518 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1863, 



TO B. W. CHURCH. 



CAMBRIDGE, December 25, 1863. 



For ourselves, your letter found us here just on the 

 eve of our month's holiday, a trip to Lake George, 

 and thence to my natal region, in the most beautiful 

 (and the most English-looking) part of the State of 

 New York. . . . My wife was well enough to do her 

 small part in a great fair held in Boston for the 

 United States Sanitary Commission (which has kept 

 the ladies very busy for the last six months), which 

 has just closed, having brought the net proceeds of 

 about 1125,000 (it turns out $140,000) for the relief 

 of suffering. 



As to our national affairs, I should like now and 

 then to send you such comments or articles as seem to 

 me to throw most light upon our condition. There is 

 little I could say in a letter. I said very early to 

 English friends that if the rebellion were short it 

 might leave things much as they were before (no de- 

 sirable state), but if long and obstinate, it would cut 

 the knot we were unable to untie and completely de- 

 stroy the slave system. You see now it is coming to 

 pass, by rather slow but sure steps, and a great bless- 

 ing it is to be to the South. To the North the war, 

 with all its sad evils, has been a great good, morally 

 and politically. The end is in the hands of Provi- 

 dence, and we humbly wait for it ; but there is very 

 little diversity of opinion here as to what, essentially, 

 the end is to be, that is, the complete territorial rein- 

 statement of the Union, and the abolition of slavery. 

 Very sanguine, you think, in England. We must 

 wait and see, and on our part hope and labor. 



Now for a little personal matter. I have long been 

 anxious for the safety and final destination of my 



