Himself a staunch follower of Mr. Disraeli, and an abhorrer of Whiggery in
all its forms, he yet found in America's struggle that which appealed both
to his brain and his heart. He was a believer, he told himself, in the
Great State and an opponent of parochialism; so, unlike most of his friends
at home, his sympathies were engaged for the Union. Moreover he seemed to
detect in the protagonists a Roman simplicity pleasing to a good classic.
Mr. Hamilton was sombrely but fashionably dressed and wore a gold eyeglass
on a black ribbon, because he fancied that a monocle adroitly used was a
formidable weapon in debate. He had neat small sidewhiskers, and a pleasant
observant eye. With him were young Major Endicott from Boston and the
eminent Mr. Russell Lowell, who, as Longfellow's successor in the Smith
Professorship and one of the editors of The North American Review, was a
great figure in cultivated circles. Both were acquaintances made by Mr.
Hamilton on a recent visit to Harvard. He found it agreeable to have a few
friends with whom he could have scholarly talk.
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