Latest revision as of 07:36, 14 July 2015

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by the [steamer] Niagara 11 Welfield Place [Liverpool, England] – 21 March [18]’62

Dear Ann Friday night –

This evening Mrs. Cropper sent me a short note, enclosing your letter to her of 3rd inst[ant] [3 March] & the Extracts from the “Caucasian,” & I have read them all – i.e. your letter to her & these extracts. – She says; “If you are writing to Ann by this mail, will “you give her my kind love, & say I hope to write by next “post. – How all seems “going ahead” on the other “side. What do you think of things? whenever you “can pay us a visit, we shall be most happy to “see you. – Kind love to the Bolds – Always yours “most truly – Anne Cropper.” –

I intend calling at the Dingle tomorrow morn[in]g, to return these things, & to read to Mrs. Cropper the copy of Nans letter of 24th February to you – but not to pay as long a morning call there as in the last occasion, because, for one reason, I have not the time for it. –

By “going ahead” I suppose Mrs. Cropper means this last Message from Mr. Lincoln suggesting the proposal, to the Border States, of Emancipation with compensation. – As might be expected, this recommendation has attracted universal attention on this side; & all the newspapers are commenting upon it. Taking their cue from the first short article of the Times, of yesterday (there is a much longer one in that paper today) they commonly construe it as an evidence of the North being tired out & exhausted & ready to assent to a separate Confederacy of the Cotton States, provided the Border States will join the North.

This, I need scarcely say, is not my interpretation, & as for exhaustion of the North, I think it absurd. I do not see how the people of the North; or perhaps,

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I ought to say, the West [underscored], can ever be brought to as= =sent to surrendering the command of the navigation of the mouth & main trunk of the Missi[ssippi] [River] to a South =ern Confederacy. I therefore expect the War to go on until the Stars & Stripes wave over N[ew] Orleans; & I think that when that is the case, Mobile [Alabama] will follow such of its own accord, & secession would then naturally crum =ble to pieces. –

I do not imagine that Mr. Lincoln’s proposition will find favour in any one of the Border States collectively, tho’ there are perhaps many owners of Slaves who coincide in his views. – If it have any effect at all, throughout the Slave States, I think it will only be that of intensifying & strengthening their efforts for independence.

But I did not sit down to discuss this matter.

Today I had a long visit from William. – I gave him £4 – half for himself & half for him to give to Fontaine, whom I have not seen since yesterday afternoon: & I intend giving them the same sum this day week, & each succeeding Friday. – I told each of them that many persons managed to sup= =port a family [‘support a family’ underscored] out of £100 a year, or even less.

They were both at the Steel’s yesterday. W[illia]m, at my recommendation, went in the 2 p.m. boat &

     there

dined ^. They had both untended going at 3 1/2 p.m.; & Fontaine not meeting with W[illia]m until [struck-through] after he left me, waited until that or a later hour, & so did not reach the house until 5 minutes before W[illia]m left. – They had a very kind reception, & are to go again, by invitation, to dine there some day next week.

William had a long talk yesterday with his uncle Horatio, after he parted with me: &

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uncle H[oratio] threw cold water upon all his plans for cultivating business connections here with the

                                                  him

view to returning to N[ew] O[rleans] & recommended ^ to try & find employment as a clerk in L[iver]pool.

I told W[illia]m that I was dead against his plan of seeking business with L[iver]pool as a merchant at N[ew] O[rleans], for I was sure it would end in a col= =lision between himself & James. – I enquired into the circumstances which had brought about his appli- =cation for relief to the Court of Bankruptcy at N[ew] O[rleans], & thus learnt that the chief Cr[editor] of W[illiam] Maury & Hogg was a N[ew] O[rleans] dentist, a friend of Hogg, & who had advanced them money. – I asked how it was as to Cr[editor]s in the West; & he said that the sum total of such claims did not exceed about $600.

I was glad to find them so trifling and build

ing upon this I urged him by all means to re

=sume his business at N[ew] O[rleans], just as before, as a Western Produce factor etc., and whenever he left here, to steer for N[ew] York & St. Louis, & thus see all his business friends in the West. – He spoke of it as a bad business. – I pointed out that he was doing well in it until he took Mr. Hogg into partner =ship: - but I said nothing about “Buff: Targeris” – tho’ I said much about the principle of a “rolling stone” not “gathering moss” etc. He asked me if I knew what cousin Rob[er]t had recommended. I said I had not heard any thing about it. He then

        R[obert]

told me cousin ^ had recommended him to set up in business (as soon as the War is over) either at Richmond or Norfolk [Virginia], & had said, he would back him with the necessary means. – I said that neither place was to be compared for one moment as a field of business with N[ew] Orleans; & that there

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was far more competition there than at N[ew] Orleans that he would have to learn some new calling, but if he went back to N[ew] O[rleans] & persevered in his old line in connection with the West, I saw no reason why he should not prosper: - that every branch of business, when properly pursued, was self= =supporting. – He evidently wants to go to work trading [underscored] on his own [‘his own’ underscored] account & relying upon cousin Robert, I presume, for the capital. – He spoke of some man in N[ew] O[rleans] whose main trade was importing gunny-bags & Soda-ash, & who, to the surprise of most persons, having died lately, had left $300,000 [underscored]; and so W[illia]m is now [?] gunny-bags & Soda-ash. – I told him that the latter was an article the consumption of which appertained almost entirely to the Northern or Free States, & that N[ew] York & Boston were the import= =ers of gunny-bags; & that if cousin Rob[er]t allowed him to invest the proceeds of the Lard in articles to be shipped to N[ew] O[rleans] I doubted whether gunny – bags were a desirable investment. He said he wanted to buy second-hand [‘second-hand’ underscored] bags, if to be laid down at N[ew] O[rleans] at not over 7¢ each, or thereabouts. He spoke of their being wanted as a substitution for cotton-[baggery?] by the cotton-planters, as well as for grain. – I told him that perhaps the supplies both of India [baggery?] & new [underscored] gunny bags in N[ew] Y[ork] & Boston were was [struck-through] large & ample, & that Kentucky was perhaps holding an adequate supply of Hempen [baggery?].

I said I would ask his uncle Matthew for in- =formation on these points. [‘I...point’ underscored] – I think William is visionary & speculative. – It is just as well for him to have this opportunity of revisiting his native land, & it is well that you had not too many of these lads quartered upon you at the

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(5) same time; but I do not see anything else to be gained by his coming here. – It is pretty plain that uncle Horatio does not want to be bothered by either of these lads – tho’ I have not yet had an opportunity of talking with him on the subject.

In a pecuniary point of view, it will, I think, “cost more than it comes to” – for his coming over here to pocket a comm[ission] on the sale of the Lard – when we consider the cost of passage each way & his board etc. while here. – It might have been cheaper to me & as good for him to have given him a bank cheque in N[ew] York for as much as these commissions will amount to.

I am inclined to turn him over to E. Heath & Co[mpany] as the best party to sell his Lard & invest the proceeds – altho’ they are James’ constituents. I should then feel that cousin Robert’s interests were in safe hands; whilst Mr. Burton is just the man, I think, to consult about gunny-bags & other articles to be shipped to N[ew] O[rleans]. –

I told W[illia]m I did not think it well to act on uncle Horatio’s suggestion to try & find employ= =ment here as a clerk.

Before we had this talk I read to him your 3 last letters – 27 Feb[ruar]y to 6th March – or the greater part of them. – It was past 2 p.m. when he left me. – I then went to call upon Mr. Fer= =dinand Rodewald, intending (on behalf of W[illia]m) to ask him whether T & P.D.S. Sellar & Co[mpany] have any regular correspondent, or agent at N[ew] O[rleans] for, as they are engaged largely in the trade in Provisions, Lard, & Breadstuffs, I thought that if they were without any N[ew] O[rleans] agent, it might be

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desirable for W[illia]m to place his Lard in their hands. – I fancy, however, that they have friends there already, in the house of [Denistorms?]! or in Tom [Byren?] the Cotton factor: - But when I got to Mr. Rodewald’s office I found from his clerk that he is laid up with a cold & had not come to town today. –

I read to W[illia]m that part of Matthew’s letter to me of 4 March wherein he says the Lard is in course of shipment, & he further remark, “Tell him that in my opinion, [‘my opinion’ underscored] when the Lard “is sold - & for which he ought to select a re= “=sponsible consigner, he ought to put the Money “in the Bank of Liverpool, to remain there sub= “=ject to the order of R. H. Maury & Co[mpany].[Robert H. Maury] – whereupon W[illia]m remarked that he should probably have a letter before long, & perhaps before the Lard arrives from R. H. Maury & Co[mpany] themselves: - but I am of the same opinion as Matthew on these points.

Most of what I have written in this letter about W[illia]m is intended as much for Matthew as for you, or more so. [‘more so’ underscored]

22nd (Office) 1 1/2 p.m. I sat an hour with Mrs. Cropper this morn[in]g. She had not heard from Mary Wakefield for some days past.

On reaching here I find Matthews 2 letters of 7th & 7/8 inst[ant] [7 & 7/8 March] the latter enclosing your note of the 7th & Mary’s to me & to Mary Bold, & Walkers of the 6th & a note from Walker for W[illia]m to whom I have given it. – Mrs. Sabines position is very, very sad, & I feel very sorry for her. Y[ou]rs affectionately R[utson] Maury