BOSTON, February 3, 1862.
. . . We are the
conquerors of nature, they1 of nature's weaker children. We thrive
on reverses and disappointments. I have never believed they could endure them.
Like Prince Rupert's drop, the unannealed fabric of rebellion shuts an
explosive element in its resisting shell that will rend it in pieces as soon as
its tail, not its head, is fairly broken off. That is what I think — I, safe
prophet of a private correspondence, free to be convinced of my own ignorance
and presumption by events as they happen, and to prophesy again; for what else
do we live for but to guess the future, in small things or great, that we may
help to shape it or ourselves to it? Your last letter was so full of interest
by the expression of your own thoughts and the transcripts of those of your
English friends, especially the words of John Bright,—one of the two foreigners
that I want to see and thank, the other being Count Gasparin, — that I feel
entirely inadequate to make any fitting return for it. I meet a few wise
persons, who for the most part know little; some who know a good deal, but are
not wise. I was at a dinner at Parker's the other day, where Governor Andrew
and Emerson and various unknown dingy-linened friends met to hear Mr. Conway,
the not unfamous Unitarian minister of Washington, Virginia-born, with
seventeen secesh cousins, fathers, and other relatives, tell of his late
experiences at the seat of government. He had talked awhile with Father
Abraham, who, as he thinks, is honest enough. He himself is an out-and-out
immediate emancipationist, believes that is the only way to break the strength
of the South, that the black man is the life of the South, that the Southerners
dread work above all things, and cling to the slave as a drudge that makes life
tolerable to them. He believes that the blacks know all that is said and done
with reference to them in the North; that their longing for freedom is
unutterable; that once assured of it under Northern protection, the institution
would be doomed. I don't know whether you remember Conway's famous “One Path”
sermon of six or eight years ago. It brought him immediately into notice. I
think it was Judge Curtis (Ben) who commended it to my attention. He talked
with a good deal of spirit. I know you would have gone with him in his leading
ideas. Speaking of the communication of knowledge among the slaves, he said if
he were on the Upper Mississippi and proclaimed emancipation, it would be told
in New Orleans before the telegraph could carry the news there.
I am busy with my
lectures at the college, and don't see much of the world, but I will tell you
what I see and hear from time to time, if you like to have me. I gave your
message to the club, who always listen with enthusiasm when your name is
mentioned. My boy is here still, detailed on recruiting duty, quite well. I
hope you are all well, and free from all endemic irritations such as Sir Thomas
Browne refers to when he says that “colical persons will find little comfort in
Austria or Vienna.”
With kindest
remembrances to you all,
Yours always,
O. W. H.
_______________
1 The Confederates.
SOURCE: George
William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in
Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 232-4
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