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scteeidaanaiindnedah iad decree 
XT. 53.) TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 517 
country will prosper wonderfully. And the South 
will get to be something. 
December 1. 
Things move on. 
“The mills of the Gods grind slow, but they grind 
exceeding fine.” Wait in Cuba a year longer, and 
you may return to a country in which slavery, having 
tried to get more, has lost all, and as a system is 
defunct, to the lasting benefit of all parties. 
You might now revisit your old Texan haunts, 
under General Banks’s protection. 
The November elections show a united North. 
Peace democracy has made its issue, and is dead. 
The reélection of Lincoln by acclamation seems prob- 
able, supported by moderate men of all sorts, the ex- 
tremes of the opposing parties alone going against 
him. 
Merry Christmas to you. 
January 21, 1864. 
By the steamer of Saturday, which takes this, a 
good young fellow, Mr. Kennedy, a member of our 
Senior class, goes to Cuba, to look after business of 
his father, and, when he can, to botanize, only four or 
five weeks, that is, in vacation. He is very fond of 
botany, and bids fair to be a botanist some day, if he 
does not take to money-making instead. . . . 
This war, we think, will be pretty much over next 
summer; and then, back in the Union, with slavery 
pretty much nowhere, by the hearty wish of a ma- 
jority of the people, we may expect a career of pros- 
perity and real advance of the South, such as it has 
never known. At least we hope so. 
