Letter from Samuel Blatchford to Lazette Miller Worden, July 29, 1840

  • Posted on: 10 December 2018
  • By: admin
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Letter from Samuel Blatchford to Lazette Miller Worden, July 29, 1840
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transcriber

Transcriber:spp:cnk

student editor

Transcriber:spp:ahf

Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive

Institution:University of Rochester

Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections

Date:1840-07-29

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Letter from Samuel Blatchford to Lazette Miller Worden, July 29, 1840

action: sent

sender: Samuel Blatchford
Birth: 1820-03-09  Death: 1893-07-07

location: Auburn, NY

receiver: Lazette Worden
Birth: 1803-11-01  Death: 1875-10-03

location: Canandaigua, NY

transcription: cnk 

revision: tap 2017-10-16

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Page 1

"Richard's himself again." All the elasticity of my mind has come to my rescue and made me what I was before
the distraction of the past week. The ten days of my sojourn in Canandaigua seem like a dream. Their incidents flit before
me like passing shadows. My memory has cast into oblivion every thing that unkindness, suspicion, want of generosity
and even insult would have wrought if they could and I remember only you, the happy hymns that I passed by your side,
and the unmingled good which is the rich reward of all time I spend with you. At times while I was with you
I felt as if my reason was unseated and I should forever be a prey to contending passions. But more vigorous
health of mind than ever instructs me that every contest with error and every struggle against temptation leave
the intellect sounder and the heart purer. To your forbearance with my unguardness, & your perseverance despite
all my folly, and to your unremitting affection requited too often with thoughtlessness and neglect, I owe a debt
so great that a patriarchal life would be far too short for its discharge. I pray Heaven that your precious life
may be spared to your friends yet at least a little while, and that it may be granted to me as my choicest boon
to infuse some sweetness into the bitter cup whose very dregs an all-wise Providence seems to be giving you to
drain. But I should not vex you with these vain sympathies. They are the thoughts of my calmest and happiest
moments, and the tears which I have so often mingled with yours start unbidden to the relief of a spirit full
to overflowing. I will not check them. They flow for you.
From Canandaigua to Geneva I had no fellow-passengers, and indulged my solitary sadness until sleep
overcame me. I then wrapped my cloak around me and slept nearly the whole way to Auburn, where I found
myself at 6 1/2 a.m. I was upon the point of leaving for Albany in the cars at 2 this afternoon, I felt so un-
well just at that hour that I relinquished my purpose, and shall go to morrow morning at 7. The sudden cessation
Page 2

of excitement has brought upon me an all pervading physical debility which regular mental occupation will soon
dissipate.
You are instructed to convey my especially kind regards to each and every one with whom my remincence
of my visit in Canandaigua may remain "as full, and particularly as if the same were here in after particular set forth
"and specified name by name" The papers which Mr Worden
Birth: 1797-03-06 Death: 1856-02-16
gave me were delivered by Peter into the hands
of Mr Bronson
Birth: 1792 Death: 1857-06-20
before 9 this morning. Mr Miller
Birth: 1772-04-11 Death: 1851-11-13
went to Syracuse on Saturday and has not yet returned. I
shall await with anxiety your letter to tell me about A.G.
Birth: 1821 Death: 1858-10-12
My heart is enlisted there and I want you to write to me
fully and frankly. Do not fear to say anything that your judgment may dictate. I know no one but you to whose pilotage
my headslong feelings will submit. But your influence over me is undivided and unbounded. I trust in a meeting
at Saratoga. I am always casting an anchor to the windward.
I fear that you have been sick and have kept your bed all day to day. Mrs Seward
Birth: 1805-09-24 Death: 1865-06-21
has seen Harvey Baldwin
Birth: 1797-02-04 Death: 1863-08-22

of Syracuse who was relieved of a bronchial disease by a winter in Texas. You must go somewhere, and my judgement
is that you should go there. Kiss Fan
Birth: 1826-12-12 Death: 1909-08-24
for me. God bless you ever.
A letter to day from Whittlesey
Birth: 1799-06-12 Death: 1851-09-19
says that Weed
Birth: 1797-11-15 Death: 1882-11-22
had been to Buffalo and left for the East by way of the Canal on
Thursday morning last.