Holograph, signed with intials.

In this letter, Maria Weston Chapman writes: "I see nobody but the Foreigners, who does not expect to crush the rebellion shortly;--Except Elliot Pierce, who dined here the other day, at a little family dinner-party." Chapman was glad to hear Elliot Pierce's opinion that the war will be long, "for if closed up now, it would be on the basis of the status quo." The rebels are encouraged by the New York election, "which fills the next Congress with secession favourers." Chapman mentions "a very pretty hymn" which appeared in the Republican papers; she criticizes a poetic discrepancy in this hymn. She tells about the singing of the "John Brown chorus." Elliot Pierce showed the belt through which the bullet that wounded him passed. Little Henry [Chapman] sends his love to Leonce [Laugel].