Seward did not pretend to
refuse liberty of unexpressed sympathy with either side to an utter
foreigner. While I was a free agent in the Northern States, I was
careful to indulge in no other.
Since my return, I hear that some one has been kind enough to insinuate
that I might have succeeded better if I had been more careful to
prosecute my journey South with vigor at any risk; or if I had been less
imprudent in parading my object while in Baltimore. I prefer to meet the
first of these assertions by a simple record of facts, and by the most
unqualified denial that it is possible to give to any falsehood, written
or spoken. As to the second--really quite as unfounded--it may be well
to say, that before I had been a full fortnight in America, I was
"posted" in the literary column of "Willis' Home Journal." I could not
quarrel with the terms in which the intelligence--avowedly copied from
an English paper--was couched. The writer seemed to know rather more
about my intentions--if not of my antecedents--than I knew myself; but I
can honestly say that the halo of romance with which he was pleased to
surround a very practical purpose, did not however compensate me for the
inconvenient publicity. This paragraph soon found its way into other
journals, and at last confronted me--to my infinite disgust--in the
"Baltimore Clipper," a bitter Unionist organ.
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