Fortunately, my recent Maine business had put me in possession of
abundant funds, and when I had matured my scheme, and saw that Henry
was in tolerable condition to travel, I proposed the trip to him,
and he joyfully assented to my plan. I wanted to get him far away,
for awhile, from a part of the country which was associated in his
mind, more than in mine, with so much misery, and he seemed quite as
eager to go. Change of air and scene I knew would do wonders for him
bodily, and would build him up again.
We made our preparations and started for the South, going first to
Baltimore and then on through the Southern States by railroad to New
Orleans. It was late in the fall of 1860, just before the rebellion,
when the south was seceding or talking secession, and was already
preparing for war. Henry's physical condition compelled us to rest
frequently on the way, and we stopped sometimes for two or three
days at a time, at nearly every large town or city on the entire
route. Everywhere there was a great deal of excitement; meetings
were held nearly every night secession was at fever heat, and there
was an unbounded expression and manifestation of ill-feeling against
the north and against northern men. Nevertheless, I was never in any
part of the Union where I was treated with so much courtesy,
consideration and genuine kindness as I was there and then. I was
going south, simply to benefit the invalid who accompanied me;
everybody seemed to know it; and everybody expressed the tenderest
sympathy for my son.
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