Letter to Mr. Franklin Hoskins, Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, from Wm. Gleason, Jr., Moresville, New York 1840
Moresville April 21st 1840
Dear Friend
With heartfelt satisfaction I have recieved your friendly communication of the 11th Inst. I deeply regret that I am unable to say that our family like yours have enjoyed the greatest of earthly blessings, to wit, health But Providence has been pleased to order it otherwise.
Soon after I wrote to your father, my brother came after me at my school with the information that my mother had been taken alarmingly ill with the Billious intermittens fever, which continued about two months, at the end of which time, she partially recovered so as to ride out a few times But she soon had a relapse since which she has been confined to the house seven weeks Her health is now slowly improving & we have reason to believe that she may regain her former health.
My brother Nelson & sister Emelines health is quite poor The rest of the family are well. I am gratified to lear[n] your taste for Algebra It will furnish you with an agreeable pastime for your leisure hours. I dismissed my school about a fortnight ago, not at all displeased with being again at liberty.
During the past winter I have employed the most of my leisure time in reading History especially Rollins Ancient History in eight volumes which I value highly though the language is not above mediocrity, most probably owing to negligence in the translation, it having been originally written in French I do not entirely neglect Latin but make it a rule to pay some attention to it daily. I have an application to teach school but I have very little inclination to engage believing it prejudicial to my health
As to Political affairs the Whigs are steadily progressing and are animated with the most sanguine hopes of future success The people of this republic have tried Martin Van Buren and have become fully convinced that his capacity and integrity are not adequate to the high vocation with which he has been honored. They have beheld with the deepest solicitude and most intense anxiety his destructive warfare upon the Credit System equalled only in its ruinous effects by the inglorious one against the Seminoles of of Florida. Also his reckless experiments upon the currency which instead of being improved thereby has been almost annihilated the direful consequences of which every one has become well acquainted by sad experience
I doubt Sir but that the people contemplating these things will decide at the approaching election (by selecting an individual better calculated to serve their interests) to let him retire to Kinderhook and thus permit him to gratify his propensity for making experiments in manufacturing Sour Cabbage or some such article the baneful effects of which will be less injurious to the country
Though every part of your letter was peculiarly gratifying to me; yet I must say that one part of it inspired me with pleasurable sensations superior to the rest. I refer to the part in which you anticipate paying us a visit; which I most earnestly hope may speedily be realized In your letter you thought proper to make some very unnecessary apologies as to your proficiency in letterwriting I need not tell you that [I] am a mere novice in that kind of business as you will find it a self evident truth But if I had any pretense to the Author I should endeavor to lay it aside in order to give peace to the friend, in writing to you.
Please accept of that knife that I left at your house as a small memento from me I missed it after having come about five miles from your house Please write soon and dont forget what Seneca says; namely That information even relative to the smallest affairs when recieved from a friend is important and pleasing I shall always be glad to hear of the studies that you are persuing the progress that you make & how you are pleased with them &c. &c.
All our family wish to present renewed assurances of their love & esteem to your family. Give my love to your brother and sister & especially to your dear parents and accept of a large portion for yourself from your friend & wellwisher Wm. Gleason Jr
P. S. Please excuse all the errors you may observe in the above as I have (as you will readily percieve) written in a great hurry but I was unwilling to let your letter remain longer unanswered
Notes: Letter to Mr. Franklin Hoskins, Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, from Wm. Gleason, Jr., Moresville, New York, April 21, 1840 — From the Phillip F. Schlee Collection, Manhattan, Kansas