November 17, 1863.
My Dearest Mother:
. . . I shall say nothing of our home affairs save that I am overjoyed at the
results of the elections in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, without being at
all surprised. As to Massachusetts, of course I should as soon have thought of
the sun's forgetting to rise as of her joining the pro-slavery Copperheads. The
result of the elections in Missouri and Maryland has not yet reached me, but I
entertain a strong hope that the latter State has elected an emancipation
legislature, and that before next summer the accursed institution will be wiped
out of "my Maryland."
The elections I consider of far more consequence than the
battles, or rather the success of the antislavery party and its steadily
increasing strength make it a mathematical certainty that, however the tide of
battle may ebb and flow with varying results, the progress of the war is
steadily in one direction. The peculiar institution will be washed away, and
with it the only possible dissolvent of the Union.
We are in a great mess in Europe. The Emperor of the French,
whom the littleness of his contemporaries has converted into a species of great
man, which will much amuse posterity, is proceeding in his self-appointed
capacity of European dictator. His last dodge is to call a Congress of
Sovereigns, without telling them what they are to do when they have obeyed his
summons. All sorts of tremendous things are anticipated, for when you have a
professional conspirator on the most important throne in Christendom, there is
no dark intrigue that doesn't seem possible. Our poor people in Vienna are in
an awful fidget, and the telegraph-wires between London, St. Petersburg, and
Paris are quivering hourly with the distracted messages which are speeding to
and fro, and people go about telling each other the most insane stories. If
Austria doesn't go to the Congress out of deference to England, then France,
Russia, Prussia, and Italy are to meet together and make a new map of Europe.
France is to take the provinces of the Rhine from Prussia, and give her in
exchange the kingdom of Hanover, the duchy of Brunswick, and other little bits
of property to round off her estate. Austria is to be deprived of Venice, which
is to be given to Victor Emmanuel. Russia is to set up Poland as a kind of
kingdom in leading-strings, when she has finished her Warsaw massacres, and is
to take possession of the Danubian Principalities in exchange. These schemes
are absolutely broached and believed in. Meantime the Schleswig-Holstein
question, which has been whisking its long tail about through the European
system, and shaking war from its horrid hair till the guns were ready to fire,
has suddenly taken a new turn. Day before yesterday the King of Denmark, in the
most melodramatic manner, died unexpectedly, just as he was about to sign the
new constitution, which made war with the Germanic Confederation certain. Then
everybody breathed again. The new king would wait, would turn out all the old
ministers, would repudiate the new constitution, would shake hands with the
German Bund, and be at peace, when, lo! just as the innocent bigwigs were
making sure of this consummation so devoutly wished, comes a telegram that his
new Majesty has sworn to the new constitution and kept in the old ministers.
Our weather has become gray, sullen, and wintry, but not
cold. There has hardly been a frost yet, but the days are short and fires
indispensable. The festivities will begin before long. Thus far I have been
able to work steadily and get on pretty well.
Ever your most
affectionate son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 348-50
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