288 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



I am very much obliged to you for the intensely inter- 

 esting narrative of the plot of the assassins, and of the 

 manner in which it was providentially defeated.* How 

 desperately wicked has been this rebellion from its first 

 hour to the present. It has been exceeded in wicked- 

 ness by only one conspiracy, and that was the first in the 

 order of time : its leader was an able captain, but he was 

 beaten and thrown over the battlements of heaven. I 

 trust it is not unchristian to wish the leader of the present 

 rebellion may meet with a similar fate. 



You allude to the efforts in behalf of the liberated 

 slaves, and among the results of this struggle we may re- 

 gard the spirit of benevolence which it has excited as an 

 important benefit, and perhaps in no direction more im- 

 portant than on behalf of the immense host which must be 

 protected, relieved, and directed by great efforts, both of 

 government and individuals 



TO MISS QUINCY. 



NEW HAVEN, December 5, 1862. 



YOUR remark respecting our transient friend- 

 ships is most painfully true, as my long life has enabled me 

 fully to realize ; but there is a friendship which time can- 

 not destroy, and which will revive and flourish in a better 

 world. I hardly know whether to congratulate your nephew 

 and his friends on his promotion to higher duties in this 

 dreadful struggle. We cannot doubt that he will honor 

 the eminent ancestor whose commission, revealed after the 

 repose of a century, must appear to him almost as if he 

 were hailed from another world, and told to go forward 

 and to do his duty well, as no doubt he will. My best 

 wishes attend him 



* The plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln on his way to "Washington, just 

 before his first inauguration. F. 



