Mt. Savage, Maryland, Dec. 28, 1860.
My Dear Boy, —
. . . If you have
any respectable mode of getting through your days, and do not feel yourself in
danger of becoming a demned disreputable, dissatisfied loafer, I should advise
you to be in no hurry to plunge into trade. Cotton is unthroned, but Corn is
not yet king, and meanwhile Chance rules. The South is just now a mere mob, and
no man can tell whither a mob may rush. This only is certain, that
whatsoever course is most to be avoided, that Mr. Buchanan will select. If war
is possible J. B. will make it a sure thing, and in case of war so many new
doors to wealth will be opened, and so many old ones be closed, it seems to me
it would be unwise to be in a hurry. Hold your horses until after March 4th at
any rate.
. . . Much obliged
for your suggestion of wines — but get thou behind me, Satan! A man in debt
must drink water.
SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of
Charles Russell Lowell, p. 191-2
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