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

LETTERS. 225
have ever influenced my life." And now that he has
gone, it seems as if it would kill me to think that my
want of sympathy should ever have brought tears to
his eyes. Then I have not written to him for some
months past. I often wanted to, but his mind seemed
full of the old vexed topic, and I knew, however tenderly and reverentially I might write, nothing would
satisfy him but the acknowledgment that he had'been
entirely in the right; because he never for a moment
ceased to believe himself so. It is true that President Grant, since his second election, has done many
things, and left still more undone, which tend to confirm Mr. Sumner's estimate of him. But, as I again
and again wrote to MIr. Sumner, the question was
not whether General Grant was a fitting candidate for
the presidency, but whether it was safe to restore
power in our national councils to Democrats and
rebels. He believed that Democrats and rebels had
met with a great change of heart; but I thought, and
still think, there was superabounding evidence that
they were still essentially in the same state of mind as
ever. I thought then, and I think now, that artful
politicians could not have so imposed upon Mr. Sumlner if it had not been for the state of his health. If
he had been in perfect physical health he would
never have believed that Mr. had cultivated the
growth of a conscience, after doing without one for
half a century. But the more I am convinced that
his nervous system was in a shattered and excited
state, the more keenly do I regret that I did not write
to him frequently and affectionately. I am aware
that my letters could not have been of much consequence to him, but perhaps they might have soothed
him a little. It seems as if I had been ungrateful
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