I have been owing you a letter for a long time, my dear Nicholas, and have delayed writing, in the hope that an improved state of health and spirits would have enabled me to discharge my debt with some pleasure to you, as well as to my self, but days and weeks have passed, and left as they found...

I hope the fever which you have had is not the prelude of a more serious attack, My Dear Nicholas, but as this is the most sickly part of the year I would recommend great care of your health, to preserve which, strict attention to the diet, regular exercise before the heat of the day, and an...

It is well, my dearest Virginia, you did not wait for a sight of the sun’s “blessed face” before writing, for my indignation had been gathering for three or four weeks, and I had fixed on to-day for pouring it forth— Don’t infer from this that my disposition is an exacting one, in general; it is...

The clouds and mist which have envelloped us continually, have I fear imparted some of their dullness to my brain, for in several attempts that I have made to write to you, My Dearest Nicholas, I have found it too barren to furnish one page of sense. I wish the sun would deign to show his blessed...

A long and unavoidable separation from one so much loved, as you are , Dearest Nicholas, would be painful enough without the fears and melancholy forebodings that I have on the subject of your health. You are already sick and your strength prostrated by one summer spent in Louisiana, how then am...

We arrived here about two weeks ago, though we were not away as you would have concluded from the effects of the disease, as the town is not more unhealthy than usual. I Suppose in the northward the plague is thought to be raging in New Orleans, as the Americans have a natural dread of the...

We have been very uneasy on account of not having received a letter from you for some time but I hope it does not proceed from indisposition. I am reading the 12 Ceasers to my Mother and Hume in my leisure hours. Grandmother Brown has been to town to try and sell the furniture but she has...

You were right in believing my dearest Son that nothing interests my heart so much as the happiness of my Children; therefore you must be certain that your letter of the 13th which I received last night was not read with indifference as it does not denote a mind as happy as I could wish, or you...

January 1. This morning Mason and Slidell and attachés were put on board a tugboat and taken to Provincetown, where the British gunboat “Rinaldo” was waiting. She sailed that night at six in the face of a severe northwest gale. Mr. William Appleton is failing. He died February 15. Incendiary...

December 14. The English Cabinet, on hearing of the seizure of Mason and Slidell from the mail steamer “Trent,” forbade the export of saltpetre and lead, ordered arms sent to Canada, put several vessels in commission, and sent secret orders to their ambassador, Lord Lyons, as the newspapers state...