London, October 25, 1861 You complain of the manner in which England has been allowed to wheel round. I mean to write a letter to the Times on that matter some day. Do you know the reason why it is so? How do you suppose we can make a stand here when our own friends [...]

London, October 15, 1861 In your last letters I am not a little sorry to see that you are falling into the way that to us at this distance seems to be only the mark of weak men, of complaining and fault-finding over the course of events. In mere newspaper correspondents who are not expected [...]

Boston, October 14, 1861 My impression is that we are on the eve of great movements and the naval expedition, if successful, will open the ball. We can see little in the papers, but it looks to me as if the correspondents were at fault. But in truth McClellan is coiling himself up for a [...]

Quincy, Sunday, October 6, 1861 I received your letter of the 7th some ten days ago and not a word from London since; so that as I have seen no signs of trouble in the press, I presume the little flurry you there mention has passed away. In fact I cannot say I share your [...]

London, October 5, 1861 Your letter and your articles in the Courier arrived last Monday. I sent one set of them down to Lucas, the editor of the London Star, and received a complimentary note in return which I will enclose to you. The other set I sent down to the editor of the Spectator, [...]

London, September 28, 1861 Time goes precious fast and yet seems to leave very little behind it. I have been very busy for the last three weeks but now am at leisure again though I have some ideas of beginning a new tack. Papa got back late last night from a visit to Lord Russell’s [...]

London, September 20, 1861 I deeply sympathise with you in your trials about the part you ought to play in the war. Much as I value your assistance during my absence on this side, I should be very reluctant to continue it at the cost of your own convictions of your duty. If you feel [...]

Charles Francis Adams, Jr., To Henry Adams Boston, Tuesday, September 17, 1861 As I hear nothing more of your coming home I hope you have forgotten that folly. The few of your friends in the army here, like Billy Milton and Howard Dwight, opened their eyes wide with astonishment at the suggestion. Just now I [...]

London, September 14, 1861 Your last letter containing principally suggestions on the cotton matter, reached me this week. Also a bundle of newspapers. At present I am busy in another direction, so that I can’t yet take up the subject you recommend, but when my immediate bubbles have burst, or have expanded brilliantly, I mean [...]

London, September 7, 1861 Yours in answer to mine written after the Bull’s Run arrived last night and I answer it at once. Whatever weight your arguments might have had on me in ordinary times, just now they are entirely superseded by the new turn things have taken since that letter was written. I could [...]

London, September 7, 1861 The feeling here which at one time was leaning our way has been very much changed by the disaster at Bull’s run, and by the steady operation of the press against us. Great Britain always looks to her own interest as a paramount law of her action in foreign affairs. She [...]

Boston, September 3, 1861 I Persuaded Hale to insert a leading article about Russell in the Advertiser, which I send to Henry. The folly of our press in assaulting so savagely an agency so formidable as Russell has troubled me, and I’m glad to see that McClellan is wiser and spares a few civil words [...]

Boston, August 27, 1861 Your tone is too dull in your letters and I feel for you sincerely in your Bull-run panic in England. Here things certainly look much better and people feel much better. The money market is easy and our exportation of breadstuffs seems likely to continue. Finally, this steamer will advise you [...]

In the book, the following appears as a post script to a letter that was written on August 5.   However, Henry’s brother, Charles, replied on August 23 to a “letter of the 5th” from Henry.P.S. August 26. After studying over the accounts of the battle and reading Russell’s letter to the Times, I hardly [...]

  Quincy, Sunday, August 25, 1861 In my letter I begged you to go to work and try to make the two countries understand each other, for to my eye our foreign relations look very formidable. Why, when England and France are collecting fleets in our southern waters, do we all of a sudden hear [...]

Boston, August 23, 1861 I did n’t get your letter of the 5th until the steamer of the 21st was gone, so I telegraphed to Mr. Motley at Halifax, as I did n’t want to have you come blundering home under the impression that I had been ordered off, and now I will at once [...]

London, August 16, 1861 We have now gone through three stages of this great political disease. The first was the cold fit, when it seemed as if nothing would start the country. The second was the hot one, when it seemed almost in the highest continual delirium. The third is the process of waking to [...]

London, August 5, 1861 We received yesterday the news of our defeat at Bull’s Run, and today your letter and John’s with some papers have arrived. Though I do not see that this check necessarily involves all the serious consequences that you draw from it, I am still sufficiently impressed by it to decide me [...]

London, July 26, 1861 You say that you wanted to go off with Gordon’s regiment. I tell you I would give my cocked hat and knee-breeches to be with them at this moment. I don’t understand being sorry for them. I have no doubt that barring a few lives and legs and arms lost, they’ll [...]

Boston, July 23, 1861 I don’t see any good in my saying anything of the disgraceful and disastrous battle of yesterday. The impression here is very general that Scott’s policy was interfered with by the President in obedience to what he calls the popular will and at the instigation of Sumner, Greeley and others, and [...]

London, July 18, 1861 I Have engaged a house1 which will I hope be more convenient. It is not in quite so fashionable or so noisy a situation, but it is amply and in some respects richly furnished, and is in a very good neighborhood. My engagement is only for a year, and even that [...]

Boston, July 9, 1861 Yesterday we [the Battalion] went out to escort Gordon’s regiment off – the one raised by the subscription of the Boston gentlemen. There were, as I have told you, lots of my friends in it, and I should have been, sorry not to have bid them good-bye; but not till they [...]

Henry Adams to his brother, Charles Francis Adams, Jr. London, Tuesday, July 2,1861 My letters in the [New York] Times will give you pretty much all I have to say about politics. They are very correctly printed; at least the three first which are all that have reached me. There is no doubt in my [...]

Boston, July 2, 1861 There is little news politically, for I am no longer in the way of getting it. There is a marked improvement in the general feeling and in the tone of the press towards England and my apprehensions of trouble would have entirely subsided but that I cannot but fear future trouble [...]