A cycle of Adams letters, 1861-1865 (1920) (14592803337)

Henry Sturgis Russell
Identifier: cycleofadamslett02ford (find matches)
Title: A cycle of Adams letters, 1861-1865
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Ford, Worthington Chauncey, 1858-1941 Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886 Adams, Henry, 1838-1918 Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company
Contributing Library: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign



Text Appearing Before Image:
, 1865 Within this week a curious change has again comeover my plans. In my last I was comfortably disposingof myself for a summers enjoyment in a snug, pleasantstaff place. The very next day I got a cool letter fromColonel Russell informing me that he had resigned andwas on the point of leaving the regiment. This makesme full Colonel, and in so far is pleasant enough, but Iregard it as decidedly a promotion down stairs as be-tween the command of my regiment and the positionI might have held in the Second Corps staff. . . . Charles Francis Adams to his Son London, February 17, 1865 The Canada brought out the account of the peacecommissioners from Richmond, and the coming out ofMr. Seward to meet them, with the President in thebackground. The effect was to create a general impres-sion that peace was at once to follow. The conster-nation was extraordinary. The public funds fell. Allsorts of securities, except the rebel loan and the UnitedStates stocks, went down. The price of cotton was
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LIEUTENANT-COLONEL HENRY STURGIS RUSSELL 1865) A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS 257 lower by four cents a pound and hardly any could bebought even at that. You would have thought that agreat calamity had befallen the good people of Eng-land. What would have happened, had the storylasted, I should not dare to say. Happily for the dis-tressed nerves of our friends, the next day broughtthem a little relief. A steamer had come with threedays later news. It was not so bad as they had feared.The conference had dispersed re infecta. There wouldbe no peace. Hurrah. The papers of this morning areall congratulating the public that the war will go onindefinitely. The Times pathetically laments that itcan foresee no end of it, excepting in the mutualexhaustion of the parties! i.e., the very end which itmost desires to see! Such is the spectacle of alterna-tions of hope and fear about our misfortunes, whichthis people is doomed to present to us for some monthsto come! I do not envy the figure it will make