File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 18 February 1850 (96c11c49-7b66-40fc-a357-cadb4bcda0b1).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-020#003

Cambridge Feb 18th 1850
Dear Tom,
Although we were so very liberal by the last steamer I think, in consideration of the long gaps, I must send you a few lines this time. Father sets off on Thursday for New York, thence to steam it to Charleston, perhaps Havana, N. Orleans, the Mississippi & home! He has had a very bad cold but that is fast mending. He makes it an excuse only for a journey he has long wished to undertake, & will take Jewett for companion – a very pleasant arrangement for both. They wanted me very much to join them, but I cannot leave the children nor take them so far, - but will perhaps meet them, with Harriot, at Washington on their return. She goes to N. York to see them off. You must not think father really ill – he has only a loose cough & influenza & goes for pleasure chiefly, & no [p. 2] doubt will enjoy it much. Agassiz called yesterday with his fair pancéa, both looking very happy, & he also sets off today for Charlestown by land, still faithful to his old love the earth. I mean he goes to geologize, & resigns for a time soft smiles for the wrinkles of the ancient dame. Still he has a tender heart I believe, a gentle & affectionate nature & appears fully to appreciate his happiness. Poor Felton has a wretched Influenza, cough &c, but comforts himself on oysters ad libitum. Miss Bremer made me her farewell, call yesterday. He too is flying South, but promises to return here next June & leave America from Boston. Mr Alcott has issued cards for a “Parliament on the Times” to be held by himself & Mr Emerson, with a room full of invited guests. Poor Mr E. knew nothing of it till the evening came, nor how he had been used as a decoy duck. Sumner gave us the funniest account of it. It was a lamentable failure. Mr Alcott led off, & Mr E helped him now & then, & a few others battled out their hobbies, Samson, as usual, on his thundering war-horse & insisting a portrait [p. 3] of Carlyle, in the room, should be taken down or its face turned to the wall, where upon Mr E. tried to excuse said “mocker at humanity” & thought now he had said his say on slavery & Ireland he would come round to better feeling & use his ‘frolic words’ to better purpose. There were several ladies there, & Miss Bremer made a few gentle remarks, - but Alcott’s hope of pumping them into easy & wise conversation was balked, & his wife said next day to Miss B. “it was a failure, we cannot converse in this country.”! Poor Alcott longs for Academic groves & tractable pupils, & Emerson is really hungering for society, but knows not how to get it, followed as he is by such a sorry set of bores. As if people could be made to talk as water-pipes when the stop is removed, to flow! I wish you were here to help him to some kind of sociable, agreeable club. He is evidently weary of the weak, watery reflections of himself that surround him, & longs for fresh winds & pastures new. Miss Bremer seems to have found in him her ideal, he is the American man to her, & interests her intensely. Henry called on her the other day & heard Mrs Alcott, a gaunt [p. 4] glim woman in a sacque say to her. “Miss Bremer, do you think a woman has fulfilled her mission until she has become a mother”!! Poor Miss B. replied with spirit “Indeed I do for all children are hers” – She will have the drollest idea of Boston society, - such strange varieties has she seen. I see poor Frank Schraederis recalled. It is shameful this this sending & pulling back. Some drinking, swearing Southerner, I fear, will be sent in his place, as the South as usual represent us everywhere but in England. Ah when will educated America have its share of the public offices! Not when Boston representatives, like Winthrop, dodge twice in a day two votes for freedom, & slink from their seats, as their name is called, instead of firmly remaining there to give their decided Yes! or No! I would rather he had said no to the Wilmot Proviso, than thus have evaded it. He has gained no honor by this, even among friends. Crawford has had the great good fortune to get the Richmond Monument to Washington, which will set him up for life. His design I saw & thought it very striking & grand, & I am heartily rejoiced his talent is at last rewarded. Sam Ward has [p. 5] returned from California, for a time, with they [crossed out: day] say, quantities of gold dust, but I fancy he scatters some in his friends eyes, for he always looks thro’ a golden mist. Mr Bent is also back, but I have not seen him. Mrs Kemble is still reading nobly, & drawing better houses nightly. She read Henry’s ‘Poem of the Ship’ before the “Mercantile Association” with the greatest spirit & effect, standing up without a desk & giving it off con amore, the part about the flag with the deepest emotion. She prefaced it with a few remarks stating her desire to read it to a Boston audience &c thro’ which her voice trembled greatly, & she said she had studied those few words a hundred times so hard was it for her to speak before such an audience. The hall was crammed with 3,000 people, & I confess I felt rather nervous on the occasion. Aunt Sam, Jewett, Harriet & Maria went with us & we had reserved seats. Here was warm applause for that audience, but Mrs B. thought not enough for the poet. She does not intend to read again in Boston, so is going thro’ her whole course. You say we have [crossed out: had] made [p. 6] a great mistake in supposing the Hungarians desired a Republic. Ujhazy the Governor of Comorn who is here has published a pamphlet describing the whole struggle & expressly states that it was to found a Republic he Kossuth & a large majority associated themselves. There were various motives, as in all Revolutions, but the highest party seems to have had this desire, despite Bowen’s false statements. He ends by saying. “If we have not been so fortunate as to lay the foundation of republican freedom, we have at least given a death-blow to the material power of the aristocracy, & without the support of an aristocracy, dynasties cannot long maintain themselves. We have then still gained a triumph by our struggles: there are no longer any serfs in Hungary, but each man cultivates his own land. The consciousness of this benefit bestowed on seven millions of men shall requite us for our losses.
Ladislaus Ujhazy
late civil governor of the Fortress Comorn & its dependencies”
The whole document is written with calm [p. 7] ness & manliness & with the dignity of a good cause. It is shameful in the Times to send men to invent falsehoods as they have about Kossuth. Henry had a note from Mrs Lawrence by the last steamer & she gives a pretty broad hint about using the bag too fully, saying she had some books brought her by a fiver, Mr L thinking the bag should not be too much filled by her, purporting to be for government missives. I hope she was not frightened at our package, but she made such liberal offers beforehand, or we should not have thought of it. Sumner was quite chagrined when we told him for he says all the previous ministers have allowed him to send quantities of things. I dare say Mr L has no objection but she likes sometimes to state things rather strongly.
I met poor Lizzy Oliver’s funeral on Saturday. She has been fading away with consumption & her mother Mrs Shaw will be sorely stricken by this double blow – Her brother’s death overwhelmed her. I so well remember her saying once to Em who complained of fatigue after one of the Assemblies. “I never allow any one to say they [p. 8] are weak or tired in my house”. She defied physical prostration, but now has it in her turn. Henry has gone to town to have Miss Bremer’s hand cast for me. It is very small & I wished it for a souvenir a kind of autograph! He is often tempted in now by the railroad which in ten minutes lands him at the Haymarket! It is luxurious too with purple velvet & rosewood, & far surpasses omnibus comfort except in not landing you at your door & carrying you to an undesirable part of Boston! I therefore have not yet tried it. We have never received the Daguerre you say Mrs Jameson sent. Did Mrs L suppress it? Richard Greenough, wife, child, & wife’s mother sail early in March for Italy to remain several years. Happy people, how they will enjoy it! Horatio comes here for a visit – Mary Parkman looks very happy & will soon be happier in fulfilling her mission à la Mrs Alcott. Lizzy Prescott & James Lawrence are talked of together. No bad thing. But worse. George Curtis presumed to Mad d’Hautville it is said. Unsuccessfully doubtless. So much for news – with a kiss to Mary & Henry’s love to both Yr ever aff Fanny.

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