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

LETTERS. 171
gets argued and listened to in all quarters now is the
most encouraging feature of the times. I try to forget Bull Runs and Fredericksburg retreats, and think
only of the increasing rapidity of moral progress.
Human hands blunder shockingly; but the Divine
Hand is overruling all in infinite wisdom.
TO MRS. S. B. SHAW.
1863.
As for the President's proclamation, I was thankful for it, but it excited no enthusiasm in my mind.
With my gratitude to God was mixed an under-tone
of sadness that the moral sense of the people was so
low that the thing could not be done nobly. However we may inflate the emancipation balloon, it will
never ascend among the constellations. The ugly
fact cannot be concealed that it was done reluctantly
and stintedly, and that even the degree that was accomplished was done selfishly; was merely a war
measure, to which we were forced by our own perils
and necessities; and that no recognition of principles
of justice or humanity surrounded the politic act with
a halo of moral glory. This war has furnished many
instances of individual nobility, but our national record is mean.
But notwithstanding these misgivings, I am truly
thankful for the proclamation. It is doing us a great
good in Europe, and will be a powerful agent in helping on the change of feeling in England. I have always put a good deal of trust in the common people
of England.
Speaking of individual nobility, how beautifully
and bravely young Russell behaved when Savage was
wounded! I murmured that he was a prisoner when