Henry Norman letter.

House of Representatives Washington D.C.

April 8th, 1878

My very dear Mother:-

You are very much surprised at the above heading. Yes, I am writing from Washington, the capital of America, and from the house of a member of the American parliament. Briefly, I have come down here - about 500 miles south of Boston - with Price to spend the Easter vacation of two weeks. We are staying with his grandfather, Hon. Vivian Price of Iowa. We have been having a "glorious time" as they say here and have met lots of historic and interesting people. We have been in the House of Representatives or the Senate every day & have heard all the great men speak. On Sunday we went to church with Secretary McGary & family, the secretary of war - one of the prominent members of the Cabinet. This morning we drove round Washington with Senator Wadleigh & family, from New Hampshire. Tomorrow morning we are to call on Senator Blaine & in the evening we will meet President & Mrs Hayes. We have visited Mount Vernon, the home & the grave of George Washington & altogether have had a very elaborate visit. The Capitol - Parliament House - is the handsomest public building I ever saw. It is built of white marble in the pure Greek style & in size is simply enormous. All the other public buildings - all of which I have been over - are equally handsome & all built of white marble & granite. Tomorrow we visit the Treasure to see them make the bank-notes - "greenbacks".

Since I have been here and seen the methods & met the members of the United States government I am a more decided disbeliever in such a form of popular government than ever. And surely - perhaps in my life-time - the time will come when America will no longer be a republic. Haste the day! More about this in my next. Dear love to all & kisses to Nellie

Affectionately your Harry

The Hon. H. A. Willard, the prop of the Unitarian church here told me today that when I graduated he would arrange for an exchange for me.

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