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Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 27 June 1848
Manuscript letter
Cambridge.
June 27th /48
Dear Tom,
Henry thanks you very warmly for your entertaining letter, which he intends speedily to answer himself. We get quite impatient to hear by every steamer & do not understand why you have not got our letters, as we have written pretty regularly. While you are watching the growth of the Republic, to cast which it seems necessary to throw in all the pots & pans, as well as the nobler vessells [sic] of the country to use [p. 2] a much abused comparison, of which Cellini was I believe the creator, we are Tayloring & tinkering at ours – I hope it is not much out of repair, but it is in the melancholy predicament of having no head offered [crossed out: offered] it worthy of its body. The factions of principles – ie the “conscience-Whigs” of Massachusetts, & the “Barn-burners” of the other States, Ohio, New York &c are making a great rally to oppose Taylor & Cass, - & Van Buren may possibly win the day for lack of a better. These barnburners have a very revolutionary sound, but are in fact the reformers [p. 3] of the democratic party, & mean to lift it from the mire. But, perhaps, you will have time to read something of this in the papers.
We have been enjoying delicious, breezy, June weather & have not yet suffered with the heat. Mary looks much better & the children gain daily.
We have been passing the day with Sarah Lawrence, who has a charming cottage on the Lynn cliff overlooking the beach She drove us to Nahant, where we engaged lodging opposite Mr Tudors for a week, before we go to Pittsfield, which we shall do about the 15th of July. [p. 4] Father has kindly engaged for us at P. the Melville house on the Lenox road, which takes boarders, & we hope to pass the vacation there comfortably. Robert has given a ball since Mary left to a ship crew of officers &c, & it went of famously. Jewett is still at Uncle Sams, who wants to keep him, but he fights shy, not being willing to accept any cage even of golden wires. Cambridge has been shocked by the suicide of young Phillips, Mrs Beck’s son, who killed himself, for no especial reason, at Brattleboro’ – leaving his large fortune between his cousin, young friends & the Observatory. His funeral took place here in the ev’g during a raging thunderstorm to add to the horror. I hope your volcano is pretty peaceable just now. I would not let [p. 1 cross] this steamer go without a line, but am too tired from my day’s expedition to add more. We took Mary to the Deacons Saturday & were shown the chambers which are as splendid as the rest.
Good bye –
Henry’s & Mary’s love ever thy affte
Fanny E.L.
Since I began this Mary has got, per Express, your letter which she much thanks you for. I am sorry in heart there is no higher dawn for the Republic, & cannot give up faith in Lamartine. Being a conservative Republican why he should be implicated with Louis Blanc puzzles me extremely.
June 27th /48
Dear Tom,
Henry thanks you very warmly for your entertaining letter, which he intends speedily to answer himself. We get quite impatient to hear by every steamer & do not understand why you have not got our letters, as we have written pretty regularly. While you are watching the growth of the Republic, to cast which it seems necessary to throw in all the pots & pans, as well as the nobler vessells [sic] of the country to use [p. 2] a much abused comparison, of which Cellini was I believe the creator, we are Tayloring & tinkering at ours – I hope it is not much out of repair, but it is in the melancholy predicament of having no head offered [crossed out: offered] it worthy of its body. The factions of principles – ie the “conscience-Whigs” of Massachusetts, & the “Barn-burners” of the other States, Ohio, New York &c are making a great rally to oppose Taylor & Cass, - & Van Buren may possibly win the day for lack of a better. These barnburners have a very revolutionary sound, but are in fact the reformers [p. 3] of the democratic party, & mean to lift it from the mire. But, perhaps, you will have time to read something of this in the papers.
We have been enjoying delicious, breezy, June weather & have not yet suffered with the heat. Mary looks much better & the children gain daily.
We have been passing the day with Sarah Lawrence, who has a charming cottage on the Lynn cliff overlooking the beach She drove us to Nahant, where we engaged lodging opposite Mr Tudors for a week, before we go to Pittsfield, which we shall do about the 15th of July. [p. 4] Father has kindly engaged for us at P. the Melville house on the Lenox road, which takes boarders, & we hope to pass the vacation there comfortably. Robert has given a ball since Mary left to a ship crew of officers &c, & it went of famously. Jewett is still at Uncle Sams, who wants to keep him, but he fights shy, not being willing to accept any cage even of golden wires. Cambridge has been shocked by the suicide of young Phillips, Mrs Beck’s son, who killed himself, for no especial reason, at Brattleboro’ – leaving his large fortune between his cousin, young friends & the Observatory. His funeral took place here in the ev’g during a raging thunderstorm to add to the horror. I hope your volcano is pretty peaceable just now. I would not let [p. 1 cross] this steamer go without a line, but am too tired from my day’s expedition to add more. We took Mary to the Deacons Saturday & were shown the chambers which are as splendid as the rest.
Good bye –
Henry’s & Mary’s love ever thy affte
Fanny E.L.
Since I began this Mary has got, per Express, your letter which she much thanks you for. I am sorry in heart there is no higher dawn for the Republic, & cannot give up faith in Lamartine. Being a conservative Republican why he should be implicated with Louis Blanc puzzles me extremely.
Archives Number: 1011/002.001-018#020
U. S. National Park Service
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Correspondence (1011/002), (LONG-SeriesName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1848 (1011/002.001-018), (LONG-FileUnitName)
, Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001), (LONG-SubseriesName)
, 1848 (1011/002.001-018), (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
06/27/1848
Manuscript letter in Frances Appleton Longfellow Papers, Series II. Correspondence, A. Outgoing, 1848. (1011/002.001-018#020)
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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
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