Letter from Charlotte to Samuel Cowles, 1836 May 19.

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  • Farmington May 19th 1836.


    My Dear Brother,


    It is said that the third trial always conquers, and there is a probability that, on this third attempt, I shall succeed in writing to you at the appointed time. I suppose that you have seen Mr Clarke and received my scrawl, although you said nothing of it in your last. I told you that Mr Clarke was going to the Oratorio that evening. He invited his lady, Miss Esther Cowles, and engaged a horse and wagon, and some time in the course of the day, he was told that he had made a sad mistake, for the Oratorio was to be a week later. (the 17th May.) I had the pleasure of being present, and hearing the great organ which has been talked of so much. It has sixteen hundred pipes, and is one of the largest and best in the country. The church was nearly full, and the performance very splendid, except that some of the time the roaring of the organ was so powerful as to shake the house, and almost deafen the people, and some of the singing was rather harsh. Two ladies sung a beauti-


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    ful duet, and each of them sang several solos. A gentleman from Boston, Mr Oliver, received seventy five dollars for singing a song of six verses. There was a most terrible thunder storm in the midst of the concert. -- Mr and Mrs Thomas Cowles had the misfortune to overturn their carriage on the road home, but they were not injured.


    Mr Timothy Andrews arrived in town last week. He is so altered that his sister did not know him. The New York fire destroyed a part of his property, and since that, he has failed and lost all. He sold his house to Mr. Hart some time since, so that there is nothing left for him. He is very dejected, and there is no probability that he will live long. Mr Asahel H. Lewis is also in town.


    I suppose you are as much interested in Abolition as in any thing, but I have nothing to new to communicate upon that subject. I have been very much interested in the account of the Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, but you have probably seen it. Mr Alvan Stewart’s anecdote of the escape of a slave was well worth staying three minutes to hear. Father said if that had been done by any but black people, it would have been told of all over the world. I was also quite pleased with the remarks of a Richmond paper upon one of Gerrit Smith’s letters. The editor, while he mourns over Mr Smith’s “mistaken views” &c, yet extols his frankness and fearlessness. While, in the same breath, he speaks of Gov. Marcy in the most contemptuous terms. This is what is gained by stooping and cringing to flatter slave-


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    holders. It is, however, a reward which all dough-faces richly deserve. -- Cousin Chauncey was present at the New York City Young Men’s Anniversary and heard an Address from a Virginia gentleman, and one from Mr Allan from Alabama. It seems the Colonizationists are beginning to start up a little. They find Abolitionists are engrossing all the attention of the public, and they shall be quite forgotten if they do not do something. So Mr Bethune has been making a kind of ironical speech at the Anniversary Meeting. I hope Mr Birney will take him in hand, and see what figure he can make in sarcasm. I am mistaken if it would take him long to fix Mr Bethune. In his last paper, just received, Mr Birney says that the Anti-Abolitionists had better make haste and look up some new words, for the expressions “incendiary”, “fanatic”, &c. have been used so universally that they have lost all their force. -- Mr. Clarke was quite shocked when I told him that Whittier, the poet, was an Abolitionist. It seems that Mr W. is to be editor of a newspaper. -- The Governor of this state is Henry M. Edwards; the representatives of this town are Adna Whiting and Thomas Youngs!!! Let none despair of attaining to that house.


    Cousins Austin and Jennet are coming tomorrow. – I hope you will excuse me if I repeat the same thing in several letters, for I keep no copies of my scribblifications. – Our garden is now in a perfect blaze of splendor. There are 1154 tulips in blossom. Our largest and finest maple tree is dead.


    Now I believe I have told you the whole story. Goodbye.


    Yours very sincerely,


    Charlotte L. Cowles


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    To


    Mr. Samuel S. Cowles


    Boston


    [annotation by Samuel Cowles: May 19, 1836]


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