WASHINGTON, December
25, 1851.
MY DEAR MARY,—I
received to-day your letter of the 19th instant, and I was very glad to get the
details contained in it about yourself, your family, and affairs at Ashland.
And I am under very great obligations to you and to Thomas for the kind offer
which you have made, to come either one or both of you to Washington, to attend
me during my present illness. If there were the least occasion for it, I should
with pleasure accept the offer; but there is not. Every want, every wish, every
attention which I need, is supplied. The hotel at which I stay has a bill of
fare of some thirty or forty articles every day, from which, I can select any
for which I have a relish, and if I want any thing which is not on the bill of
fare, it is promptly procured for me. The state of my case may be told in a few
words. If I can get rid of this distressing cough, or can materially reduce it,
I may yet be restored to a comfortable condition. That is the present aim of my
physicians, and I have some hope that it has abated a little within the last
few days. But if the cough can not be stopped or considerably reduced, it will
go on until it accomplishes its work. When that may be, it is impossible to
say, with any sort of certainty. I may linger for some months, long enough
possibly to reach home once more. At all events, there is no prospect at
present of immediate dissolution. Under these circumstances, I have no desire
to bring any member of my family from home, when there is not the least
necessity for it. With regard to the rumors which reach you from time to time,
and afflict you, you must bear with them, and rest assured of what I have
already communicated to your mother, that if my case should take a fatal turn,
the telegraph shall communicate the fact. I occupy two excellent rooms, the
temperature of which is kept up during the day at about 70°. The greatest
inconvenience I feel is from the bad weather, which has confined me nearly a
fortnight to my room, and I can take no exercise until the weather changes. My
love to Thomas and all your children, to your mother, and to all others at
Ashland.
_______________
* Wife of Clay’s
son, Thomas Hart Clay
SOURCE: Calvin Colton,
Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 623
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