I am much obliged to
your letters which have kept me easy. Time now begins to approach the season of
action, and I see no better cause for me to pursue that what I have heretofore
designated. By the way all the books, text and library, are already en route to
Converse, Kennett and Co., New Orleans, from New York, and the regulations
ought to be done and shipped to-morrow. So that by or before October 15
everything we need will be there.
My orders are to
ship to Pineville if possible and by the Picayune I see that occasionally a
boat gets up to Alexandria. But if on my arrival there I find all our things I
will promptly write to you to send to me at mouth of Red River four or five
wagons and my horse, that out of the whole I may select the books, bedding, and
hardware necessary and leave the balance to follow when navigation opens. The
arms will be delivered at Alexandria by Uncle Sam, and if freight is excessive
we don't care.
My own preference is
that our cadets should not exceed one hundred and fifty in number and I doubt
if we can do them or ourselves justice if in greater number. Tell Manning if he
or Smith intend to engineer the Seminary through, they must look well to
this question of number. Have new mess hall tables made, same width as the
others but four feet shorter, because four of the present length in a row make
too close a fit. Tell Manning that I hope the mere manner of appointment did
not defeat the assistant professor of mathematics. Such an officer should be
there the very day we begin. Even if his qualifications are limited to
arithmetic. Our teaching must be practical and adapted to the capacity of the
cadets, and all hands must recite daily in mathematics, and it is a physical
impossibility for Vallas to hear all or half. I have been quite sick, bad cold
and some of the bilious that was in me all spring, but I feel better now,
though my face is much broken out with four blisters.
This week is a busy
one for our village – fair, races, etc. This country has thirty thousand
people, town six thousand, the finest farms in the world, and such horses and
cattle as would do you good to see. We have men here who can afford to own such
stock as “Fashion,” and one of our men imported an eight thousand dollar
English horse, “Bonnie Scotland,” which is a beauty.
At this instant the
Prince of Wales is in Cincinnati. Some of the ladies wanted me to go down one
hundred and twenty miles to see him, but I begged off and they got other
escort. He is having a jolly good time and enjoys his trip exceedingly, as he should,
for he makes his progress during fine weather and when fruits are at
perfection. I would like to see the youth, but will trust to the newspapers for
a description.
My brother John
continues to circulate, making Republican speeches and everybody says that in
case Lincoln be elected he will have a high seat in the synagogue. Judging from
the mere local clamor here, and remembering the wild and foolish schism in the
Democratic Party it is more than probable that Lincoln will be elected. But
there is so wide a difference between the Seward Republicans and Corwin
Republicans that in case of success the party will break into flinders worse
than the old Whig Party used to do—and then will begin the war of the Roses.
Which wing of the
Democratic Party is the Simon pure? That seems now the only effort of the
Democrats north—is to try and see which wing of the party shall be construed as
the true heir to the rights and glory of the old Democratic Party. Douglas here
is the Democratic but in the South Breckenridge is.
The truth is that
the present territories—Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and the desert—ain't worth
quarrelling over, and practically nobody can be tempted to go there except as
governor, marshal, judge, etc., of supposed future states. No sensible man with
liberty of choice would think of taking his slaves there. Consequently all this
clamor about rights in territories is a theoretical one, but as you say it
involves a principle and therefore is contended for.
If any calamity
should befall our country in this question, the future historian would have the
pleasant task of chronicling the downfall of the Great Republic, because one
class of would not permit theoretically another class of to go, where neither
party had the most remote intention to go, for I take it that no sensible man
except an army officer who could not help himself ever went to Utah, New
Mexico, or Arizona, or even proposes to do so. And as our dominions now reach
the Pacific, and our frontiers are all “rectified” we have no further necessity
of taking in any more "worthless Mexican waste land."
I hope therefore
that the result of this angry controversy will be no more extension of
territory, but that all states will confine their efforts to perfecting and
improving their internal resources. You can readily understand that I am sick
of this war of prejudice. Here the prejudice is that planters have nothing else
to do but hang abolitionists and hold lynch courts. There, that all the people
of Ohio are engaged in stealing and running off negroes. The truth is they both
do injustice to the other; and if all would forget and mind their respective
interests, it would be found that slave and all other property in the United
States are now at a most prosperous standard.
Yesterday I was out all
day with my boys gathering nuts. I had a single horse spring-wagon and filled
it with black walnuts and chestnuts - and what with roasting, boiling, and
eating chestnuts there is no peace in the house. When I began the young ones
had gone to church but they are back now, and it requires more nerve to write
in the midst of their noises than if a regimental band were in full career.
Mrs. Sherman has put
up for me an amount of currant jelly, quince jelly, and marmalade and all sorts
of preserves – but I doubt if I can take them down. If Red River were navigable
I would send them down to New Orleans from Cincinnati to Kennett and have him
reship them. I am trying to stop smoking. It and bad food had reduced me to a
skeleton, and I am still thin. I was fifteen pounds lighter than ever before in
my life when I reached home. I had paid no attention to it and Mrs. Sherman
thinks I am so careless of what I eat, that she really believes we are starved
down there. I don't know what she will think when she has to depend on
Schwartzenberg and Alexandria for her daily supplies.
I know they are well
off here and therefore shall leave them statu quo till I
send for them, but in the meantime will myself occupy the house built for me,
though I still think Vallas' house should be plastered and painted first, and
Mills can do so. I take it the plastering will all be done before I arrive and
that one and may be two coats of paint on. The moment I arrive at New Orleans I
will write you whether I want the wagons sent to the mouth of Red River. The
distance is sixty-five miles, time three days, load say two thousand pounds for
two yoke. Total time of trip one week - about twenty dollars a load which would
be three dollars a day—or better one dollar the hundred, about that. There will
be fourteen boxes of books, eighty rolls of bed and about six hundred weight of
sundries. Keep your mind on four or five wagons. Wagons should have covers.
Write me very fully
by the 12th October care of Kennett, Blood and Co., New Orleans, on these
points – that I may act with the greatest chance of economy and certainty. Only
make a written charter party, and allow for lay days at a price at the mouth.
If you have one of those two hundred dollar checks left or any means of drawing
send me some by letter as I shall be hard up on arrival at New Orleans; let me
know also then who is vice-president.
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