I have run over the
birth-histories of the nations of Europe, in their chaotic rise from barbarism;
and have just completed a bird's-eye view of Italian mediæval history, with
Koeppen's aid. The present history of Italy interests me greatly, and I would
like to be able to link the present with the past. But what a debatable ground
it has always been, and how unsparingly it has always been made mince-meat of,
by all in authority there!
But all that history
has revealed shows no more important epoch than the one in which we are living
at this moment, in our unsettled and discordant Union. I hope it will come out
plain and positive, as a question of right or wrong for every man to decide. It
is so already, yet all will not see. So I hope that the demon of slavery, that
"mystery of iniquity," will make his evil way evident, that we may
return to no vile compact with sin.
SOURCE: Daniel Dulany Addison, “Lucy Larcom: Life, Letters, and Diary,” p. 83
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