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The Charles P. McIlvaine letters were written in the 18th and 19th century and therefore may contain language that we understand today as harmful or offensive. You may encounter paternalist descriptions of Native Americans, racial slurs, or sexism. For more information, see our policy page.
Description
McIlvaine unhappy about son's working conditions. Don't let him know I write. Rebel clergyman in Canada writes that "men will hold me more guilty than any other man for all the blood and cruelty of the war."
ISBN
KMcI 640314b
Date
3-14-1864
Keywords
letter, McIlvaine, Chase, son, clergy
Recommended Citation
McIlvaine, Charles Pettit, "Letter to Salmon P. Chase" (1864). Charles Pettit McIlvaine Letters. 79.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/mcilvaine_letters/79
Rights Statement
Transcript
Cinc. March 14/64
My dear Mr. Chase
I am greatly concerned about my son’s health. He writes that he ascribes his present state in a great degree to the discomforts of his room in the Treasury, the floor without carpet, the chimney obstructed by work going on above (I suppose). dust + smoke. He is so feeble, + from the spinal curvature which contracts his chest, is so easily affected by want of good air that I feel quite anxious about him. Most unwillingly do I ask you to pull down your thoughts for a moment from the great cares of your office; but if you would cause some enquiry to be made into his room without his knowing that I have send [sic] anything about it, I would be very much obliged.
I had a pleasant piece of information the other day from a Rebel of a Clergyman who writes me from Canada (a nephew of Bp. Johns) that “never will hold me more greatly than any other man of all the blood + cruelty of this war”
I did not know before, that I was this ahead of Mr. Lincoln or even Jefferson Davis.
I expect to be in Washn. in the last of April, for I must decide whether to advise my son on account of his health _ the great difficulty of getting such boarding accommodation as he needs (Mrs. Williams where has always lived being about to break up her establishment) to resign his office _ come to us.
Your affectionate friend
Chas.P.McIlvaine