File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Charles Sumner, 13 September 1844 (81ab19a0-864a-4e4a-b13c-efdb6dc2977a).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-014#023

Castle Craigie. Sep. 13th 1844.
Dear Charles,
Finding you intend to linger longer among the Berkshire hills I will not wait to tell you viva voce how delighted we are to learn that you are improving so rapidly & surely. I have always had the greatest faith in that air – there is magic in it – or what is better than magic, life-giving purity, & I longed to send you to breathe it the moment you were able to leave Boston. I feel personally obliged to it for doing its duty so faithfully, and am also very glad that you are near the Sedgwicks – for they can ‘create a soul under the ribs of death’ be the climate what it may.
Hillard dined with us yesterday with Crawford & Felton, & gave us the welcome news of your intention to pitch your tent at Lenox after Father’s departure. How I wish the vacation could have been stretched out a little longer that we might have joined you there. Crawford passed the night with us and has just returned to Boston. At first he rather suggests the country school-master which Hillard took him for but improves, like most good things, with time. He appears to have a very energetic character, & I should think would mould the yielding Louisa as easily as his clay – but will she stay in any [p. 2] fixed shape, & is he not subjected to a cruel ordeal in his present position here? I cannot help feeling very anxious for him, as he has an ardent and sensitive nature - & knows his own mind, I fear, better than she does. hers. We introduced young Tiffany & his drawings to him last night, & had a very agreeable artistical talk. He has left here the engraving of a monumental statue of Washington he has modelled in case it should be wanted. It is simple & dignified, & the dress military, & yet not a uniform, would satisfy all tastes very well – a cannon & balls are behind his feet – one hand touches his sword in its scabbard, & the other holds a scroll, the “Declaration of Independance.” [sic] It is dedicated to Mr Sparks.
Henry drove Emmeline & myself to Waltham a few days since, & we sat with Mary as long as we thought it right to excite her with conversation. She is sadly changed since I last saw her but possibly her cap gave her a strange look to me =; she seemed peaceful & gentle as ever - & enjoyed the fruit & flowers we brought her as she always does the fair things of the world she is leaving. Her life stream will mingle almost imperceptibly with the great Sea bearing along its own pure element unstained by the “muddy banks of Time,” & while our hearts almost forget to grieve in watching the beautiful & peaceful flowing forth of her spirit it will be swallowed up in Eternity.
[p. 3] It is very fortunate she has such kind neighbours in Mrs Lyman & Miss Joy, but I wish she were more comfortably lodged – that her room was more spacious & her couch softer, but she uttered no complaint.
Henry has been honored with a proposition to nominate him to Congress to fight the battles of the Liberty party. Fancy him in the hall of Representatives with a pedestal of 5000000 petitions for the abolition of slavery. He declines the honor as too unworthy for their champion – fighting under no party banner.
The hammers & paint pots have at last retreated to the rear, & we have a room to offer you whenever you feel inclined to accept it, but I will not urge your return while you are [un]der such good influences. Pray be very prudent about those mountain mists – and do not be beguiled into evening walks, for the dew is heavy as rain & not half so amicable.
With much love to the Sedgwicks, Mrs Butler &c ever affly yrs
Fanny L.
Henry sends his love & best wishes but has no eyes to write. Felton thinks of turning his Venus out of doors in the expectation that we shall give her a shrine. What a faithless heathen he is becoming. He has begun to patronise [sic] Paul, not the Saint but the upholsterer, & in time we may see him a Christian. This resignation of his household gods however – is it a good or bad sign?
ADDRESSED: CHARLES SUMNER ESQ. / CARE OF CHARLES SEDGWICK ESQ. / LENOX. / MASS.
POSTMARK: BOSTON / SEP 13 / MASS.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; health and illness; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1844 (1011/002.001-014); (LONG-FileUnitName)