George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, April 26, 1865

North Shore, April 26, 1865.

My Dear Charles, — Yours of the 24th reaches me this evening. I cannot at once decide upon the proposition which you make, — for I should wish to ask several questions.

I doubt if $50,000 is capital enough to start such a paper as you contemplate, and I am far from sure that it is really needed. It seems to me always best to use existing machinery if possible, and I fear that the influence which would control the new paper would constantly tend to make it outrun the popular sympathy upon whose support it must rely, so far as to defeat its purpose, by limiting its circulation to those who need no conversion. Do not the “Atlantic,” the “North American,” the “Evening Post,” and “Harper's Weekly” — to go no further — address the various parts of the audience that are counted upon for a new paper, and are there not great advantages in having the questions presented in these different forms? The change in public sentiment upon the true democratic idea is so wide and deep, that an organ for special reform in the matter does not seem to be required. It — the reform — has now become the actual point of the political movement of the country; and the same reasoning which justifies the abandonment of the abolition societies and organs pleads against your project.

If I lay more stress upon the special object of the paper than its projectors intend, then it becomes merely a liberal Weekly of the most advanced kind, and I can see no particular reason for its success.

As for myself, I am perfectly free to say what I think upon all public questions in “Harper's Weekly” without the least trouble or responsibility for the details of the paper, and with no necessity of even being at the office. The audience is immense. The regular circulation is about one hundred thousand, and on remarkable occasions, as now, more than two hundred thousand. This circulation is among that class which needs exactly the enlightenment you propose, and access is secured to it by the character of the paper as an illustrated sheet. I should want some very persuasive inducement to relinquish the hold I already have upon this audience, for I could not hope to regain it in a paper of a different kind. Of course, “Harper's Weekly” is not altogether such a paper as I should prefer for my own taste; but it does seem to me as if I could do with it the very work you propose, and upon a much greater scale than in the form you suggest; nor is the pecuniary advantage of your offer such as to shake this conviction.

Now from what I say you will see how I feel. The offer you make is so handsome and honorable that I do not decline it, unless you must have an immediate answer. If the affair can still remain open, will you tell me if the capital is secured — if the paper is to be started anyhow, — if there is any person selected for the business editor — whether it is to be a joint-stock association — and what the size, etc., of the paper is intended to be.

If you have the time to inform me upon these and such points, I will not delay long in giving you a final answer.

Always your affectionate,

G. W. Curtis.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 189-92

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, November 12, 1862

Shady Hill, 12 November, 1862.

. . . Were it not for one or two ifs, I should feel much better about the state of affairs than I have for some time. The worst of the ifs is the one concerning Lincoln. I am very much afraid that a domestic cat will not answer when one wants a Bengal tiger. It is encouraging that Congress meets so soon again; the President will be helped by it.

Another if must go before Burnside's name. He may be able to command one hundred thousand men in the field, but is he? He, like our other generals, is on trial. How we shall rejoice if he succeeds.

You are certainly right in your view of the elections. The Administration will not be hurt by the reaction if the war goes on prosperously. If we have a vigorous, brilliant and really successful winter campaign there will be not much opposition left next spring; but if otherwise — if we have successes that lead to nothing, and victories that are next door to defeats, if the influence of Washington air follows and paralyzes our armies, then I think it will be hard times for us and all honest republicans, who hope for the country and believe in its institutions and its people. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 258-9

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, April 4, 1865

Home, 4th April, 1865.

My Dear Charles, — I thought of you all the day yesterday as the news of the crowning mercy came rolling in. The merchants and brokers in Wall Street came out of their dens and sang Old Hundred and John Brown. From the high windows at the Harpers' where I sat the sky was brilliant and festal with innumerable flags. Fletcher Harper came to me, and said, “How glad I am we did not beat at Bull Run, for then Slavery would not have been abolished, and we should have been worse off than before.” My dear boy, who is equal to these things? We hear that the Major Mills who has fallen is your young cousin. Ah me! what heart-breaks salute our triumphs. You will be very sober in your joy.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 187-8

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, September 30, 1862

Shady Hill, 30 September, 1862.

Your note was most welcome. It was delightful to exchange congratulations on the Declaration, not of Independence, but of Liberty. The 22d September will be one of our memorable days forever. As you say nothing could be better than the answer made by the New York Convention to the Proclamation. Wadsworth's speech was excellent; it had the true tone, and was not only earnest but effective. The field is well laid out, — and there can be no doubt as to who will win.

Now when does your Congressional Nominating Convention meet? And what are your prospects? I will "stump" for you, or write for you, or do anything to promote your success which you want done. It will be service for the nation, not for you.¹

I did not thank you in my last note for the delightful notice of Clough and his poems in the last Harper. It said everything I could have wished, and will give real pleasure, I am sure, to Mrs. Clough, to whom I have sent it. There has been no notice so appreciative, so tender or so just. . . .

_______________

¹ Curtis did not receive the nomination.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 257-8

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, November 9, 1864

Harper's Weekly, New York, 9th November, 1864.

My Dear Charles, — Let us thank God and the people for this crowning mercy. I did not know how my mind and heart were strained until I felt myself sinking in the great waters of this triumph. We knew it ought to be; we knew that, bad as we have been, we did not deserve to be put out like a mean candle in its own refuse; but it is never day until the dawn. I do not yet know whether Seymour is elected. I hope not, for while he is in power this grand State is a base for rebel operations; and he is put in power, if at all, by those who would make any honorable government impossible. My heart sank as I stood among drunkards and the worst men, yesterday morning, to vote; but it sank deeper when I saw Aaron L., and others like him, voting to give those drunkards the power of the government. I have prepared a very small sermon upon Political Infidelity, for what infidels such men are to themselves and to mankind!

I am defeated, of course, and by a very heavy majority. In my own county my vote would have been largest of all the Union candidates if my name could have been sent to the soldiers, as the governor's was. As it is, he is some twenty before me. But Fernando Wood and James Brooks are defeated — God be praised! I have never been deceived about myself, but I am forever glad that my name was associated with this most memorable day.

Yours most affectionately,

G. W. C.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 184-5

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, September 23, 1862

Shady Hill, 23 September, 1862.^l

My Dearest George: — God be praised! I can hardly see to write, — for when I think of this great act of Freedom, and all it implies, my heart and my eyes overflow with the deepest, most serious gladness.

I rejoice with you. Let us rejoice together, and with all the lovers of liberty, and with all the enslaved and oppressed everywhere.

I think to-day that this world is glorified by the spirit of Christ. How beautiful it is to be able to read the sacred words under this new bight.

“He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

The war is paid for.

Dearest George, I was very glad to see that your brother was safe, and to hear of his gallantry in the late actions.²

Love and congratulations from us all to all of you.

Ever yours

C. E. N.

¹ The day after Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet.

² At Antietam, where Lieutenant J. B. Curtis's regiment was cut to pieces and driven back, he seized the colours, and shouted, “I go back no further! What is left of the Fourth Rhode Island, form here!” For the rest of the day he fought as a private in an adjoining command. See Cary's Curtis. p. 161 n.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 256-7

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, Monday, September 5, 1864

East Greenwich, Monday, 5th September, 1864.

My Dear Charles, — Burnside is staying with me here at the house of my cousin, Mr. Goddard. Yesterday we sat upon the rocks, and he told me the whole story of the mine and of the Army of the Potomac. It is intensely interesting and perfectly clear. He is the noblest, most magnanimous man I ever saw, and I shall tell you the tale with immense satisfaction some day. On Saturday morning, when the news of Sherman's success came, he was the most unaffectedly delighted man I ever saw. His exultation wound up by his seizing his wife and kissing her.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 182

Charles Eliot Norton to Meta Gaskell, August 30, 1862

Shady Hill, Cambridge, 30 August, 1862.

My Dear Miss Meta, — . . . Spite of all mismanagement, and spite of all reverses, our cause is, I believe, advancing. The autumn months show great military activity; and the people throughout the North are more and more resolved to accomplish the work they have to do. The spirit, the patience, the energy, and the good sense of our people are worthy of the highest admiration. I wish you could see and feel, as we do, this truly magnificent display of national character and feeling. You would be proud with us, of it all. Do not believe what you see in the “Times,” or in other papers, of discord or of want of heart, or failure of resolution at the North. We mean to save the Union and to establish the Government of the United States over the whole country; — we mean to do this for the sake of Liberty and of civilization, and in doing it the slavery of the black race in America will come to an end.

I am sorry for, but not surprised at, the general misconception abroad of our position, our purposes, and our principles. We do enough foolish and wrong things, and we say enough, to lead astray any one who cannot see through the outside to the deeper truths below, and who has not sympathy with our institutions and our better hopes and intentions. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 255-6

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, August 28, 1864

North Shore, 28th August, '64.

Frank wrote me, or printed rather, in large and remarkable capitals, a letter the other day. I enlivened the tranquil circle here by calling it a Capital letter, — a little work of mine which I dedicate to Jane. Probably you are not aware that I am myself the latest little work of Madison University. Blushes forbid me to write that that discriminating institution has done for the least of your friends what Harvard did for that other celebrated scholar, Andrew Jackson. Yesterday I received a letter with a very large green seal, addressed “G. W. C, LL. D.!” Oh my prophetic soul! I have long called Frank and Zib Doctor.

I say not a word about the war, but did people ever deserve success at the polls less than the Union party? Two years ago I was the only Lincoln man I knew hereabouts, and I have come round to the same position. Yet he will be elected, or we are dreary humbugs.

Good-by, dear boy. I am more cheerful than ever, for within two months we shall see the whole force of treason North and South, and if we sink 't is to see what we shall see! I shall not be able to write on Peace — luckily for you. It will be a good text for J. R. L. Give him my love, if he is with you, and to all the dear ones.

Your friend the doctor sends his benediction.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 181-2

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, Thursday Evening, July 31, 1862

Shady Hill

Thursday evening, 31 July, 1862.

. . . The weather is very beautiful; — such a sunshiny, showery, green, shady, summer as it is! But we have no days finer than the 17th. That was fine every way. Your Oration¹ lasts in the minds of men. Its praises come to me from all sides. Last Saturday at the Club there was a general expression of hearty admiration of it which would have pleased you to hear. Every one who had heard it said it was one of the most effective pieces of oratory that had been heard here by this generation, and that its sentiment and doctrine were as noble as your eloquence. Even the “conservatives” give in to its power. “Detestable opinions, Sir, but overwhelming eloquence.”

Here we have given up McClellan as a general, and have renewed our original faith in Stanton. It seems to me certain that the President and the Secretary of War have not interfered with McClellan's plans, but have done everything to forward them. I fear the President is not yet quite conscious of the spirit of the people, and aware of the needs of the time. I have no doubt of his good intention, but I doubt if his soul is open to the heats of enthusiasm for a great principle, or his will quick and resolute enough for a great emergency. I do not believe in any palliations at present. Will Lincoln be master of the opportunities, or will they escape him? Is he great enough for the time?

Do you think the army² on the James River is safe? If it is forced to surrender, I think the people generally would be excited to make the cause good rather than depressed by the calamity. It looks to me as if Emancipation might come very soon in Kentucky. But what a pity that the President should not have issued a more distinct and telling Proclamation! I think this a great misfortune. However, it is not a mere piece of commonplace faith that everything is best, when I say I believe that the issue of the war will be as we desire. What a lot of capital I’s I have put into this note! . . .

_______________

¹ The Phi Beta Kappa Oration at Harvard.

² The Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, after the disastrous Seven Days' Battles.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 254-5

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, July 12, 1864

And how is Ashfield? I should have written you there before if I had supposed there was a post-office at such a height. Do you have to eat oil more than three times a day to keep warm in this weather? We don't. But then we live upon an island in the temperate zone. Or are you warmed by the news of the isolation of Washington? There is something comical about it which I cannot escape, with all the annoyance. The great Dutch Pennsylvania annually sprawling on its back, and bellowing to mankind to come and help it out of the scrape, is perfectly ludicrous. I hope that this year all the States will learn that, while they have no efficient and organized militia, they will be constantly harassed by raids to the end of the war. We have all kinds of rumors here at every moment, from which you are free. But the sense of absurdity and humiliation is very universal. These things weaken the hold of the administration upon the people; and the only serious peril that I foresee is the setting in of a reaction which may culminate in November and defeat Lincoln, as it did Wadsworth in this State. I wish we had a loyal governor, and that New York city was virtuous.

Have you thought what a vindication this war is of Alexander Hamilton? I wish somebody would write his life as it ought to be written, for surely he was one of the greatest of our great men, as Jefferson was the least of the truly great; or am I wrong? Hamilton was generous and sincere. Was Jefferson either? In Franklin's life how the value of temperament shows itself! It was as fortunate for him and for us as his genius.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 180-1

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, March 19, 1862

Shady Hill, 19 March, 1862.

. . . I am not as critical as Iago, but I do not like McClellan's address to his troops. It is too French in style and idiom. He “loves his men like a father”? “A magnificent army”? “God smiles upon us.” How does he know? And “victory attends us”? This last phrase is plainly a mistranslation from the French “La Victoire nous attend,” — which means, what our General ought to have said, Victory awaits us.

But I am more than content with our progress. Wendell Phillips in Washington! The new article of War! The slaves running away in Virginia! Fremont re-instated in command! Freedom cannot take any backward steps — and it looks as if she would soon begin to move forward with faster and more confident steps than heretofore.

What a fine fight that was in Hampton Roads! Honour to the men of the Cumberland. I heard a most interesting and deeply moving account of the incidents of the fight and the sinking from Dr. Martin, the surgeon of the ship.

And how splendidly the Monitor was managed! . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 253-4

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, June 16, 1864

My Dear Charles, — I hope you like our Baltimore work. The unanimity and enthusiasm were most imposing. I voted against the admission of Tennessee, because I did not want the convention to meddle with the question; and, since she only wanted to come in to help do what we were sure to do without her, I thought that, as the cause was exactly the same for both of us, she should give us forbearance while we gave her sympathy. But it was impossible to resist the torrent, and they all came in. There is no harm done. I cannot but think Sumner wrong. If all New York rebels, I am still a citizen of the United States. That is the simple, obvious, necessary ground.

The committee of one from each State appointed me to write the official letter to the President, and refused to instruct me. I sent it yesterday, having read it to Mr. Bryant and to Raymond. They were both entirely pleased with everything in it.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 178-9

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, March 8, 1862

Shady Hill, 8 March, I862.

As I sit down to thank you for the note that came to me this morning, Jane is reading it aloud to Longfellow, and interrupts me to ask explanations. All you say is very interesting. But can I quite agree with you in confidence in Mr. Lincoln's instincts? His message on Emancipation¹ is a most important step; but could anything be more feebly put, or more inefficiently written? His style is worse than ever; and though a bad style is not always a mark of bad thought, — it is at least a proof that thought is not as clear as it ought to be.

How time brings about its revenges! I think the most striking incident of the war is the march of our men into Charlestown singing the John Brown psalm, "His soul is marching on."

As for Lincoln's suggestions, I am sure that good will come of them. They will at least serve to divide opinion in the Border States. But I see many practical objections to his plan; and I doubt if any State meets his propositions with corresponding action.

The “Tribune” is politic in its burst of ardour. Let us make out the message to be more than it is, — and bring the President up to our view of it. . . .

_______________

¹ The special message urging "gradual abolishment of slavery" was sent to Congress March 6.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 252-3

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, April 7, 1864

My Dear Charles, — How grandly the country is speaking for the war and the policy! Night before last I dined with Colonel Raasloff¹ and Count Piper and Habricht, and I claimed that thus far we had proved that in a republic patriotism was not necessarily subordinated to party spirit. It seems just now as if our true victory were to be greater than even we had supposed.

I have seen Lincoln tete-a-tete since I saw you, and my personal impression of him confirmed my previous feeling. I am sorry that Fremont seems to be placed in a position which can please no real friend of his. Only to-day I have an invitation from the office of “The New Nation” to meet some friends of all the radical candidates to “take steps to form a radical national committee, and to secure a radical platform, and a reliable radical man for the presidential campaign about to open.” Last week I went to Baltimore, and supped at the Union Club with a dozen of the most strenuous men there. Every one, when the war began, was a pro-slavery man; now they will have nothing but immediate, uncompensated emancipation. Charles, you and I are superannuated fogies.

_______________

¹ The Danish Minister.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 177-8

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, Monday Evening, March 3, 1862

Monday evening, 3 March, 1862.

. . . On the day you left us I had a long and most entertaining talk from Emerson about his experiences in Washington. Two things he said were especially striking. “When you go southward from New York you leave public opinion behind you. There is no such thing known in Washington.” — “It consoles a Massachusetts man to find how large is the number of egotists in Washington. Every second man thinks the affairs of the country depend upon him.” He reported a good saying of Stanton, when the difficulty of making an advance on account of the state of the roads was spoken of, — “Oh,” said he, “the difficulty is not from the mud in the roads, but the mud in the hearts of the Generals.”

Emerson said that Seward was very strong in his expressions concerning the incapacity and want of spirit of Congress, — and that Sherman and Colfax confirmed what Seward said, ascribing much of the manifest weakness to “Border State” influence.

And much more. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 251-2

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, October 15, 1863

15th October, 1863.

Whatever is happening to Meade, let us rejoice over Pennsylvannia and Ohio. It is the great vindication of the President, and the popular verdict upon the policy of the war. It gives one greater joy than any event which has lately happened. Is it not the sign of the final disintegration of that rotten mass known as the Democratic party? In this State we have sloughed off the name Republican and are known as the Union party. How glad I am that we can gladly bear that name, and that the Union at last means what it was intended by the wisest and the best of our fathers to mean!

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 166-7

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, February 9, 1862

Shady Hill, Sunday, 9 February, 1862.

. . . Jane and I went to hear Frederic Douglass. It was a sad though interesting performance. He said very little to the purpose, and nothing that was of worth as helping toward clearer conclusions in regard to the future of the black race in America. There was a want of earnestness and true feeling in his speech. It was discursive, shallow, personal, and though he said some clever things and displayed some power of humorous irony, it was on the whole a melancholy exhibition, for neither the circumstances of the time, nor the immeasurable importance of the topic were enough to inspire him with wise or sincere counsel. I could not but think how far he was from such honesty of purpose and depth of feeling as were in John Brown's heart. There were several eloquent and well meant passages in his lecture, but most of it was crude and artificial. We could not but come away disappointed and even disheartened.

How good the news is from Tennessee!¹ We have waited so long for success that we may well be glad when it comes. I trust that this is a blow to be followed up. . . .

_______________

¹ Fort Henry had just been taken, and Fort Donelson was about to fall

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 251

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, July 19, 1863

New York, July 19th, '63.

On Tuesday evening, upon an intimation from a man who had heard the plot arranged in the city to come down and visit me that night, and find Horace Greeley and Wendell Phillips, “who were concealed in my house,” I took the babies out of bed and departed to an unsuspected neighbor's. On Wednesday a dozen persons informed me and Mr. Shaw that our houses were to be burned; and as there was no police or military force upon the island, and my only defensive weapon was a large family umbrella, I carried Anna and the two babies to James Sturgis's in Roxbury. Frank was with Mrs. Shaw at Susie Minturn's up the river. Today I am going with him to Roxbury, but shall return immediately, so that I cannot see you. We have now organized ourselves in the neighborhood for mutual defense, and I do not fear any serious trouble.

The good cause gains greatly by all this trouble. The government is strong enough to hold New York, if necessary, as it holds New Orleans, Baltimore, and St. Louis. There must be a great deal more excitement, and if Seymour can bring the State, under a form of law, against the national government, he will do it. It will be done by a state decision of the unconstitutionality of the conscription act. But as a riot it has been suppressed, as an insurrection it has failed. No Northern conspiracy for the rebellion can ever have so fair a chance again as it had in this city last week, without soldiers, with a governor friendly to the mob, and with only a splendid police which did its duty as well as Grant's army.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 165-6

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, December 31, 1861

Shady Hill, 31 December, 1861.

. . . Lowell has been spending the evening with us, and brought up to read to us his new Biglow Paper. It is one of the best things that he ever did, — it is a true Yankee pastoral and lyric; — not another letter of B. Sawin, but a poem or rather two poems of Hosea's own, — the first a dialogue between Concord Bridge and Bunker Hill monument, — the last a lyric about Jonathan and John, with the most spirited refrain. I am sure that you will be as delighted with it as I am. There is no doubt but that it will touch the popular heart.

I entirely agree with you as to the masterly manner in which Seward has treated the Trent case. If his paper has too much the character of a legal plea for strict diplomatic usage, it is to be remembered that it is to be in reality addressed to the American people and not to Lord Lyons. Shall we yet have to fight England? With all my heart I hope not, — but if need be, I am ready. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 250