File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 9 October 1849 (9de4a340-2c5f-48c7-b130-4449ecefb9fd).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-019#027

Cambridge Oct 9th 1849.
Dearest Tom,
I hoped you would have a letter from Henry instead of from me this time but as an Irish bard has been consuming his morning there is no time left for him. It is so long since I have written to you directly that the steamer must not go without a line hurried tho’ it will be. I have not thanked you except thro’ Mary for your entertaining letters & charming picture. The latter hangs in the dining room over the sideboard & is very pleasant to our eyes, having a tranquillizing influence upon digestion & in keeping with whatever game may lie before us. I confess the melancholy suicide would have had rather a contrary effect. We have sent that back to be deposited in your room.
[p. 2] There is not much news in Boston I believe. Hillard’s speech at the Whig Convention is much praised. It is eloquent & candid & gives a high tone to the Whig party I should be glad to think it possessed. Still it is strictly conservative. It proposes nothing to be done to stay the mighty evil, simply stand still. I confess I like the idea of the Free Soil party to put the federal government distinctly on the side of freedom in all future acts, - but as the New Yorkers have proved unfaithful (tho they think they can convert the old Hawkers by joining them) they will have much to contend with.
Emmeline has another boy! She is at Geneseo & will remain there though the winter. Elizabeth W. passed thro’ Boston the other day on her way to the White Mts & must have had a week of storm for her journey. I did not see her but hear [p. 3] that John Van Buren is warmly in pursuit of her – no new thing however. She must be much persecuted in that way. The greatest piece of news is Margaret Fuller’s [crossed out] marriage to an Italian marquis – poor as herself – a secret marriage of a year’s standing & a baby is actually alive to confirm it! This somewhat accounts for her ardent sympathy in the Italian cause, her nursing, or rather talking, in the hospitals for she naïvely confessed she had rather talk with convalescent than nurse the wounded. Crawford says, however, hers is the only true account of those days, of the universal devotion of the people, & all can share her enthusiasm. Louis Napoleon deserves a St Helena as well as his Uncle except that it would be doing him too much honor. He simply deserves a vigorous use of the toe of the boot he has so abused. May his own pinch him well! I fear [p. 4] his letter to Ney was only a theatrical flourish. It must have been very pleasant for you to see so much of Cabden. What a droll collection of people for quiet little Earl Bourne! Fox’ presence makes it very rich. You should have heard Felton’s roar when I told him. Motley has written a very fair article in the last N.A. on the Puritans reviewing the book of the blue Mrs Robinson whom you once so valiantly defended against the robbers. Bowen wrote to me on the French steamers & is rather serene on the literary herres. Mrs Butler is at last divorced with her own consent, her husband giving her a yearly sum & two months of the children. She is now reading in Philadelphia as Mrs. F. A. Kemble. Young Mrs David Sears is getting her house ready at Longwood & hopes all the world will visit her as freely as if in town. She got some of Mrs Wiggins fine things – many of which sold very low. Jewett is established in Boston for the winter at the corner of Beacon St opposite the Crowninshields. He likes it well & is a lively as ever. [p. 1 cross] Uncle Aaron with his wife were down a few days ago & what should the gallant old gentleman do but present her with a diamond ring! She said secretly – Oh that it had been a pair of castors!
Sawin is here so I must stop. He is going alas to California! Good by
Love to Mary
Yr affte
Fanny EL.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1849 (1011/002.001-019); (LONG-FileUnitName)