AT HOME, near Thibodeaux,
La., October 25, 1860.
MY DEAR SHERMAN: It
is long since we last communed, but both of us have been travelers, and that
seldom conduces to correspondence. . . When in Virginia I had a long letter
from my old friend Graham, dated just after the examination, giving me most
agreeable information of the general success of our bantling (the Seminary),
and especially of my young protégé, Perkins. Intermingled with this was the
unpleasant controversy in the Board of Supervisors, and a result injurious, I
fear, to the permanent prosperity of the Academy. Yet we must not despair or
cease our exertions in the right direction. Our popularity is growing daily
with the influential people of the country, and I believe with perseverance we
shall conquer all opposition. Indeed, I don't know but it is better for us to
have it. We should never labor to accomplish our object with half the zeal or determination
but for this very ignorant prejudice. But let me beg of you not to compromise
your position by actively espousing either cause. Graham is able to fight the
battle on our side, and your opinion will have more weight and influence when
drawn out, as it must be, than if you were an active party in the controversy.
I hope our anticipations
may be realized in having a full attendance at the opening of your session next
week. I gave a letter this morning to a young man. . . I hope you may work him
into some corner left open by non-attendance. I am told he has been a
headstrong, willful, and lazy boy, hard to keep at any school. But his father
has great hopes in the military enthusiasm, your system of regularity and
accountability and in Fred's influence. Fred [Perkins] has just called to bid
me goodby. From being a thin, sickly, sallow boy, he is grown ruddy, erect, and
manly in appearance. And by this great physical change and his admirable
deportment since his return home, he has done much in this community to call
favorable attention to the Academy. It is a source of no little pleasure to me,
and your heart would be delighted to see the just pride of his good old
white-headed mother as she admires her baby. He is her youngest, and born after
his father's death. I trust he may still continue to deserve the commendation
of his superiors.
When north I had no
opportunity of seeing anything about that old battery. But I do not see that
anything can be done except in the way you propose – a donation by the general
government, and I see no reason why this may not succeed. Governor Moore told me
it should have his cordial support. I could easily get the approval of the
Senate, I suppose, through Mr. Slidell and my brother. What say you to a
memorial from the Board of Supervisors headed by the governor? It would be
indelicate for me to move in the matter, and may be egotistical for me to do
even the suggesting. But I should feel a pride in your success and believe it
would benefit the Academy. For a precedent you have only to see the donations
to Missouri of guns captured by Doniphan in the affair of Sacramento. Guns do
not cease to be national trophies because they may be entrusted to the keeping
of a state, and a proviso might be added requiring their return whenever the
state should cease to use them as proposed. Make a point, too, of their being
"worn out” and no longer of any intrinsic value. But my sheet is full and
egotistical garrulity must cease. . . .
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