to have it in my power to visit my Plantation since the crop has been planted; my overseer however writes favorably.

So far I have taken the liberty of acquainting you with what more particularly concerns myself, you will in return very much oblige me by referring to your present year's cropping. I flatter myself you may have made some fresh discovery in the culture of cotton that may be useful. Russell's Gins we have found fully coming up to your description and it is my intention to apply for another this summer should none superior be invented. Lately I saw a Paragraph in the Public print of S. C. setting forth that a man of that state had made considerable improvement on the patent Gins. If you have information in that regard I shall thank you to communicate it me with instructions how to apply for

one.

With my sincerest wishes for the health and happiness of you and yours, I remain, Dr. Sir, with much Esteem, Yours,

Gen'l Harrington.

B. WILLIAMS.

1 The Treaty of Amiens was signed March 1802, being the first lull in hostilities between England and France since 1793. Williams was disappointed in his expectations as to its influence on American trade in that Napoleon again forced war upon England in 1804 which continued until the downfall of the Corsican in 1814, during which period American trade suffered its greatest restrictions in consequence of English and French oppression and our Own government's several embargo acts.

MY DEAR AUNT,1

A long, very long, silence has prevailed between us. What has been the cause? Doubtless I am to blame, tho I wrote to you the last. I offer to you, my dear Aunt, my sympathy and condolence in the afflicting bereavements which you have experienced-Gen. Harrington and your son-in-law are, I am told, no more. They are gone to a better world, where corrupt-ability puts on incorruptability and man disenchained from his worldly passions, finds in the bosom of his Redeemer a happiness in duration eternal, in bounds without limit, a happiness beyond the conception

of the most vivid imagination. Let us then weep for the illustrious dead, not because they are taken from us to receive their crown of glory but because they no longer live to guide our steps and to display to us the bright examples of virtue.

It is I believe more than two years since I have either heard from you or written to you, though my inquiries about you have been frequent and earnest. Mr. McBride3 your representative has frequently given to me information respecting you and the family. I lately met with Mr. Satterwhite who appears to be an acquaintance of James and who informed me that he had already heard from James who it appears has united himself to a lady of fine accomplishments and good fortune and has a promising heir. All this, my dear Aunt, must afford you great happiness and tend to alleviate the afflictions which have befallen you. Mr. Satterwhite described James to be a gentleman of polite, engaging manners, strong and cultivated mind, and to have a heart a perfect stranger to all guile. I trust this description of my cousin is drawn to the life.

Although young in years and in constitution I feel as if I were an old man, having now four children who occupy almost all my leisure. My great anxiety is to educate them correctly; and their progress in learning is highly flattering to a parent's pride. Two of them Charles and John, are yet too wild or too young to learn, but Caroline and Louis have been to school for more than a year. They both read, spell, and recite admirably; and Caroline in addition writes a beautiful hand, tambours and dances extremely well. Almost all my evenings are spent with them. They of course every evening learn something new and in their improvement consists one of my highest gratifications. Another blessing for which I cannot be too thankful, they have all fine constitutions and enjoy uninterrupted good health.

My dear mother was well the last time I heard from her which was almost ten days since. She desired to be most affectionately remembered to you and that I ask you to write to her.

May I ask you, my dear Aunt, to write to me, and give me particular account of yourself and of all the members of your family, in whose happiness I cannot but feel deeply interested. Can I ask you, with any hopes of success, to pay us a visit? Could not James and his lady accompany you? Traveling you know improves our health and might benefit yours. We have a snug little cottage, large enough though to hold you all in comfort and I really think you will be pleased with our city. We could all go over to Cambridge together where my dear mother would rejoice to see us. Think seriously of this trip, and determine to take it. Catherine has been taught to esteem and respect you. Come and give her an opportunity of loving you. Your affectionate nephew,

Washington, Feb. 12, 1811.

CHAS. W. GOLDSBOROUGH.

P. S. Write to me under an envelope directed to the Secretary of the Navy.

Mrs. Rosanna Harrington.

Many of the following letters were addressed by Charles Washington Goldborough to his Aunt, Mrs. H. W. Harrington, widow of General Harrington and mother of Midshipman H. W. Harrington. They prove him to have been a man of fine fibre and courtly character, representing the Revolutionary type of American gentleman with English traditions of life and conduct. He was the son of Robert Goldsborough of Cambridge, Maryland, and was born in that town, April 18. 1779, died in Washington, D. C., Sept. 14, 1843. He was the first clerk of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing of the United States Navy and Chief Clerk of the Naval Department from 1798 to 1812 under Secretaries Benjamin Stoddart, Robt. Smith, and Paul Hamilton. From 1841 until separate naval bureaus were established he was Secretary of the Naval Board. He is the author of "The U. S. Naval Chronicle,' and an unpublished "History of the American Navy." He was a Federalist in politics.

2 General Harrington died March 31st, 1809.

He

Archibald McBryde, of Moore County, N. C., member of Congress 1809 to 1811 and 1811 to 1813, and in the State Senate in 1813 and 1814. was a Republican in politics.

No information about Mr. Satterwhite was available to the editor. James A. Harrington, elder son of Mrs. H. W. Harrington, member of House of Commons in 1808 Mrs. Caroline Goldsborough, of Cambridge, Dorchester County, Maryland, sister of Mrs. H. W. Harrington.

MY DEAR AUNT,

I duly received your last letter and sincerely thank you for it because of the real pleasure it has afforded me. I intended to have replied to it in extenso (as our diplomatists would say) that is at full length, but time has not permit

ted. I will then defer that pleasure for some time and confine myself now to objects more immediately interesting.

Your anxiety, my dear aunt, about the education of your children, cannot be too highly commended-happy children to have such a mother!

We have no seminary of learning immediately in this neighborhood, that I would recommend. My inquiries have been very particular at St. John's. There the system of education particularly as it respects morals, is extremely defective, and there are so many beautiful young girls there, that the attention of the students is very much diverted from their studies. At Charlotte Hall2 about thirty miles from this, I do not approve of the teachers. At the college in George Town3, their catholic habits would I presume be an objection with you, and I rather think that it would be a reasonable objection. This much for all the colleges and seminaries of learning in the neighborhood of the metropolis of our country. However there is a college at Carlisle* that I would recommend, as well for its system of education, its discipline, and its situation. As for the cheapness of living, etc., I do not believe it to be inferior in any respect to Yale among other things it is very healthy. Now my dear Aunt, should you choose to send my cousin to Carlisle, it will be in my power and it will be very agreeable to me, to pay attention to him. I will procure him such letters as will secure to him an agreeable reception into the best society and every accommodation necessary to his comfort. If you should still determine to send him to Yale, let him not pass us-the sight of any member of your family would afford me great happiness.

Since I last wrote to you, we have lost my brother Robert5-one of the best hearted men that ever lived. Mother has been over and recently returned. Her health is very good. She desired me to remember her to you in the most affectionate terms-and to express her great anxiety to see I am in great haste, Your affectionate nephew,

you.

Wash. Aug. 15, 1811

CHAS. W. GOLDSBOROUGH.

1 This letter to Mrs. Harrington is evidently in reply to one from Mrs. Harrington respecting her plans for the education of her youngest son, Henry, who later received an appointment, through Goldsborough's influence, as midshipman in the American Navy and fought in the war of 1812 upon the U. S. Frigate "United States."

2 Charlotte Hall, in the northern part of St. Mary's County, Maryland, a state academy founded in 1774.

3 Now Georgetown University, founded in 1799, by members of the Roman Catholic church, and was in 1805 transferred to the Jesuit Society in Maryland, in whose control it remained.

Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, chartered by the legislature of Pennsylvania, Sept. 9, 1783. Established on what was then practically the frontier, Dickinson was the first college founded to meet the needs of the population of the new West. It received a liberal donation from John Dickinson, author of the famous "Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer," one time governor of Pennsylvania and most influential in the moulding of our Constitution in 1787.

Elder brother of Charles W. Goldsborough and named for his father.

MY DEAR AUNT:

I have just received your letter of the 22nd ult. Should it be your choice to send my cousin Henry to college, surely he will not object, since it is his advantage only you can have in view; and he must admit that you are far the most competent judge as to the propriety of the measure. The advantages of a liberal education are inestimable. He naturally must wish to become a useful and valuable member of society. Let him then pursue his classical studies. Let him afford to himself a fair opportunity of gratifying his honorable ambition by improving and enlarging his mind. But what, my dear Aunt, is the bent of his genius? If law, physic, or divinity, then it must be indespensably necessary for him to prosecute his studies-if mercantile pursuits should be preferred by him, then he must procure a situation in one of our most respectable mercantile houses-if a soldier or a sailor's life should be agreeable to him, he has arrived at an age to commence his career-he is now a good age for a cadet in the army, or a midshipman in the Navy -as to the situation of a clerk under the Government, let him I entreat you never think of it but with a determination never to become one. I speak with experience when I assure you that though I have one of the best situations of this sort under the Government, yet if I had never entered the service, I should I am persuaded have been worth tens of thousands where now I am worth hundreds-when I was a lad, about the age of my cousin Henry, my worthy, revered,