Researching the Twain incident, I thought it would be interesting to research other letters written around or before the Whitter Dinner, which was on December 18, 1877. I found some really interesting letters after the incident. After the incident he exchanged a few letters with William Howells, expressing his sheer disappointment and asking for his advice
In addition to the letters sent to William Howells, one I found particularly interesting was a letter sent to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver W. Holmes. In the letter he expressed his apologies:
I will end, now. I had to write you, for the easement of it, even though the doing it might maybe be a further offense. But I do not ask you to forgive what I did that night, for it is not forgivable; I simply had it at heart to ask you to believe that I am only heedlessly a savage, not premeditatedly; & that I am under as severe punishment as even you could adjudge to me if you were required to appoint my penalty. I do not ask you to say one word in answer to this; it is not needful, & would of course be distasteful & difficult.
SLC to Ralph Waldo Emerson; duplicate letters ...; 27 Dec 1877, Hartford, Conn. (UCCL 01184). 2007. <http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=letters/UCCL01184.xml;style=letter;brand=mtp>
Reading the letter it seems as if he is truly disappointed in his speech and apologetic for his speech. He clearly reveres the literary greats he insulted and is bothered by the incident. Following the letter of apology he writes another letter to Howells. In the letter he tells Howells how it would be an intrusion to write to Whittier about the incident.
Though it seems Twain did exaggerate the event, it is clear that it still bothered Twain a tremendous amount as evident by his letters.
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I found Longfellow, Holmes, and Emerson's responses, as published in Mark Twain's Letters in 1917 and edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. Longfellow responded, "I do not believe anybody was much hurt. Certainly I was not, and Holmes tells me he was not. So I think you may dismiss the matter from your mind wihout further remorse." Holmes replied, "It never occurred to me for a moment to take offense, or feel wounded by your playful use of my name." Paine writes of Emerson, "Miss Ellen Emerson replied for her father (in a letter to Mrs. Clemens) that the speech had made no impression upon him, giving at considerable length the impression it had made on herself and other members of the family" (318).
The fact that the incident bothered him makes it more likely that if he were to give his speech a second time, it wouldn't be because he failed in presenting it as he desired but rather as a way to get back at the audience for the way they did react. It seemed like he wanted to make fun of them again just to see their response.
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