Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 2Houghton, Mifflin, 1899 - Businessmen |
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affairs Alabama American appointment army asked Aspinwall Blaine Boston British Burlington and Quincy called campaign Captain chairman CHARLES SUMNER Chicago Colonel committee consul convention course danger DEAR Democratic directors election Emerson England English Faneuil Hall FANNY KEMBLE father writes Fayal feel Fessenden foreign Fort Sumter give Goldwin Smith Governor Andrew Grant Greeley guns hope horse interest ironclads J. M. FORBES John JOHN BRIGHT Judge Hoar letter London Massachusetts meeting ment Naushon Navy negro North notes old friend opinion peace perhaps political ports President R. H. Dana Rathbone rebels Republican party Russell sailing Secretary seemed Senator sent Seward's ships slavery steamer success Sumner sure Tariff Reform League thank tion Treasury vessels vote W. H. ASPINWALL Washington Wild Duck wish wrote York
Popular passages
Page 112 - Yet I said to myself, How little this man suspects, with his sympathy for men and his respect for lettered and scientific people, that he is not likely, in any company, to meet a man superior to himself. And I think this is a good country that can bear such a creature as he is.
Page 74 - The democrats and the liberals of the Old World are as much and as heartily with us as any supporters we have on this side. Our enemies, too, see it in the same light. The aristocrats and the despots of the Old World see that our quarrel is that of the people against an aristocracy.
Page 116 - I wonder whether my theories about self-culture, etc., would ever have been modified so much, whether I should ever have seen what a necessary failure they lead to, had it not been for this war. Now I feel every day, more and more, that a man has no right to himself at all ; that, indeed, he can do nothing useful unless he recognizes this clearly.
Page 115 - One of the strange things," Forbes wrote to a colleague after Lowell's death, "has been how he magnetized you and me at first sight. We are practical, unsentimental, and perhaps hard, at least externally . . . yet he captivated me just as he did you, and I came home and told my wife I had fallen in love; and from that day I never saw anything too good or too high for...
Page 111 - Wherever he moves he is a benefactor. " It is of course that he should shoot well, ride well, sail well, administer railroads well, carve well, keep house well, but he was the best talker also in the company, with the perpetual practical wisdom seeing always the working of the thing, with the multitude and distinction of his facts (and one detects continually that he has had a hand in everything that has been done), and in the temperance with which he parries all offense and opens the eyes of his...
Page 116 - ... this clearly; nothing has helped me to see this last truth more than watching Mr. Forbes. I think he is one of the most unselfish workers I ever knew of; it is painful here to see how sadly personal motives interfere with most of our officers' usefulness. After the war how much there will be to do; and how little opportunity a fellow in the field has to prepare himself for the sort of doing that will be required. It makes me quite sad sometimes; but then I think of cousin John, and remember how...
Page 57 - At this moment, when one of the iron-clad vessels is on the point of departure from this kingdom, on its hostile errand against the United States...
Page 74 - You," Forbes urged the President, "have the same opportunity, and greater; for you have enemies North and South, reading our language, whom you can teach. My suggestion, then, is that you should seize an early opportunity and any subsequent chance, to teach your great audience of plain people that the war is not the North against the South, but the people against the aristocrats.
Page 193 - ... agreed upon as temporary chairman, and the question of the unit rule went to the Convention where the antiGrant forces were in a majority. John M. Forbes, who was the Massachusetts member of the National Committee and an Independent, made this private note of opinion and of the action of the majority: "In spite of the objections to Grant, I preferred him, as being an honest man, to Blaine; but, for the purposes of a fair organization of the Convention, a combination with the Blaine leaders was...
Page 74 - Southern people could be made to see this issue, "and then reconstruction becomes easy and permanent." And how could the plain people, North and South, be convinced of it in the shortest time? "Bonaparte, when under the republic, fighting despots of Europe, did as much by his bulletins as he did by his bayonets: the two went on together promising democratic institutions to the populations whose leaders he was making war upon.