RK-940

New York.

Dear Bob.

Yours of the 21st ult. recd. on Febry 9; it was advertised.

I have received no letters from any of you since I should say last March or April. that last was one of Charlie's.

I have not changed my abode. but as your letter reached me addressed to New York; please always write through that channel or with that address.

I am very discontented with the Country. I cannot get in an atom in the

Press. The popular prejudices run too strongly against me. Scholarship liberality and eloquence are thrown away upon your "patriots." This cloud has risen up for the last two years; it now overshadows everything. God knows if we are not on the eve of a wicked and fiendish war stirred up by the Administration who only know too well the how to work upon the vulgar passions of the American people.

The grand old State of Massachusetts appears to me to alone hold aloof from this wretched mania.

I certainly had given the country

credit for more liberality of feeling than it really possessed. I now think of emigrating to Canada, where I can have a better chance of success. Not that I am not satisfied enough now, but my prospects are precarious. The middle States are no place for me.

Whenever I want to check the current of ill humor, I think of the Kennicotts, and the kindness I received at their hands. In case of a War, I am divided between a retreat to Illinois or to Canada.

Dissatisfied as I was with the oligarchic rule of the old Country - I have been still more disgusted with the

mobocratic rule that obtains in New York State. While the events of the past two years & a half have exalted the moral force of the British, they have fearfully detracted from that of the Americans.

The American people are not all like the Kennicotts, and I conjure you if you want to prevent me from becoming a loyal Briton, to exert your influence over me.

The Old. Whigs of this Country appear to represent about 9/10ths of the morality & high principle of the country in public & private life.

I shall remain here till July or August for certain, I think, but how much longer I cannot say. I expect to be recalled[underlined] home in about a couple of years, if I can only hold out till then. I have had intimations[underlined], but my game is time[underlined], slow & sure; I leave the advances to them & seem only to reciprocate[underlined] them.

My children are well. The present must be a game[strikethrough] fine time for the farmers. I am sorry you have the ague.

What arrangements have you made for this winter's schooling.