File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Nathan Appleton, 4 May 1851 (7b78f3fe-f3f0-40c7-8970-c8514bf905c8).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#015

Cambridge May 4th 1851.
Dear papa,
Many many thanks for your letter from Antigua which gave us great pleasure. Rarely do you indulge us with one so full of matter, it is most pleasant to us to know you have been so happy with Mary & found every thing so agreeable. Jewett’s letter, too, despite its impertinence, for which I hope he will be brought to his knees at least once a day while in the British dominions, was very interesting in details & pictures of the scenery, so I think I have now a far fuller idea than ever before of Mary’s life & position there, - and can, by no means, consider it a very dull one. Compared to mine it must be full of interest, and the regulation of a [p. 2] government not too burdensome must be quite to Robert’s mind. We hoped to hear your cough had entirely left you under the soft influences you have been subjected to so long, & I trust we shall yet before you leave the tropics. Our Merlin letters have not yet arrived. I write early, as Harriot was fearful of any delay.
We have had quite exciting times in Boston since you left, tho’ the papers much exaggerated everything, & give me a pretty fair idea of how foreign revolutions were over stated. The seizure of a supposed slave & his summary trial without judge or jury & return to slavery was thought, by many, a great indignity in Massachusetts, & the Court House was chained against an imaginary riot, & he was marched off with 300 policemen as guard, but all this the Daily will tell you tho’ I could wish in a fairer spring [p. 3] for young Hale has not the discretion of his father & writes many false & violent things. It caused a great indignation throughout the State, where Northern freedom is thought as important a matter as Southern slavery, tho’ of course no opposition was intended by force. It rather helped Sumner’s election, which I fear will not give you much pleasure, but you can feel sure that whatever he does, as Senator, will be dictated by a sincere conviction & an earnest desire conviction & an earnest desire to do right & a statesmanlike broad view. He did not wish it, & would gladly resign now if his party could choose a man of the same opinions in his place, for he has no political ambition whatever, & was more depressed at the moment of his success than during the long & doubtful contest. I think all his enemies will do him violence some day, for they now singularly misunderstand him & we [p. 4] are in a position to judge him with peculiar impartiality. So much for politics. We dined the other day with Uncle Wm to meet young Gordon Dexter Harriet’s fiancé, a good-looking amiable youth but I fancy rather a lazy one. She looked very prettily & seems very happy & it is a pleasant connection to me from my old friendship with his mother. We took the children yesterday to see a grand spectacle at the Museum & which they highly enjoyed. They are all well & much [crossed out: enjoy] delighting in the Spring weather, often chilled by east winds however. May day saddened many little hearts by a pouring rain. Jewetts Bermuda letter was very good, stamping more vividly the appreciations with the Tempest than has been done before. Another Cuban attempt bodes very serious. O’Sullivan is implicated which seems very strange. The handsome Spanish Sec Bañuelos is to be married to Miss Thorndike in June. Sir Henry Bulwer made a brilliant speech at the St George dinner – rather severe on the Irish here, which they are so angry about they have asked the President to advise his recall! [p. 1 cross] We have had Tupper, tell Jewett, a little man quite upset with vanity & a notion of his great fame in this country. I wish you had Hawthorne’s “Seven Gables.” It is a book of true genius. Perhaps Harriot can send it. Did Mary’s box reach her?
Kind remembrances to Jewett –
ever yr loving
Fanny
ENDORSED: FANNY. / MAY 4. 51.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; social life; subject; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1851 (1011/002.001-021); (LONG-FileUnitName)