CONCERNING THE WAR. 577 



missing, but one may easily infer its tenor, 

 and the pleasure it had given him. 



TO SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON. 



NAHANT, MASS., August 15, 1862. 

 ... I feel so thankful for your words of 

 sympathy, that I lose not an hour in express- 

 ing my feeling. It has been agonizing week 

 after week to receive the English papers, and 

 to see there the noble devotion of the men of 

 the North to their country and its govern- 

 ment, branded as the service of mercenaries. 

 You know I am not much inclined to meddle 

 with politics ; but I can tell you that I have 

 never seen a more generous and prompt re- 

 sponse to the call of country than was ex- 

 hibited last year, and is exhibiting now, in the 

 loyal United States. In the last six weeks 

 nearly 300,000 men have volunteered, and I 

 am satisfied that the additional 300,000 will 

 be forthcoming without a draft in the course 

 of the next month. And believe me, it is not 

 for the sake of the bounty they come forward, 

 for our best young men are the first to enlist ; 

 if anything can be objected to these large 

 numbers of soldiers, it is that it takes away 

 the best material that the land possesses. I 

 thank you once more for your warm sympathy. 



37 



