Philadelphia, November 24, 1859.
I am safely in this
beautiful city of brotherly love, and shall be compelled to remain here a week,
to close up some old business that has been dangling on my hands for years.
From Galesburg to
Wheaton I was in company with Dr. Blanchard. He wished to be kindly remembered
to you, and expressed the hope that you would be led at no distant day to
change your religious views, though, I believe, he seemed to entertain a faint
hope that you was good enough to go to heaven with your present heterodox
opinions. He uttered no word of reproach, remonstrance, or persuasion to me,
for having no settled religious convictions; so you perceive that in the view
of some of our orthodox friends it is a good deal more dangerous to believe too
much than not to believe at all. But Dr. Blanchard is an able, honest, ultra,
enthusiastic, and somewhat bigoted man — a great friend of ours, and I
entertain great respect for him. We also had on board Mr. Lovejoy, member of
Congress of Illinois, a talented and agreeable man. From Crestline, Ohio, to
this place, I have been in company with Mr. Crittenden and his wife, who are on
their way to Washington. Perhaps I have told you that Mrs. Crittenden, though a
rather elderly lady, is one of the leaders of the ton in Washington, as
she is in Kentucky, and as she used to be in St. Louis, when she was the wife
and widow of General Ashley. She is a very kind, amiable lady, but there is so
much precision and mock dignity about everything she says and does, that
intercourse with her is not so pleasant as it would be if one could only
persuade himself that her heart would come gushing out of her mouth once in a
while.
SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p.
120-1
