MANUSCRIPT: AC. Pencil. The beginning is missing.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 153; LL 258; L (1931) 151; Home 435-436.

Internal evidence clearly places this letter in November 1864, about the thirteenth. Thanksgiving was on the twenty-fourth, and ED returned on Monday the twenty-first. Vinnie at the moment is visiting the Dudleys. The "still Man" seems to be Lincoln, who was reelected on 8 November. The Boston Post reported on Monday, 14 November. "The Lincoln Clubs of Cambridge had a torchlight procession last evening, and invited Hon. Samuel Hooper, and were addressed by that gentleman." By "Drums" ED evidently refers to the Cambridge celebration. For a similar reference to drums, many years later, see letter no. 950.