Near Smithfield, Sept. 1, 1864, Evening.
If you could only just step in here, — such a pretty place
for Headquarters, — two wall-tents facing West, in a perfectly green and smooth
front-yard with locust and maple trees for shade. On the porch of the house you
would have enjoyed seeing five little darkies, the oldest not over six, dancing
while the band was playing an hour ago. And to complete it, Berold is right in
front looking over the fence very inquisitively at a two-year-old colt that has
just been brought in, stolen, — that's the way it was an hour ago, I mean, — it
is dark now, but we have a blazing fire of rails which lights up everything
gloriously.
Poor McClellan, I am sorry his name is to be dragged through
the mud so, — what a contemptible platform! Honestly I believe that if by
chance McClellan is elected, the North will split before his four years are
passed, and we shall be left in the condition of the South American republics,
or worse.
If success to our arms will further Lincoln's chances, I
feel as if each one of us, both in the army and at home, had a tenfold motive
for exertion now. If McClellan is chosen, I shall despair of the Republic;
either half a dozen little republics, or one despotism, must follow, it
seems to me. What a state of affairs Governor Brough's proclamation about the
draft indicates! I should not like to be an editor now, or at any other
time. Don't be alarmed about that, in spite of my fondness for writing!
By the way, I do wish that Sherman's letter could be made,
in this campaign, the platform, so far as the contraband question goes. I feel
as if the bill for recruiting in the Southern States, and the continual efforts
to prove that black troops are altogether as good as white, were going to
damage us, and rightly too, for I do not consider either of the above
positions tenable, when looked at largely.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles
Russell Lowell, p. 332-3
No comments:
Post a Comment