4870. EBB to Theodore Tilton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 68–70.
Rome. 126. Via Felice.
[mid-] April. [1861] [1]
My dear Mr Tilton,
You will think I make doubtful amends for a too long silence by overmuch speaking: but, besides the poem touching on Gaeta, [2] which is a part of our Italian experiences, I want you to have this lyric of “Only a curl,” which refers to the affliction of one of your countrymen from whom I lately received a very affecting letter. [3] Sending him one copy of the lyric, (not for publication.) I send for the “Independent” what is here enclosed–
Our Italian cause sweeps on its way triumphantly,—and the hitch at Rome will not stop it long– People in England and elsewhere are beginning to understand at last something of the nature & extent of Napoleon’s difficulties; though you have a “correspondent” [4] (not EBB) who sees wonderful things, or rather wonderfully does’nt see things, & is not likely to be converted from his peculiar opinions by what is of such merely general acceptation as a fact.
Prince Napoleon’s speech in the senate gave the emperor’s interior view (as I understand it) free from the pressure of responsibility, & stripped of official forms of presentation. I hope you read the prince’s speech, which lasted four hours, & occupied seventeen columns in the Moniteur– A thrill of life and liberalism is running through Europe– Let us not forget to praise the great Czar for the freeing of the serfs– [5] Never can America admit a compromise on slavery, in face of that action. Never can a President named by the northern states submit to carry out a “Fugitive slave Law” [6] in face of that action. It is not possible.
Observe!—with the exception of certain expressions (which did strike me as a superfluity of the official form) I admired & liked the inaugural address. [7] It seemed to me direct & resolute, simple & intense– The meaning, moreover, seemed perfectly clear,—until this rumour of the evacuation of Fort Sumter comes to throw one into a deep pit of contradiction & doubt– [8] What can that mean?
Most truly your friend
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I hope you received the three poems I sent last– [9]
Publication: The Independent (New York), 2 May 1861, p. 1 (in part).
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Year and date based on EBB’s reference to Fort Sumter; see note 8 below.
2. “Mother and Poet” (see letter 4883, note 15).
3. “Only a Curl,” published in The Independent on 16 May 1861 (p. 1) and later collected in Last Poems (1862), was written as a response to a letter from James Hollyday Stone (1828–68) of Baltimore, which evidently conveyed news of the death of his little boy, James Hollyday Stone, Jr. (1859–60). The copy EBB sent to Stone is dated Rome 1861 and is now at ABL. His name appears in the Brownings’ address book of this period (AB-4) with a memo from EBB: “For whom were written the verses, ‘Only a curl.’”
4. The Rev. William Weston Patton (1821–89), pastor of the First Congregational Church, Chicago, and contributor to The Independent, was travelling in Europe. He submitted articles from England and Italy until his return to America in September.
5. On 3 March 1861 (19 February, Russian calendar), Tsar Alexander II issued the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing the serfs.
6. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required that all fugitive slaves in all states and territories (both free and slave), upon capture, be returned to their owners. Not only were all legal authorities empowered and obliged to assist in the execution of warrants and arrests, “all good citizens are hereby commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required” (Fugitive Slave Act 1850, Section 5).
7. Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, delivered on 4 March 1861, was conciliatory. He promised: “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.” He reminded his audience of his oath to defend the Constitution, insisting that the Union was inviolable and that secession would be “the essence of anarchy.” In closing, he said: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. … You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. … We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies.”
8. EBB may have seen a report in The Times of 10 April 1861: “Washington advices state that there was every reason to suppose that Fort Sumter would be evacuated immediately” (p. 12). Fort Sumter, a federal installation on an island in Charleston Harbor, had been occupied by a small Union force since late December. In April, what had been a relaxed siege became hardened, and the fort, under the command of Major Robert Anderson, was running out of food. On 11 April, the Confederate commander, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, issued an ultimatum: surrender or face bombardment. Anderson decided to fight. Confederate batteries bombarded the fort from the morning of 12 April (marking the start of the American Civil War) to the afternoon of the following day, at which time Anderson surrendered.
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