Letter from William R. Davie to John Haywood, February 7, 1810
Feb. 7th 1810
My Dear friend,
Your favor of May 8th 09 was duly received, and I should
have had the pleasure to acknowledge it long ago, but the account I had of
Mrs H's health was so
unfavorable, that I trembled for your happiness every time I looked at a
Raleigh
paper; Major
Williams has given me reason to hope, that altho she suffers by much
ill health, she is not in danger, and I have therefore concluded that your
mind would be sufficiently at ease to receive a letter from a friend.
The means of education are so much increased and so highly improved in Raleigh that you
are happily situated in this respect with regard to your children. You can
watch over their passions and habits and form their tender Hearts to virtue
while the preceptor is improvingtheir minds and
cultivating their shooting and sprawling talents. It is of great consequence
to have our children under our eye in the early part of their education, say
from 7 years old to fifteen, the important period when first impressions at
least of the moral kind are made, and while the passions are still
manageable. The correction of the passions, the moral formation of the
Heart, falls properly within the parental department, and the necessary
Delegation of the parental authority for these great purposes can never be
made either to the Tutor or the friend.
I also congratulate you on the present prospects of the University, it appears to be gradually triumphing over error and
Democratic prejudice, how much will posterity and your country owe to you
for your unceasing effortsto promote the
interests of that Institution.
There seems to be an extraordinary futility attending our relations with
G. Britain,
whenever there is a prospect of having our accumulated and accumulating
differences amicably settled, some steps in and
blasts our hopes, Monroe's treaty, Erskine's arrangement, Thore's mission, Jackson's embassy all have shared the same fate.
How is this? is it the finger of providence, is it fatality, is it the
invisible hand that the "wise men of the East" say they
have seen, or what is it? When a man attends
"to the signs of the times", the strange course of our
public affairs, the entangled situation of all our foreign relations,
connected with the convulsed state of the world, when will he find any
ground of hope, or is it possible to repress the gloomy apprehensions this
state of things naturally and irresistibly suggests.I cannot tell in what light the British Ministry will view the
rapture of the negotiation with Jackson; I wish they could consider it as Mr
Macon does, a mere "petty quarrel between Smith & Jackson" the
two nations might continue to negotiate, the
condition if not the object to which all our
foreign policy seems to be reduced. The conversation of Mr Canning
reported by Pinkney
appear candid and pacific, and Jackson seems to have but illy represented his
principal. Mr Madison seems sincerely desirous of
friendly accommodations, a disposition which Mr Smith appears at least to
have sported with. The annals of diplomacy will not furnish a parallel of
such an uncivil and unearthly correspondence, insolent redress on one side,
and captious asperity on the other.
Notwithstanding the draught immediately in my neighborhood I made a good
crop of cotton, but November, December, and
January have been so unfavorable from constant rains, snows, and severe
frost that I have yet near 40 acres to pick out. The winter with us has been
extremely severe, so that a good deal of the cotton will be injured and some
entirely destroyed by remaining so long in the field. Our markets are
influenced altogether by political circumstances, prime cotton will now
bring 13 ¾, this is still very low, however better than some time past. The
depression of the times on markets have fallen heavily upon me, and
injured me [copiously].
My children here enjoy good health and join with me in respects to your
family accept of my best wishes, and my assurances of uttermost and regard.
W R
Davie
P.S.
When Judge Moore and I
prevailed uponGeneral Person to make the cash donation
for the purpose of building the chapel at the University, we gave him reason to expect that we would use our
endeavours to have his munificence properly commemorated, and upon some
observation made by the General evidently to ascertain the
manner in which we supposed such a thing would be done, we suggested
that the Trustees would after his death rest in the chapel some monument
of marble to his memory; and afterwards on an enquiry what would be the cost
of such a memorial of him, I remember to have told him that a neat marble
slab set into the wall and by an urn or some
raiment of that kind would not cost more than £40 or £50: I think he added
that sum to the original donation — and if I am not greatly
mistaken you will find by the treasurer's books that such was the fact. Now
Sir I reproach myself exceedingly for not having stated this matter to the
Board
of Trusteeswhile I was a member, as
I knew I had the pleasure to sit with them once or twice after his death, I
have now no way left of discharging my duty in this respect, which I am
pained and ashamed to have neglected, but by devolving it upon you and
praying you to take the trouble to state it to the Board,
as Mr
Moore I am told now never leaves home. My own unfortunate
experience enables me to say that such a monument as I mentioned would not
cost more than 50 or 60 dollars, and I sincerely hope that the Board
will make the necessary appropriation and direction. I think the original
donation was £5000 or 1000 dollars and that he afterwards added £40
. I sincerely believe the
expense of the monument suggests in any event it is a justice due to him,
and the policy of such a measure will be easily perceived by the Board.
It will not be forgotten that he was a warm, active, and steady friend to
the institution, usefully and consistently engaged in combating the
prejudices with which it was assailed in its infancy.