London, January 27, 1865
Our plans are so indefinite and so liable to be knocked in the head by news from your side of the water, that I feel myself about equally balanced between the probabilities of going to Italy and remaining there till summer and then bringing the family home, or of not going there at all, but staying here to pack up our duds and take them home in advance of the rest of the party. Mr. Mackay, the intelligent and gentlemanly New York correspondent of the London Times, has written to that journal, I am told, that Mr. Seward is to return to the Senate and our present Minister at the Court of St. James is to take the Secretary’s place. I suppose this tale is only an appendage to that which transfers Senator Morgan to the Treasury, for I see no other means of giving Seward a vacancy. Thank the Lord, it can’t be true, or else Mackay would n’t write it; but it’s an annoying idea to have on one’s mind, and I am not sorry that our departure is postponed if it enables us to settle our projects before going, and eliminate these disturbing quantities from our equation….
