Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 2, 1849
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 2,
1849
transcriber
Transcriber:spp:mjn
student editorTranscriber:spp:lmd
Distributor:Seward Family Digital Archive
Institution:University of Rochester
Repository:Rare Books and Special Collections
Date:1849-05-02
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Letter from William Henry Seward to Frances Miller Seward, May 2, 1849
action: sent
sender: William Seward
Birth: 1801-05-16
Death: 1872-10-10
location: Charleston, SC
receiver: Frances Seward
Birth: 1805-09-24
Death: 1865-06-21
location: Auburn, NY
transcription: mjn
revision: obm 2017-04-21
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Page 1
Charleston, Wednesday morning
May 2, 1849
My Dearest Frances,
We are under a burning sky and upon a
red hot earth here. It is next to impossible to go abroad
after ten in the morning, unless one can be protected by the
shade of an overhanging wall.
What are you doing, what are you thinking? What
are you thinking of a truant husband like me. Here I am
lounging or studying away the mornings and dining away
the evenings, not yet having reached my cause on the calendar
and you are left among strangers, sick I fear in a strange
City. Well I have a hope but not a confident one of
reaching my cause tomorrow and I intend that two days
shall finish it. When I see near enough to make the
inquiry important I shall inquire by telegraph for you
to ascertain where I shall look for my wife and
child on my way home.
I dined yesterday with the Chancellor of the
State Mr. Duncan
Birth: 1792-12-03 Death: 1874-12-05
. Of Mrs Duncan
Birth: 1800-11-01 Death: 1870-01-16
I saw little, her daughter Mrs. Alston
Birth: 1829-01-24 Death: 1878-07-22
is sensible and well bred. She made the matter pass off very agreeable for me.
Her husband
Birth: 1826-04-18 Death: 1869-10-02
is a nephew of Governor Alston
Birth: 1779 Death: 1816-09-10
who married Colonel Burr's
Birth: 1756-02-06 Death: 1836-09-14
daughter
Birth: 1783-06-21 Death: 1813-01-13
.Most of the distinguished members of the Bar were of the party and
I had new reasons to appreciate the graces of South Carolina
hospitality. It is quite clear that the customs and social
state of South Carolina have a tendency to preserve ancestral
prestiges. Here I have met Alstons, Rutlegs
Unknown
, Hugers
Birth: 1779-06-28 Death: 1854-08-21
, andLaurenses
Birth: 1794-09-24 Death: 1863-02-03Certainty: Probable
, and although they
are men not superior to oreven equal to Gentlemen of the same professions at home
still they are held in high respect. Indeed Charlestons
stationary in trade, obsolete in political measures and
inert in the great advance of Government, treasures the
memories of past greatness, and rejoices like "a fine
old English Gentleman all of the older time."
It is clear enough that South Carolina is as overwhelmingly
opposed to the Wilmot Proviso as the North is in favor of
that great policy of Humanity, and even more so. I was
quite surprised this morning on taking up the newpapers
to find that the hospitable intelligent and generous
men with whom I was dining every day oblivious of polit-
ical differences constituted the Committee of Vigilance and
Public Safety to see the South to resist the
as they called it even to blood.
Your own Faithful Henry
[right Margin] May 3d 1849