Monday, September 7, 2026

Diary of Lucy Larcom, December 16, 1861

To-day there are rumors of a possible war with England, on account of the affair of Mason and Slidell, now prisoners in Boston harbor. It will be an outrage on humanity, a proof that England's pompous declamations against slavery are all hypocritical, if this should be done; for all good authorities have declared that a war on this account would never be, unless a pretext for war was wanted. Perhaps Providence intends that this shall be brought out definitely as a struggle for principles; I think the nation and the army need some such lesson, and they will not learn it unless it is made very plain.

SOURCE: Daniel Dulany Addison, Lucy Larcom: Life, Letters, and Diary, pp. 115-6

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