Further than that, he does not appear to have
distinguished between the two parties. Of his most intimate friends, one
was a democrat and the other a whig. But the annexation of Texas was now
in sight, and Concord was stirred again with the spirit of '75.
Hawthorne, as is well known, did not take interest in the antislavery
movement, and a heated discussion of any subject must have been jarring
and unpleasant to him.
It is not impossible that in this way he came into conflict with
Margaret Fuller and conceived an abiding dislike to her. Miss Fuller
would not have spared her eloquence in regard to what she considered a
matter of principle, nor is it likely that she would have been more
considerate of the respect which is due in such matters from a woman to
a man.
There were not a few persons whom she offended by too much "bounce." To
a reverend gentleman who asked her, as they were parting at the house of
a mutual friend, where her office was in Boston, she replied, "Oh! look
in the directory for it"; instead of politely giving him the street and
number. Thus she lost a pleasant acquaintance and a subscriber to "The
Dial." Hawthorne and his wife had not been four days in Concord before
she came to them with a proposition that they should take Ellery
Channing and his wife, who was her own sister, into their family as
boarders. One cannot help some astonishment at this proceeding, for it
is an instinct with all women to know that a newly married couple do not
like to be interfered with.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55