Boston, November 10, 1861
I am very anxious to hear news from Europe, for I cannot believe that it was my “letter” which caused you “a sleepless night.” I fear the despatches had something to do with it. In most perfect confidence, will you tell me, does Seward want or intend to make a foreign war? He is too profound a man to brag the country into a war by simply being over-confident and overbearing; and if he does it, I know him well enough to know he means to and has a design, and just now it looks surprisingly like it. As you know I have the highest faith in Seward and would surrender it as late as any one; but a policy so comprehensive and immense, and so evidently doing evil that good might come of it puzzles me strangely. However my faith is abiding that the world will not come to an end this time.
P. S. On reading the foreign files I am annoyed to see the rumpus created in England by the Harvey Birch affair. We again present the ludicrous aspect of two people scared, the one at the other. While Englishmen are trembling over the Harvey Birch, we have been quaking over the seizure of Slidell and Mason. The Harvey Birch, I am told, belonged to secession owners in New York, and all New York is chuckling over their loss, which they most richly deserve. The public at large, so far as I can see and hear, feel no indignation, but merely a sense of intense relief at such a Godsend having just now turned up in the moment of our greatest need. . . .
