of slavery in Virginia, the
hatred of British feeling upon the subject, and the miserable hints of
the impotent indignation of the South, have pained me very much; on the
last head, of course, I have felt nothing but a mingled pity and
amusement; on the other, sheer distress. But however much I like the
ingredients of this great dish, I cannot but come back to the point upon
which I started, and say that the dish itself goes against the grain
with me, and that I don't like it.

You know that I am truly a Liberal. I believe I have as little pride as
most men, and I am conscious of not the smallest annoyance from being
"hail fellow well met" with everybody. I have not had greater pleasure
in the company of any set of men among the thousands I have received (I
hold a regular levee every day, you know, which is duly heralded and
proclaimed in the newspapers) than in that of the carmen of Hertford,
who presented themselves in a body in their blue frocks, among a crowd
of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, and bade me welcome through their
spokesman. They had all read my books, and all perfectly understood
them. It is not these things I have in my mind when I say that the man
who comes to this country a Radical and goes home again with his
opinions unchanged, must be a Radical on reason, sympathy, and
reflection, and one who has so well considered the subject that he has
no chance of wavering.

We have been to Boston, Worcester, Hertford, New Haven, New York,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Fredericksburgh, Richmond, and back
to Washington again. The premature heat of the weather (it was eighty
yesterday in the shade) and Clay's advice--how you would like
Clay!--have made us determine not to go to Charleston; but having got to
Richmond, I think I should have turned back under any circumstances. We
remain at Baltimore for two days, of which this is one; then we go to
Harrisburgh. Then by the canal boat and the railroad over the Alleghany
Mountains to Pittsburgh, then down the Ohio to Cincinnati, then to
Louisville, and then to St. Louis. I have been invited to a public
entertainment in every town I have entered, and have refused them; but I
have excepted St. Louis as the farthest point of my travels. My friends
there have passed some resolutions which Forster has, and will show
you. From St. Louis we cross to Chicago, traversing immense prairies.
Thence by the lakes and Detroit to Buffalo, and so to Niagara. A run
into