MEMOIR OF DANIEL TREADWELL. 



4 



For me, I have but little to look to but to eke out my short remnant in the most comfortable 

 way. I shall now most likely reach the seventieth milestone, as it is in plain sight, and all that 

 is beyond that " threescore and ten" is, according to the Psalmist, as translated by Dr. Watts, 

 " sorrow, toil, and pain." Well, I hope not, " but what must be will be." I am wreath obliged 



_. v ..V V V^-»^ 



to you for your pressing invitation to us to make you a visit- The truth is, I have been thinking 

 of it, and hoping that Mrs. T. would be well enough to enable us to accomplish it for several 

 months past; and now, without promising to do it, I lay out, after the hot weather is over, say 

 about the 1st of September, to take the steamer to New York, and, after resting a night or two 



in the city, go out and have a day or two with you and Mrs. Sweetser. But I will see, and of 

 course write to you again about it when the time comes. You see that I have thus far filled my 

 letter all about " I, me, and us." Now for you and Mrs. Sweetser. It gives me great pleasure 

 to see, from the tone of your letter, that you are about as happy as one ought to export to be. 

 With good health, a pleasant retirement, and, if without great riches, without any pressing anx- 

 iety for being assured the comforts of life, what more, but a philosophical spirit, which you have, 

 can you desire ? Jupiter reigneth, and will take care of all as he must. 



I hope you will not worry yourself about the war, and what is to come out of it. I finished 

 my lamentations for the country months, if not years ago. We have been going in political de- 

 moralization and corruption for forty or fifty years, and now the end cometh. Sooner indeed 

 than I expected, but I have always said it could not be very far off. Great communities must 

 have masters other than the people, and we are but going over the old story, — liberty, corrup- 

 tion, anarchy, despotism. We are now passing from the second into the third stage of our 

 progress. You seem to be out of temper with the South, or the Southern demagogues. Rascals, 

 you call them. Perhaps, if a trial were made for showing the greatest number of rascals, we 

 could beat them all hollow. This state of things was, in my mind, brought on by the Abolition- 

 ists (and I look upon all, or almost all, the Eepublicans, here in Massachusetts at least, as 

 Abolitionists in substance) more than by the Carolinians. We threw the first stone at the 

 Constitution. But mad, mad, is the word for both sides, and by this the country is divided, 

 and never to be joined again. Mr. Longfellow is recovering from his severe burns, but 

 Cambridge yet shudders at the thought of the poor lady. 



My very best regards to Mrs. Sweetser, and Mrs. Treadwell's to both of you. I remain 

 ever faithfully yours, 



Daniel Treadwell. 



To Dr. William Sweetser. 



Cambridge, January 25, lrfG2. 



My dear old Friend, — I have suffered a great deal for some time from the reproaches of my 

 conscience for having neglected to write to you, and thank you most sincerely for not reproach- 



ived yesterday. I could not have blamed you if you had 

 ungrateful neglect. But I assure you that, if I have failed 



me 



most 



m) 



and always with the best wishes and hopes for your continued life, health, and happiness. For 



man 



I think cares much about me, or perhaps I ought to say most about me. It was therefore a great 

 pleasure to me to find, as I did by your letter, that you are well, and enjoying life in the same 

 quiet way that you were in at our most pleasant visit last autumn. For me and Mrs. Treadwell 

 we have been, since then, in our usual uncertain health. I was much down soon after my return 



