Searching for Susan

Day to day activities move along, spiced with a little entertainment.

Lynn, Oct. 17th, 66. Wednesday P.M.

My dear Edwin.

Has not this been a very pleasant afternoon? & I think you will say it would be a fine evening for a ride, but as I cannot enjoy that tonight, I will think of those we have enjoyed together. I felt so certain that I should receive a letter last evening that after tea I went to the office, & could hardly believe the usually accommodating post-master when he told me there was none there.

I was disappointed, but I knew that it was not your fault, for I remembered you promised to write. I waited patiently as I could & on coming home at noon today, I was happy to see the familiar hand on a letter which was handed to me. Although Saturday is the day for your letter, I thought you would not care if it came a little in advance of the promised time.

I was glad to hear of your safe return home, but am sorry you were destined to undergo other troubles. I shall be glad for you when your unpleasant task is entirely completed. You know I am always happy to see you & I hope that you will not think I should consider your condition at such a time, an excuse for "keeping at home." Would you care for such a friendship as that?

Evening.

This evening we have listened to a lecture from W. Phillips Esq. I thought of you, on my way, while there, & coming home & wished you could have been with us. The subject was "The duties of

citizenship, where there is universal suffrage." He would trample the amendments of the constitution under foot, for if they are adopted by the south, the door is open to them to regain what they have lost & enter the white house. He would impeach the "traitor & blunder head, " Johnson , not six months hence, but today, & place the vice-president of the senate in office during the trial of the president, until his acquittal, or, being found guilty, till a new election.

He condemns Senator Wilson for knowing & keeping secret, that Johnson was a traitor & U.S. Grant for retaining his command & not using his power in N. Orleans & Memphis. He says Gen. Grant has the most despicable position in the world, for if he will agree with the president he is also a traitor; if he dares not use the army in defense of liberty he is a "double-distilled coward." I liked much of his lecture, but do not take the same view of Wilson that he does.

Wendall Phillips was a Mayflower descendent, Harvard graduate, successful attorney and an early abolitionist. Together with his wife Anne Terry Green, they advocated total suffrage.

With the Civil War ended just a year and a half earlier, feelings were strong that President Johnson was not carrying out the wishes of the late President Lincoln, who was beloved in the Boston area. These strong feelings made Phillips a popular, if outspoken orator. He was called, "The Golden Voice of Abolition" and a statue in his honor, pictured above, stands in Boston Common.

Senator Henry Wilson, from nearby Natick, Massachusetts, was, like Edwin Fletcher, a shoemaker by trade. He was elected to the Senate near the end of the civil War.

Wilson was a republican, early anti-slavery advocate, and considered radical by some. In addition to twenty years in the Senate, he served as Vice President under Ulysses Grant and died in office.

On Monday afternoon we went down to the beach to see the high waves. The storm of the previous days had raised them very high & I never saw so grand a sight of the ocean. I wished you were there to enjoy it too.

The next lecture is to be given by Rev. Mr. Fletcher, and of course I wish to hear him. I do not know his subject.