File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Mary (Appleton) Mackintosh, 28 August 1854 (0095e53a-3a2d-49dc-90ed-14f3345d3446).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-024#011

Nahant, Aug 28th 1854
Dear Mary,
I hope you have heard from Robert by this time his plans for the winter, & have yr mind at rest. We are thinking he may take us on his way back & most welcome will he be.
Papa & Henry have both had long letters from Mr Dillon[?] (who arrived in New York after a rough passage) & have both answered them, the former quite at length, & considering his hopelessness of any improvement in the African race, very moderately. Mr D. speaks of American cooperation in his beneficent[?] scheme &they are puzzled to know whether he means by this pecuniary aid which can hardly be for England can certainly supply that with her great sympathy for [p. 2] the cause especially among the higher classes. I do not understand why he wishes Americans to do anything. We have assisted Father Hanson, a black man who has done much for some of the fugitives [illeg] Canada in the way of schools & preaching & I lately subscribed for a Methodist church. It is a very striking idea to try to educate the negroes in a cold climate but his experiment is, I see by the paper, likely to be hampered by the peculiar prejudice against the color so common in the northern States which I hoped was not felt in Canada. The poor fugitives need work & bread before books I believe, many are in sad want. The Nebraska bill has caused a grand emigration movement of free whites to settle there & in Kansas & so get possession of the land that slavery will get no foothold. This has been done by many in a spirit of self-sacrifice, leaving comfortable homes to enter the wilderness, & is so like [p. 3] the Pilgrim enthusiasm which peopled N. England that it deserves a like success. So from evil may come good, but this administration seems resolved to sink itself to the lowest point (witness the Gey[?]-town affair) &is thoroughly despised by all the decent men of all parties in the country.
I have seen Mrs Follen [?] looking very well & Charley very handsome. She very much enjoyed her sight of you, she spoke gratefully of your present. That reminds me that I forgot if I have yet thanked you for the very beautiful veil you sent me & which Mr Bates brought.
I have a note from Clough acknowledging the gifts. Hawthorne had to pay duties on them for us which detained them &as the duties amounted to [pounds]3 we wish it could have been added to the presents instead of to her Majesty’s Exchequer. Such a trifling bit of sentiment ought to go free.
I have made the acquaintance here of Sir Alexander & Lady Bannerman who are passing the summer on their way to [p. 4] the Bahamas he is the new Governor & has been that of Prince Edwards Island. He is an Aberdeen merchant & looks rather broken down. She rather pompous tho’ sensible. They have a nice modest neice. [sic] They go to a delightful climate I should think, not too tropical & look forward to it with pleasure.
Mr Agassiz gave us a delightful lecture, the other ev’g at the Hotel, to an attentive audience (think of that at a watering place!) about the geology of Nahant which his earnest enthusiasm turned quite into eloquence. It was in the dining room which held the 1,000 people comfortably. Papa came over, & all the cottages went. The frosty weather we now have is made comfortable at the Hotel by a furnace & there is no reason why it should be deserted. We have had so good an offer for our house (from Edmund Dwight who marries Miss Coolidge) that Henry is half tempted to go ahead to secure it—a young couple with no children & persons of taste who would respect the books &c- but with so young a baby I should not like an autumnal passage. You do not write about Miss Davy, [sic] so if she gets a good chance she will take it as we leave [p. 5] here in about a fortnight. There is a gentleman from Cincinnati now here wishing a governess for one little girl which might turn into a good thing for her. Tom is still here very busy sketching in oil from nature & taking out damsels & dames in his carriage to picnics &c.
We have been suffering dreadfully with dust & drought, & everything is perishing for want of rain. Fires are raging in several States in the woods consuming every thing & no man can stop them—even surrounding houses. Baby has two teeth & is beginning to creep—is as fair as a lily &has the sweetest, confiding smile—She is very good &has been quite well all summer. Alice is rather fretful & thin & dark as an Indian, but over wise in look & speech. Charley as fond as ever of his boat. I did not venture to tell him of Ronny’s naval ambition for fear of exciting the same.
Mrs Story I am glad to hear expects an accouchement in October—Mrs Howe too. Henry has got a beautiful illustrated Golden Legend from England. I had a pleasant dinner at Mrs Paiges sitting next Mr Prescott the other day Yr aff
F.E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; nahant; ma; united states; places; subject; family life; slavery; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1854 (1011/002.001-024); (LONG-FileUnitName)