the war. .
. .
_______________
1 This proclamation, transmitted to Congress with
Lincoln's Third Annual Message, Dec. 8, 1863, provided both for the renewal of
allegiance by persons in rebellion and the restoration of state governments
under the Union.
SOURCE: Sara Norton and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters
of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 266
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