1

P.S. I write in haste & with that abomination of all lovers of legible writing -- a steel{underlined}
pen{underlined} -- Being on my way to Memphis, & obliged to leave, it may be at a moments warning,
I have not time to re-write this.

Glenn Oak near Nashville Tenn:
April 2. 1857.
--------------------------

Mrs. L. N. French

My dear Madam,

On my way yesterday to Nashville
from Columbia I met with your communication to the
Patriot of March 31. I read it with more pleasure than
I can very well express. I tender you my grateful acknow=
=ledgments for that contribution to the great cause we have
in hand. It is precisely the kind of aid we need in
order to ensure success. We entertain no fears, or at
least slight ones, in reference to the practicability of
obtaining funds to execute our enterprise; but it
is the co-operation & countinance of the mind and
heart of the country that we want; and which, if
we can concentrate upon this noble & worthy object,
all selfish & narrow-minded considerations connec=
=ted with sectional preferences & localities will be
swallowed up in the grand purpose of founding an
institution that will bless posterity when we shall
be forgotten in our graves. You rightly appreciate
the objects & aims of those who originated & have now
put foward to public notice this scheme. It has
been with some of us a long-projected purpose -- and a
subject of much anxious consideration for years
past. Movements have been occasionally made