554 LETTERS TO DARWIN AND OTHERS. [1867, 



I have said over and over that it startled me. Then 

 it hits so many nails square on the head that I should 

 think it could be written only in Cambridge or here- 

 abouts. 



It is generally supposed to be written by a person in 

 New York, but I suspect a person near by here, — 

 only suspect. . . . 



Yes, Magnolia seeds hang out awhile in autumn, 

 finally stretch and break the threads of spiral vessels. 

 Whether birds eat them I don't know. They look 

 enticing and have a pulpy coat, are bitter and spicy. 



Shall I send you more of these circulars ? 



I shall send to Indian people too. 



TO CHARLES WEIGHT. 



AprU 2, 186t 



I sent your twenty dollars to aid the subscription for 

 the starving Southerners. There have been handsome 

 sums raised for them in the Northern States. But 

 I am afraid you must get most imperfect and one- 

 sided statements of the doings of Congress by the tone 

 of your letters, and decidedly need enlightenment. It 

 is the President, not Congress, that needs to learn the 

 Constitution and the laws of the land. And your 

 Southern loyal friends, if you could get voice of them, 

 would beg Congress to take even more urgent steps 

 for their protection and defense by reconstruction. 

 However, things seem to be going on now pretty satis- 

 factorily. The President is sinking into his deserved 

 insignificance, and the leading rebels are coming out 

 decidedly more sensibly than many of their professed 

 Northern friends. And we hope, therefore, that they 

 may begin to give some fair chance to the loyal men 

 of the South to be heard and to get their rights, which 



