Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

162 LETTERS.
pursuit. The young Hungarian reined in his horse,
and called to the slave, " Jump up, and hold on by
me!" She sprang on the horse, and they galloped
away, under a shower of wrathful words from the mistress. When they rode into the Kansas camp, all the
soldiers threw up their caps and hurrahed, and Colonel Montgomery called out,'" Three cheers for the
Union! " The young Hungarian, Cassimir, is a sort
of adopted son of one of my relatives, to whom he
wrote the story.
It is well that war has some pleasant pictures.
TO MIISS LUCY OSGOOD.
WAYLAND, 1862.
I thank you heartily for thinking of me at New
Year's time. The echo of "hand clapping," which
you heard when news came of the capture of Port
Royal, was not from me. I have had but one approach to a pleasurable sensation connected with public affairs since this war began, and that was when
I read Fremnont's proclamation. He acknowledged
the slaves as "men." Nobody else, except the old
Garrisonian abolitionists, seems to have the faintest
idea that they have any rights which we are bound
to recognize. They are to be freed or not, according
to our necessities or convenience, and then we are to
do what we please with them, without consulting their
interest or convenience. It is the same hateful proslavery spirit everywhere. I felt very little interest
in the capture of Mason and Slidell. It did not seem
to me of much consequence, especially as their dispatches were carried to Europe. Living up here
in Wayland, at a distance from cities and railroads,
is very conducive to quietude of mind, which is in