p.

& with the sympathy of all my faculties. I
do not know what training might have
done for me, but the habitude of years
has made me the least fortunate man
conceivable for a stump speaker. Moreover,
even were it otherwise, I am so wholly out
of sympathy with the manner in which
the Republican Congress has been thus far
mainly conducted & with the men who have
been prominent in it, that my contribution
would be at best but a bucket of cold water.
George Hoar & I are at opposite points of
the Congress on the Southern question. I feel
therefore that I am only [ ?] loyalty
with my friendship for him in [declining ?] to
encumber him with what would be but
awkward help. If I thought I could make
an effective speech in his behalf, I would
not hesitate a moment. Had it been
earlier in the Congress, it might have been
possible, but, apart from other considerations,
I am just now suffering a depression from
physical causes which peculiarly unfits me
for any such exertion. What my wishes &
hopes are I need not say, & George Hoar would
be the last person to misunderstand them.
I remain
very truly yours
J. R. Lowell