Julia Sand – Letter 9
Context
The first Chinese Exclusion Act passed Congress, but on April 2, 1882, President Arthur vetoed the bill.
Julia makes reference to “Jumbo,” a news-making elephant touring the United States at that time in the spring of 1882 as part of P. T. Barnum’s circus.
The letter includes a reference to Mother Shipton, a prophetess of English legend.
In December 1881, legal action had been taken against a Treasury Department official, Newton M. Curtis. Curtis was accused of violating an 1876 law that prohibited government officials that were not appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate from collecting money from other government employees for party use. Though some encouraged President Arthur to pardon Curtis, he did not do so. However, the prosecution was dropped due to a technical error – Arthur’s Justice Department mistakenly submitted the defendant’s name as “Nehemiah M. Curtis.” President Arthur took responsibility for the mistake.
Julia closes with the poem “The Choir Invisible” by George Eliot. In 1885, Julia would write and publish a book entitled “Wahrheit Und Dichtung: A Psychological Study, Suggested By Certain Chapters in the Life of George Eliot.”
Letter 9
April 1882
Hon. C. A. Arthur.
Of course you don’t care – do you? – whether I am pleased, or not. But, as I always growl, when I catch you doing wrong, my own sense of justice requires it, that I should make some kind of a sound, when I catch you doing right. Therefore I must tell you that your veto of the Chinese Bill delighted me. And, what is more to the point, a great many other people also were pleased – pleased & surprised. Don’t you feel flattered how awfully surprised they are, whenever you do anything good? Well, go on surprising them. But I am never surprised, because I expect it of you. If you had done otherwise, I should have been dismally disappointed. Yet, even expecting it, it put me in a very cheerful mood – so cheerful that – what do you think? I sent for a horse & – there being no heathen Chinese around – showed my superiority to race prejudice, by taking a colored fellow being out to drive. He never thanked me, though & probably expects to be rewarded – such is the demoralizing effect of civil rights! But I enjoyed the drive – it was a windy, whimsical April day, the Green Mountains intensely blue, with a gleam of sunlight on one peak, a snow-cloud breaking over the next – & we went out Union Ave at a lively trot. But as “Frank” did not shy at anything, nor run away, & I did not take a wheel off of anybody’s wagon, nor upset my own, turning around, it was not as exciting as it might have been. Still, after a year & a half of absolute passiveness, to have the reins in my hands again, seemed like coming back to life. Two months ago I was so nervous I did not like to look at a horse, & when a gentleman took me out sleighing, was in misery all the while, between the impulse to, & the determination not to – cling to his arms – oh, it was dreadful! But now – it only remains for me to get on a horse, & after that almost anything will seem possible. I may even get down to Washington before your administration is over. And then & there – you being the “Jumbo” of the great American show – I should certainly go to see you. According to Washington etiquette, it would be my social & patriotic duty, wouldn’t it? And I always try to do my duty. But, in this case, perhaps I won’t – it might be such a frightful disillusionment. Cannot you imagine the groan of despondency with which I would exclaim: “Oh, is that the man I have been writing to?!” – & the grunt of dissatisfaction with which you would mutter: “Why she wasn’t a nice little Mother Shipton, on a broomstick, at all,
‘But only Mrs. Something Rogers’!” ?
However, if my health is in any way dependent on your goodness, don’t you think that there is considerable risk of my not recovering very suddenly? In fact, don’t you think that there is some danger of my having relapses & relapses, & only getting well finally, just in time to die of old age? Who is responsible for that mean little trick about Nehemiah [Newton] M. Curtis? But why should I ask, when I know, as well as you do, that you are? The thing would not have been done without your approval. But, if the blunder was a trick, it is equally true that the trick was a blunder, for everyone sees through it – & though people may be glad to have you right on the Chinese question, they feel that the New York question strikes much nearir [sic] home. If you wish the public to believe that the blunder was really a mistake, there is only one way to do it – order your oily District Attorney to rectify the mistake & continue the prosecution. But you won’t do that, will you? It is of no use to say a word, is it? I can see the quiet, fixed obstinacy in your face, as if I were talking to you, instead of writing – I have hit against one of your strong convictions. But what is it? That Gen C. is such a dear friend, you cannot bear to have him hurt? Or is it that he is such dexterous hand at political dirty work that you really cannot spare him? When will you learn that the President should have no such friends – that it is time for you to have done with political dirty-work? What are you aiming at – the perpetuation of your power? I do not condemn ambition – I think the world would be better if most people had more of it. But there is ambition that is noble, & there is ambition that is vile. What is your idea of greatness? Napoleon – at St. Helena? Nero – fiddling while Rome was burning? Cyrus – entombed under the epitaph: “Oh man, I am Cyrus, who founded the Persian Empire: envy me not then the little earth which covers my remains!”
Did you ever read these lines:
“Oh may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence:
Live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn for miserable aim that end with self, in thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, and with their mild persistence urge man’s search
To vaster issues.
So to live is heaven!”
Think of them sometimes. And when you have thought of them a great deal, ask yourself if there is anything in the world that can make you happier than truly to serve your fellow men.
Yours sincerely,
J. I. S.
Letter 10 – Advocates against pardoning a guard who attempted to assassinate Charles Guiteau