Partial letter from Maria Weston Chapman, [New York City, NY], to Anne Greene Chapman Dicey, [1863?]

Item Information

Place of origin:
[New York City, NY]
Language:
English
Notes:
Holograph, signed with initials.
This is a partial manuscript, irregularly numbered, with the beginning of the letter missing. One sheet is cut in half. This letter was presumably addressed to Anne Greene Chapman Dicey.
Maria Weston Chapman writes that she is all alone in the great house in Madison Avenue. She describes in detail the arrangement and furnishings in the rooms. She discusses Anglo-American tensions: "I may hate the English like a wild Irishman. I may lay all my losses by the Alabama at the door of every Englishman & charge Land & Steer alike with the crime & make Lord John Russell as the gov't(?) the responsible pirate in my own mind. But my course will be from beginning to end, to say no word, to do no deed which swell by one hair's breadth national hatreds up to War pitch." Chapman gives examples of spiteful sayings such as Laird on one side and Greeley on the other "keep screeching in each others' ears." Chapman reflects on the situation at home as an Englishman might see it. She tells about a letter from Mrs. Stanton regarding the Women's National Loyal League, "an enterprise to get a million of women's signatures for the Congressional abolition of slavery." She comments on the plan. Chapman tells what advice she would give to Susan Anthony if she dared. Chapman can meet most things, "but not an abolitionist beginning to feel his occupation gone. They rail at the gov't as if it was wicked; -- while no Saint, its incapacity is its strong point & that is not its own fault." It is "the new young generation that have actually got the matter in their hands." She mentions as examples the actions of the young sons of William Lloyd Garrision, Philbrick, and the Follens. The ministry is doing the necessary preaching. Chapman comments that Old Stephen Tyng "can stir up pecuniary benevolence far better than we."
Identifier:
3133103
Call #:
Ms.A.9.2 v.31, p.66
Barcode:
39999066789023
mq8430440