Vienna, December, 1862.
My Dearest Little
Mary: Your last letter was very pleasant to us — I have so high a
respect for General Wadsworth. I hardly know a man in the whole country by
whose course I have been so electrified as I was by his. Nothing can be nobler
or more heroic than his career ever since the breaking out of the war.
Certainly these are times that prove the mettle men are made of, and not only
does his character, but his intellect, shine forth most brightly since the
great events in which he has been taking part have revealed what was in him.
The few speeches which he made in the late canvass seemed to me of the highest
order of eloquence.
It is some good fruit at least of these unhappy times that
we learn to know our contemporaries. In piping times of peace I should not have
thought of James Wadsworth other than the agreeable man of the world, the
liberal man of fortune, the thriving landlord, and now he turns out a hero and
a statesman.
We were inexpressibly shocked and grieved to hear of the
death of sweet, dear, and beautiful Mrs. d'Hauteville. How much of loveliness
and grace and gentle, intelligent, virtuous womanhood is buried in that grave!
What a loss to her family who adored her, to so many friends who admired her
and loved her, to her son far away on the field of danger! Certainly we live in
tragic days. You may live to see tranquil and happy ones, but it is not
probable that we of this generation will do so. The great slave revolution
will, I think, take almost the span of one generation to accomplish itself
thoroughly. This partial pro-slavery reaction in the North has, I fear,
protracted the contest. I say partial, because on taking a wide view of the
field I find really that the antislavery party has made enormous progress this
year. The States of Pennsylvania and Ohio were almost evenly balanced on a
general election taken immediately after the President's Emancipation
Proclamation. Massachusetts gave 20,000 majority to the antislavery party; and
although the city of New York was pro-slavery, as it always has been, yet the
State, the really American part of the four millions of the inhabitants, voted
by a great majority for Wadsworth. Then, the result of the Missouri election
outweighs all the pro-slavery triumphs in any other State. If I had been told
five years ago that that great slave State would, in the year 1862, elect five emancipationists
out of the nine members of Congress, and that emancipation would have a strong
majority in each house of the Missouri Legislature, I could not have believed
in such a vision. . . . This is one of the revolutions that does not go
backward. “Die Welt ist rund und muss sich drehen.” I suppose the din about
McClellan's removal goes on around you. I take little interest in the matter.
It is in vain to try to make a hero of him. But there is so much that is noble
and generous and magnanimous in his nature, so much dignity and forbearance,
and he is really so good a soldier, that it seems a pity he could not have been
a great man and a great commander.
We are humdrumming on as usual. Yesterday we dined at our
colleague's, the Dutch minister, Baron Heeckeren. This is our only festivity
for the present. I am glad the Hoopers have been so kind as to invite you to
Washington again. It is a great privilege for you, and I am very grateful to
them. Always remember me most kindly when you see them. I owe Mr. Hooper a
letter, which I shall immediately answer.
Ever your most
affectionate
Papagei.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 301-3
