Letter from Moritz Pinner to Wendell Phillips Dated June 4, 1863

The original is at the Houghton Library of Harvard University. From the Blagden Collection of Wendell Phillips Papers: 10 letters from M. Pinner to Wendell Phillips, 1860-1873, bMS Am 1953 (1006) [item 5].

Transcribed (by Doron Zeilberger) and posted on the web: November 2003.

By kind permission of the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 

                      Washington, DC. June 4, 
                                         1863.
         My dear Mr. Phillips,

Our poet Friedrich Ruckert in his Wisdom of the Brahmins somewhere says, and I'll give it to you in English as well as I know how: 

   If things go amiss with you be sure to take them easy,
   If you take them hard, it will be the worse for you,
   If a friend vexes you, forgive him and understand,
   He himself is vexed, else how could he give you pain?
   And if love causes you pain, let it stimulate you to love
                                                     the more,
   That you have the rose, You are apt to know from the thorn.

I am no poet, that is clear, therefore I give it up, however I have what I want. In the 3d and 4th line of my verse I meant to appologise [sic] for my last harsh letter, but coming to think of it, your silence is punishment enough. Enclosed please find my pamphlets, I got it up at the suggestion of Asst. Q.M. Genrl. Thomas, to lay it before his unapproachable Excellency the Secretary of war. Genrl. Heintzelman wants to see it thoroughly and fairly tried in the field, and says he does not doubt its ultimate success. He takes a very lively interest in it, and either alone or in connection with someone else from Phila to whom he has written on the subject, wants to go with me to the Sec'y of War. In a week or so in all probability, the fate of my Kitchen will, at least for the present, be decided.

Have you ever seen regenerated fossils? If not you could see one in my revived war spirit. The news that Fremont is to have command of all the colored men has once more aroused me. No visit home, no attendance to Kitchen, no more fear for my health in a southern climate, if Fremont will take me as Q.M. on his own staff, I'll go and contribute to make his movements as lively and effective as possible. I think that he will prove the real liberator, and Othello's occupation in Boston will be gone. To make sure of whether he wants to have me I think there are 4 things necessary:

  1. That you come to New York at my expense and there go to see him with me in person.
  2. That while in that godliest of all the towns in christendom, you consider me your adopted daughter, and stay with me.
  3. That you telegraph to me at once, if you please, whether you can or will come.
  4. That we meet in New York at 10 Union Square on Monday morning next.
Thus this programme suit you? I mail this letter this (Thursday) 4 Pm., on Saturday morning you ought to get it, if you therefore telegraph on Saturday by 3 or 4 Pm. to care of Willard's hotel here, I would start from here either Saturday or Sunday night. If you would not or could not come, or if you don't get this in time for Saturday afternoon's telegraphing, then I shall of course not start until I hear from you. Should you telegraph and the message not reach me in time, as sometimes happens, and should you thereupon arrive in N.Y. on Monday morning without finding me, then be kind enough to renew your message from there and expect me by Tuesday morning. So far so good. I agree with Gerrit Smith. We have the milk in the bucket, let us carry it safely by walking slowly. Impetuous Conway wants to run, forgetting that it has taken so much pain to get it into the bucket, and that we can not afford to have him and all of ye spill it by running.

My love to you and those few you thing you ought to remember me to. 

                            Yours sincerely
                               M Pinner
P.S.
I have already constructed a model of my improved apparatus, so as to fit it into any common Army wagon, as alluded to in Heintzelman's and Thomas'' letters, and if Fremont wants me for better or worse, I'll set to work at once, getting up an apparatus that will - read and laugh at it - cook on the back of a mule, while in motion. Ain't people right who say, Abolitionists are crazy? I always agreed with poor Kearny on this point: we ought to abolish all wagons (my poor Kitchen wagon included) and substitute pack mules for all land transportation of the army. P.
10 Letters from Moritz Pinner to Wendell Phillips.

Moritz Pinner.

Doron Zeilberger's Family.