it out without delay. The question arises [as to] how to publish it. For the newspapers it is too long. With the accompanying documents, of which there are a considerable number, it will fill a volume of nearly 300 pages, and the accompanying documents are as interesting and instructive as the report itself. In fact, they form the strength of the report as far as the establishment of facts is concerned. I shall try to induce Lippincott in Philadelphia to publish it in the ordinary way. But if he should refuse, can it be published in some other way? What do you think? It is a strong document and will, I hope, exercise an influence upon the attitude of Congress and of the country.
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FROM CHARLES SUMNER
Boston, Nov. 15, 1865.
As soon as such a motion will be proper—immediately after the President's message—I will call for your Report. But I fear embarrassments.
It ought all to be printed with its annexes, as mémoires pour servir.
Chambrun ought to have been with you before now. When he left me, he intended to go, with a slight delay in New York, direct to you.
The President's course is most disheartening. All that I learn shows that he will persevere. Then comes a collision with Congress, and inseparable confusion, and calamity. The way of peace was very plain.
I have an article in the forthcoming Atlantic, entitled “A Curiosity of Literature” but with “a moral” at the end bearing on present affairs.
