^T. 55.] TO R. W. CHURCH. 535 



November 16, 1865. 



Now do not be startled at a letter from me written 

 the very evening of the day in which arrived your 

 pleasant favor of the 1st inst. For to-day I also re- 

 ceived the inclosed official letter, which has been lying, 

 I suppose, for want of your address. And so I send 

 it forward at once. 



In fact, the fund raised for the support of the her- 

 barium^ (nearly 111,000) has been till very lately re- 

 tained in the hands of the gentleman who took charge 

 of raising it, in the form of a good investment, and 

 is now at length made over to the corporation of the 

 university in trust. Your M I turned in at the time 

 when exchange was at the highest (i. e., our currency 

 most depreciated), so it figures as fifty dollars, — 

 quite a sum, — and for it, as for the rest of the capital, 

 we get, up to 1881, six per cent per annum in gold, 

 if the United States government lasts. And we now 

 feel confident enough of that. 



Your letters are always very pleasant to us, and 

 that of to-day is very gratifying. 



Yes, we, too, should not have said this was the 

 way in which we would have had slavery destroyed, — 

 by no means. We wished it by a slow process which 

 would have cost no life, injured no property, but ben- 

 efited all as it went on. But our misguided Southern 

 brethren would have it otherwise, and so it was. 

 And it is something to be glad of, after all, that it 

 was done in our day, and we think thoroughly. I take 

 a weekly newspaper, the " Nation," which is on the 

 plan of the " Spectator " and the " Saturday Re- 

 view," etc., but we have few good paragraph-writers, 

 and our best writers will not write. But this paper 

 may interest you, at least in the letters of its corre- 



