New York, Wednesday September 4^th 1823
Dear Harry –
I have been in town more than a week and yet have delayed until this moment
to tell you how much pleasure I received from the perusal of your two last letters and how strongly I envied you the possession
of such pure happiness as the last five letters you have written prove you to enjoy – But when I tell you that I found my brother
awaiting my arrival and that his claims upon me engrossed a great portion of my time you will be disposed to regard
my silence in a more charitable light and to believe that at no very distant period I may rival the renowned Captain
Bobadil in dispatch – It shall certainly be my constant case to convince you that I am warmly interested in our
correspondence and I hope that my letters will always prove what value I place upon the sentiments of regard you have
expressed in my favor – I feel that even my intercourse with absent relatives is cold when compared with that I
maintain with you and I should be humbled at such a conviction if I ranked friendship as low as many with whom I
associate – Do you recollect the assertion of the author of Adam Blair that absence invariably weakened the attachment previously
existing between friends? Is he correct where that absence is supplied by a minutely confidential correspondence?
Soon after I had last written to you Ogden made his appearance at my boarding house and told me that
he had come up for the sole purpose of persuading me to make with him a pedestrian excursion to the
Highlands and from there to the Catskill Mountains – as I did not calculate upon my brother’s arrival under
a fortnight and was already wearied with the complete inaction to which I had resigned myself since Howe had
left me I did not require much persuasion and we set off the next morning after his arrival
Tuesday morning September 16^th
Dear Harry
This sheet has remained folded in a law book since the first
evening I spread it before me and I determined to send it in its present state without
waiting until I shall be able to write a long letter – Since the above date I have
not had a single evening to myself and it has been impossible for me to write to you
in the office – My eldest brother has called regularly every evening and carried me
round among our relations many of whom I had not seen since I was fourteen years
old – We have not paid visits to all of them yet and I am engaged for the three succeeding
evenings to go with him and eat pound cake and drink gooseberry wine among a
set of clever hum-drum people whom we have the honour to be connected with –
Knowing my disposition as well as you do you will not be surprised at finding that
a complete dissipation of thought has been the consequence of my past habits –
I have not had spirits sufficient to hold the pen after separation from such agreable
company as I have lately visited and I have looked at this sheet often and often
with a stupid helplessness and a pleasing contempt at my superior energy
Forgive me Harry for neglecting you as I have done – You must be certain
that your interest in my affections is as strong as when you were in New York– I feel
that absence has not lessened your hold upon me and I am ashamed that I
should by the infrequency of my letters be compelled to make protestations which
would not be made had I long since written – Do not believe that I am
indifferent to your present happiness because I do not hasten to congratulate you
I have found an excuse for my remissness in reflecting that you were so
happy that there was not the same necessity for regularity and that love engrossed
you so completely as perhaps to render you less anxious respecting letters –

This shallow pretence could not however satisfy my conscience – Your two last letters are
convincing proofs that in the midst of love you have remembered friendship – I assure
you that I have been more pleased with the perusal of those letters than any you
have ever written and from the certainty that your present attachment has not
abated your friendship I have derived a permanent satisfaction – Henceforth,
I shall show as far as letters will prove it to you that I am not insensible to
your warmth and that I shall not omit every opportunity of returning it –
I swear to you that I will write a long letter before the week closes although
I should be compelled to pay obsequious court to my worthy relatives – I
have a full and particular account to give you of Major Andrè and
I am glad that I am able to enter into the spirit of your last communication
on that subject –
The Counsellor calls me Yours in haste –
David Berdan
I will not ask you to write until I have sent you
what is worthy of being termed a letter – Be assured
of my writing before the week closes –

William H. Seward Esq
Auburn
New York
NEW YORK
SEP
16

[right Margin] h

Hand Shiftx

William Seward

Birth: 1801-05-16 Death: 1872-10-10

D. Berdan
Sept 4, 1823