Letter from Charlotte to Samuel Cowles, 1838 March 26.

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    Farmington March 26th 1838


    Monday Evening


    My Dear Brother,


    Who will say now that we do not live in the age of wonders? Will you believe me when I tell you that I have been to the Whig meeting this afternoon? But I have, as true as I am alive. About half past one, when Mr. Copeland was sitting here talking with father, John Hooker came running in, and said he was getting the ladies out to the meeting, and I must go. So I said I would, and I went. I have not got over my astonishment yet, and I can hardly believe that I have really been to a political meeting.


    There were sixteen ladies there, all anti-abolitionist except three. Perfectly right and proper, to leave their homes, the “domestic circle”, their “knitting”, “darning their husband’s stockings,” and “the retirement of social life,” to attend a Whig meeting. The gentlemen can run about the street to get them to go, and the speakers can compliment them for coming to a Whig meeting. This, I suppose, is “the appropriate sphere” of woman. I am so delighted that this has happened here, and that those very ladies who think it improper for women to talk about slavery, have attended this meeting that I do not know what to say first. I have written so fast now that my arm aches, and I have not begun to tell you any-



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    thing about the meeting. Talk now about women’s meddling with politics? Politics indeed!


    Well, a sheet full of exclamations does not give any information; I will try to keep my thoughts and my pen steady a few minutes. Mr. Copeland made a speech of about two hours length; there was a great deal in it about banks, and the currency, “the ruinous experiment,” the mismanagement of the present administration; but, above all, the present “crisis”, the “terrible crisis”! And then Mr. Copeland complimented the ladies, and said that their presence was one of the most favorable omens, for the triumph of the cause. And he thought if Connecticut went right, it would save the nation. The General made a speech of about twenty minutes, after Mr. Copeland, as tedious and incoherent a thing as I ever heard. I do wish I could remember some of it. Mr. Starr then spoke about half an hour, and that was worth all the rest four times over. He dwelt principally upon the spirit of misrule and mobocracy which prevails in the country, and then spoke of the Alton affair and the conduct of the Attorney General in very plain terms. I had no idea he was such an elegant speaker.


    With the exception of this speech, the whole proceedings of the meeting were enough to make one sick of republicanism. I came home not wondering that Harriet Martineau said there was always a “crisis” in the affairs of this nation. Nor do I wonder now at any of the harsh words which Mr. Garrison bestows upon inconsistency (shall I call it hypocrisy?) of those who disapprove of the measures of the abolitionists. It is all right for them to call men by name; poor John M. Niles has fared hardly this afternoon. How very wrong it would have been to get up an Anti-Slavery meeting



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    in the present state of religious feeling here! But this is all “well & good”. And the presence of the ladies! Oh, that is the grand triumph! Have we not an unanswerable argument for them now?


    My dear brother, do excuse my incoherency; the truth is, I am almost crazed, and it is not very strange, either, considering the strangeness of the events of the day. I am truly sorry for your disappointment in regard to Misses Weld and Colon. If there was any thing I could do to help you, I should be most happy to do it. Mary wants me to tell you that she is afraid you will be homesick, and that it is very lonely here without you. It does seem a week since you went away. Do write to us when you get time and news.


    Yours as ever,


    C.L.C.


    I must try to give you a fragment of the General’s speech. “[Mr. Madison] was a good commander. He was a Napoleon. That was his forte. But did that make him fit for President of the United Sates? By no means. All the talents of Wellington, and Napoleon, and ten thousand military men could not do it. Let us have men of talents, and honesty, and ability, and then they will be able to govern well. And that breaking down of the United States Bank was one of the most villainous things that ever was done.” Verbatim, as nearly as I can remember. Goodnight.



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    Mr. Samuel S. Cowles


    [annotation by Samuel Cowles:


    C.L. Cowles


    March 26, 1838]


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