WASHINGTON, May 8, 1852.
DEAR JAMES,—Summoned
by a telegraphic dispatch of the 27th ultimo, I arrived here on Tuesday evening
last, the 5th instant. For forty-eight hours after my arrival, my father
appeared better than he had been for a week previous. He is very feeble, and
there is no longer any hope of his reaching Kentucky alive.
Dr. Jackson thinks
that there may be a termination of his case in a few hours, and it may be
possible that he may live a week or ten days longer. He is greatly reduced in
flesh; the same cough yet continues to harass and weaken him, and he is now
unable even to walk across the room. Yesterday evening, supported by a friend
on each side, he was very near fainting. He has now to be carried from his bed
to his couch. He can not talk five minutes in the course of the day without
great exhaustion.
He has directed me
to say in answer to your letter of the 24th ultimo, that he is too weak to
attend to the matter you write of with Corcoran and Riggs.
He is calm and
composed, and will meet the enemy without any fears of the result. The
Sacrament was administered to him yesterday, by Mr. Butler, the Episcopalian
chaplain of the Senate. Give my love to your wife and children.
SOURCE: Calvin
Colton, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Henry Clay, p. 631
No comments:
Post a Comment