Burlington, October 28, 1862.
I have received your letter, and by the same mail one from H––.
In the pressure of my business I must make this letter answer as the
acknowledgment of both. I watch with a great deal of solicitude the progress
that the Iowa boys are making at the Naval School. I am as anxious as your
parents are that you should each and every one of you succeed and be ornaments
of your profession. I shall hail your success with delight. But you all use one
expression that I do not like. You speak of your anxiety and your desire to “keep
up” with your class. You ought to set your mark higher than that. You
should aim not only to “keep up,” but to keep ahead of your class, you
should lead and not follow. Be satisfied with no rank in your
class below the first. You should strive for that position — not merely for the
honor of it, that should be a secondary consideration — but because the habits,
methods, and discipline, that will be necessary to enable you to take that high
rank will prepare you for future successes through life, and will inspire you
with a noble ambition to occupy distinguished positions, and the ability to
fill them creditably to yourself and your friends.
You are all blessed with good constitutions. You can safely
submit to the confinement and labor that will be required of you. You all have
the requisite natural capacity. Nothing is necessary to complete success at the
Academy but indomitable energy and perseverance. I do not expect too much of
you in the outset. I have told your parents that they must be satisfied with a
low report the first month from each of you, but that if you have proper
application to study, the firm resolution to please them, and honor yourselves,
your monthly reports will grow better and better. Remember that you are now
laying the foundations of your whole course. Skip nothing; understand
thoroughly all that you go over; and your future studies will become
comparatively easy. Remember, my dear boys, that I have a deep interest in you,
I desire your welfare. I hope you will each give me further cause to be proud
of our noble State of Iowa. May God bless you all who claim Iowa as your home!
SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes,
p. 219-20
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