LEXINGTON, KY., April 12, 1851.
DEAR SIR,—You may, perhaps, recollect that I was inconsiderate enough to
address a letter to you during the last winter on the subject of a warrant to
West Point for one of a numerous family of sons, under circumstances which I
erred, perhaps, in supposing were somewhat peculiar, and with claims upon the
country, personal and hereditary, which I no doubt greatly overrated in my
desire to gratify the ardent wishes of a beloved child.
I was not fortunate enough to receive any answer to that letter; and
although the application was warmly supported by both the senators from this
State and several members of Congress from this and other States, being myself
without political influence, it failed, as I ought to have foreseen it must. I
feel it to be due to you and to myself to say that I regret very much having,
in a moment of parental weakness, committed so great an error, and by this
declaration atone, at least to my own feelings, for the only instance, through
a life now not very short, in which I have asked from any one anything for
myself or any member of my family. Praying you to excuse what I so much regret,
I am, very respectfully,
SOURCE: Ann Mary Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With Selections from His Correspondence
and Speeches, Vol. 1, p. 385
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