Note 6 — Chapter X · LOWELL AND THE WAR FOR THE UNION 1858-1865
Reading edition
It was very likely after reading this poem that Emerson wrote in his diary, 17 January, 1862: “We will not again disparage America now that we have seen what men it will bear. What a certificate of good elements in the soil, climate, and institutions is Lowell, whose admirable verses I have just read! Such a creature more accredits the land than all the fops of Carolina discredit it.”