December 29, 1863.
My Dearest Mother:
We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We are very well
satisfied with recent American news. In a military point of view, thank Heaven,
the “coming man,” for whom we have so long been waiting, seems really to have
come. So far as I can understand the subject, Ulysses Grant is at least equal
to any general now living in any part of the world, and by far the first that
our war has produced on either side. I expect that when the Vicksburg and
Tennessee campaigns come to be written, many years hence, it will appear that
they are masterpieces of military art. A correspondent of a widely circulated
German newspaper (the "Augsburg Gazette"), very far from friendly to
America, writing from the seat of war in Tennessee, speaks of the battle of
Chattanooga as an action which, both for scientific combination and bravery in
execution, is equal to any battle of modern times from the days of Frederick
the Great downward. I am also much pleased with the Message, and my respect for
the character and ability of the President increases every day. It was an
immense good fortune for us in this emergency to have a man in his responsible
place whose integrity has never been impeached, so far as I know, by friend or
foe. The ferment in Europe does not subside, and I cannot understand how the
German-Danish quarrel can be quietly settled. I rather expect to see a popular
outbreak in Copenhagen, to be suppressed, perhaps, by foreign powers; but that
Denmark will be dismembered seems to me very probable. However, I have no
intention of prophesying as to events to be expected during the coming year.
Ever your
affectionate son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 351-2
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