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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Reverend Samuel Longfellow, 22 December 1851
Manuscript letter
Cambridge Dec 22d 1851.
My dear Sam,
I have just laid down the morning’s paper glaring with the doings in your quiet Capital & am most anxious to know what will be the result of this Napoleonic coup de main & how much of the sad scene in the Boulevards you witnessed. I suppose the same steamer brings a letter to Annie which will shortly reach me. The books for her & the charming Sevre egg cup arrived safely & the latter is on the table before me, its delicate finish & graceful design suggestive of royal breakfasts & very dainty fingers. I prefer to fancy it belonging to the fair artist-princess rather than to her selfish, fat papa. Speaking of artists, what a singular chance that brought you & Akers together. I should like to have known [p. 2] how the Louvre impressed him with its mile of pictures & vast halls of statuary. Was he humbled a little in his rather too high opinion of himself, or only inspired to go & do likewise. Tilton, who is more modest, must have been abashed by that overwhelming unfolding of the history of his art – its triumphs & it horrors – but he might be consoled by visiting the modern Exhibition which I believe has usurped Louis Philippes old quarters of the Tuilleries [sic]. How beautiful is the sight of the Louvre’s splendid gallery open to all. Ah how often I have slipped over its glassy floor to the warm Italian climate at the bottom & there lingered & luxuriated in that mellow beauty – enjoying the fair artists copying on every side – but the sculpture gallery I could never enjoy, it had a chill, dismal aspect so unlike the Italian ones, the sunny Vatican & damask-lined Inburne.
You will see by the papers what a [p. 3] furor Kossuth’s wonderful eloquence & most interesting cause have excited in New York. The hesitating welcome Congress was offering him gave Sumner a fine opportunity to make his maiden speech, which was very calm & temperate & expressing the warmest sympathy for the man, gracefully touching upon his remarkable career & triumphal voyage from Turkey thro England &c but upholding decisively the non-intervention policy of Washington. It was a very good beginning for him, & was listened to with the greatest attention & has been praised even by hostile papers. Conservative Boston, cold-hearted too in regard to any European struggle, has no sympathy for Kossuth or his cause, & I hope, for his sake, he wont [sic] come here, tho I should very much like to see the hero of our age. His speeches on so many different occasions, to the clergy, to the ladies, to the lawyers &c show a wonderful tact & readiness of allusion & a command of English which, for a foreigner & an man of so anxious suffering a life [p. 4] as his has been without a day’s time for preparation & really ill from exhaustion & affection [sic] of the lungs, are almost super human. He thinks England & America have only to say to the Czar – “Keep at home – fair play –“ & he is not strong enough to laugh at their word – but if he does, comes war, which we do not so much like to risk, but he has large sums offered him daily by private persons & cannot but raise a great interest in his cause. This French news will fire the brain perhaps in all Europe he says must burn soon without escape & which he thinks will be the last battle if the people triumph. This comes in time to wish you a merry Xmas & “Happy New Year” which we all do from our hearts. Scherb is with us for a day or two & we go tonight to hear Emerson’s first lecture on the “Conduct of Life” subject Fate. Henry’s “Golden Legend” has sold admirably but we hardly know how well it is liked. It is so peculiar, it will take people some time to find out. I am very glad you have the Brownings in Paris – they must be worth cultivating. When Lizzie & Alex were here (is she not a very pleasing person?) we went to Brookline one day & I saw your friend Higginson & his wife there. I told him to write you. Hale I saw often at the Jenny Lind concerts (to which she sent us tickets) and they were most delicious.
My dear Sam,
I have just laid down the morning’s paper glaring with the doings in your quiet Capital & am most anxious to know what will be the result of this Napoleonic coup de main & how much of the sad scene in the Boulevards you witnessed. I suppose the same steamer brings a letter to Annie which will shortly reach me. The books for her & the charming Sevre egg cup arrived safely & the latter is on the table before me, its delicate finish & graceful design suggestive of royal breakfasts & very dainty fingers. I prefer to fancy it belonging to the fair artist-princess rather than to her selfish, fat papa. Speaking of artists, what a singular chance that brought you & Akers together. I should like to have known [p. 2] how the Louvre impressed him with its mile of pictures & vast halls of statuary. Was he humbled a little in his rather too high opinion of himself, or only inspired to go & do likewise. Tilton, who is more modest, must have been abashed by that overwhelming unfolding of the history of his art – its triumphs & it horrors – but he might be consoled by visiting the modern Exhibition which I believe has usurped Louis Philippes old quarters of the Tuilleries [sic]. How beautiful is the sight of the Louvre’s splendid gallery open to all. Ah how often I have slipped over its glassy floor to the warm Italian climate at the bottom & there lingered & luxuriated in that mellow beauty – enjoying the fair artists copying on every side – but the sculpture gallery I could never enjoy, it had a chill, dismal aspect so unlike the Italian ones, the sunny Vatican & damask-lined Inburne.
You will see by the papers what a [p. 3] furor Kossuth’s wonderful eloquence & most interesting cause have excited in New York. The hesitating welcome Congress was offering him gave Sumner a fine opportunity to make his maiden speech, which was very calm & temperate & expressing the warmest sympathy for the man, gracefully touching upon his remarkable career & triumphal voyage from Turkey thro England &c but upholding decisively the non-intervention policy of Washington. It was a very good beginning for him, & was listened to with the greatest attention & has been praised even by hostile papers. Conservative Boston, cold-hearted too in regard to any European struggle, has no sympathy for Kossuth or his cause, & I hope, for his sake, he wont [sic] come here, tho I should very much like to see the hero of our age. His speeches on so many different occasions, to the clergy, to the ladies, to the lawyers &c show a wonderful tact & readiness of allusion & a command of English which, for a foreigner & an man of so anxious suffering a life [p. 4] as his has been without a day’s time for preparation & really ill from exhaustion & affection [sic] of the lungs, are almost super human. He thinks England & America have only to say to the Czar – “Keep at home – fair play –“ & he is not strong enough to laugh at their word – but if he does, comes war, which we do not so much like to risk, but he has large sums offered him daily by private persons & cannot but raise a great interest in his cause. This French news will fire the brain perhaps in all Europe he says must burn soon without escape & which he thinks will be the last battle if the people triumph. This comes in time to wish you a merry Xmas & “Happy New Year” which we all do from our hearts. Scherb is with us for a day or two & we go tonight to hear Emerson’s first lecture on the “Conduct of Life” subject Fate. Henry’s “Golden Legend” has sold admirably but we hardly know how well it is liked. It is so peculiar, it will take people some time to find out. I am very glad you have the Brownings in Paris – they must be worth cultivating. When Lizzie & Alex were here (is she not a very pleasing person?) we went to Brookline one day & I saw your friend Higginson & his wife there. I told him to write you. Hale I saw often at the Jenny Lind concerts (to which she sent us tickets) and they were most delicious.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#041
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1851 (1011/002.001-021), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1851 (1011/002.001-021), (LONG-FileUnitName)
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Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Code: LONG
Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
Latitude: 42.3769989013672, Longitude: -71.1264038085938
NPS Museum Number Catalog : LONG 20257
Title: Finding Aid to the Frances Elizabeth Appleton Longfellow (1817-1861) Papers, 1825-1961 (bulk dated: 1832-1861)
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
URL: https://www.nps.gov/long/learn/historyculture/archives.htm#FEAL
2016-01-30
12/22/1851
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1851. (1011/002.001-021#041)
Public Can View
Organization: Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Address: 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: LONG_archives@nps.gov
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:42:25 PM
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 5:42:25 PM
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