Boppart, Sept. 26, '50.
My Dear Sumner:
— . . . I leave Boppart this week for England via Paris. ... As for
political matters, . . . my impressions, from all I see, are strongly in favour
of the notion that, malgré
the reaction, there has been an immense gain to the cause of liberty in
Germany.
I have been surprised to find how easily some of the ardent
republicans have become discouraged, and how they have lost faith in the
people. Varrentrapp, a most excellent Republican, is despondent. It is because
their faith did not go deep enough; it was founded not upon the core of
humanity, which is always sound, but upon the supposition of the people having
attained a degree of intelligence and virtue which they proved in the hour of
trial not to have attained. I tell them that to doubt is to be damned; that to
doubt the capacities of humanity is to blaspheme God, and be without religion
in the world. They shake their heads and call me red, very red; perhaps they
think me green. . . .
Most affectionately
yours,
s. G. H.
SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and
Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 325-6
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