ASHLAND, May 9, 1851.
MY DEAR SON,—I received your letter of the 28th ultimo. From Susan I had
learned your plans for the future. Although they involve a separation of you
and your family from me, I can not complain of them and think them judicious. I
am afraid that we did not explain ourselves mutually fully to each other. It
was my anxious wish that you should have succeeded me in the possession of
Ashland, if it had suited your inclination and interest, and if you had been at
home I think we could have made some arrangement by which you could have come
into the immediate possession of it, and I could have taken your house. But you
were not here; and before you went to Europe, and in your letters from Lisbon,
you displayed so much anxiety to sell the house that I concluded to take the
offer of Mr. Miller. Mr. Trotter too was about to give it up, and as I was on
the eve of my departure for Washington, and knew of no tenant that I could get,
I did not well know what to do with it. I think it ought to have brought ten
thousand dollars, which is what I should have been willing to have allowed for
it, but I obtained the best price I could get, and the sale of it was far
better than that to Mr. Goodhue which you appeared willing to make.
My health is not good, a troublesome and inconvenient cough has hung by
me for six months past; it has reduced and enfeebled me very much. Dr. Dudley
thinks that my lungs are unaffected, and that it proceeds from some derangement
in the functions of the stomach. Be that as it may, I must get rid of the cough
or it will dispose of me. My hopes rest upon the effects of warm weather.
Susan and the children are well, and appear to be contented and
satisfied. They are a source of great happiness to me, and I look forward to
their leaving us with painful anticipations. Your mother and John are both
quite well, and so are Thomas and his family. John is constantly occupied with
our numerous horses and those which are sent to Ashland. He is in good spirits
and appears much encouraged with prospects, and I think has reason to be so. My
overseer is doing admirably well, and your mother is better pleased with him
than she ever was with any of his predecessors. I have a great many things to
say to you and to talk to you about, but among the inconveniences of my present
indisposition, one is, that it is less agreeable to me than formerly to write
or even to dictate, as I am now doing. I must therefore reserve for the
occasion of your return to us to say whatever I now omit. Susan gets your
weekly letters regularly and I hope you will continue to write, as in that way
I can learn your projects and prospects.
SOURCE: Calvin Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of
Henry Clay, p. 616-7
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