Our Collection

At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Everett, Edward (1794-1865) to Lady Belper of Derby, England

High-resolution images are available to schools and libraries via subscription to American History, 1493-1943. Check to see if your school or library already has a subscription. Or click here for more information. You may also order a pdf of the image from us here.

Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00463 Author/Creator: Everett, Edward (1794-1865) Place Written: Boston, Massachusetts Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 22 June 1863 Pagination: 4 p. ; 21 x 13 cm. Order a Copy

Thanks her for "sending me your likeness" and remembers a visit from twenty years ago fondly. Discusses his son, who went abroad for four years, and his happiness that he has returned. Closes his letter with a long comment on the Civil War: "The terrible war...is becoming every day more & more distinctly a war between Freedom and Slavery; & we hope that is better understood in Europe, the ambitious men who, in our Southern states, are waging this cruel contest for the sake of breaking up the Union & establishing a new gov't. on the corner stone of Slavery, will forfeit that sympathy and aid from abroad, which has hitherto upheld them."

[Draft Created by Crowdsourcing]
Edward Everett
Boston 22 June 1863.
My dear Lady Belper,
I avail myself of the first opportunity after the return of my son, who reached home last week, to make my most grateful acknowledgements to you for your extreme kindness in sending me your likeness. It carries me back so vividly to that delightful visit to Derby, that I cannot look at it without emotion. It will be twenty years on the 13th of next month, since I made that visit,

[2]
but every incident is as fresh in my recollection as if it occurred yesterday:- brought back by the almost magecil [sic.] affect of the charming Portrait; just as a tune, which one heard years before, or the scent of a flower some times calls up a minute recollection of the past.-
What changes have we not all gone through in these twenty years, especially our friend Lady Hatherton, who was of the party! I wrote a letter of sympathy to her, by the last steamer, on occasion of Lord Hatherton's death, which however, since his recovery was hopeless & life could make him only a prolonged burden to himself & others, was rather

[3]
a releif than a bereavement.-
I need not tell you how happy I am, in the return of my son, after nearly four years of absence, broken only by his visit to me two year ago. In all this time, he has never been ill enough to call in a Physician. I am more than satisfied with having sent-or rather allowed him to go,-abroad.-His success at Trinity has been as great as I could reasonably expect, and thanks to the kindness of my friend in England, as well as of those when he had himself been so fortunate as to make, he has passed his holidays in the best [party]. Let me repeat my thanks to you & Lord Belper for all your

[4]
kindness to him,-of which, I assure you, he is himself duly [leaseble]. He never speaks of you without some impression of gratitude & admiration.
I do not write to you about public affairs, for I cannot tell you any thing very cheerful. Ther terrible war, in which we are engaged, is becoming every day more & more distinctly a war between Freedom & Slavery; & we hope when that is better understood in Europe, the ambitious men who, in our Southern States, are waging this cruel contest for the sake of breaking up the Union & establishing a new govt. on the corner stone of Slavery, will forfeit that sympathy & aid from abroad, which has hitherto upheld them. With the kindest remembrance to Lord B. believe me, my dear Lady Belper, your grateful & sincerely affectionate friend.

Everett, Edward, 1794-1865
Belper, Amelia Harriet , -1890

Citation Guidelines for Online Resources