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CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN. 31 'J ■war could not go on ; the business men of the world would not allow it. " Mr. Peabody," she replied, " I saw that first Maine regiment that answered to Lincoln's call march down State Street in Boston with their chins in the air, singing : ' John Brown's soul is marching on/ and, believe me, this war will not end till slavery is abolished, whether it be in five years or thirty." In 1862, in a letter from Rome written when news of the early Union successes began at last to be received, she lets us perceive how sorely this high confidence had been tried. " It has been so hard," she wrote, " amid the apparent successes of the other side, the defection, the weakness of men on our side, the willingness of even the best to take advantage of the needs of the government, the ridicule of sympathizers with the South on this side, the abuse of the English journals, and the utter impossibility of beating into the heads of individual English that there could be no right in the seceding party — all has been so hard, and we have fought so valiantly for our faith, have so tired and tried ourselves in talking and showing our belief, that when the news came day after day of our successes, and at last your letter, I could not read the account aloud, and tears — hot but refreshing tears of joy, fell copiously upon the page. 0, I am too thankful ; and I am too anxious to come home ! . . . I never cared half so much for America before ; but I feel that now I love it dearly, and want to see it and live in it." To live in it was impossible just then, but the long- ing to see it became too strong to be resisted. She resolved to return at least long enough to act for the benefit of the Sanitary Fund ; and in June, 1863, she sailed for home. Five performances were given — one