Benjamin Franklin Butler Papers (N)
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If I did believe with considerable confidence that within five or six hours after you wrote your last you received a pretty tolerably long letter form me, I should certainly plead guilty to the charge of forgetfulness. As it is, I have no doubt that you are now satisfied that I have held you in constant remembrance. Indeed I I am pretty confident that before you get this, I shall be told so by... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
If I had promised to write you this evening I believe I should have deferred it till tomorrow or next day. Not that I have less inclination to spend an hour or two with you, now than I should then have, but because I have so little time allowed me this evening, that I can't make you as sociable a visit as I wish. You know I was always fond of your society, I am so yet. We are always unwilling to... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
Have you any objections against reading a letter written on the Sabbath? If you have throw this immediately into the fire. Dont read it first, and then lay the fault, if there's any in it upon me. I warn you now and give you fair notice, that ^at^ this present writing "it is just One o.Clock of this afternoon of Sunday the 15th of Decr. 1816. The most importance occurrence which has taken place... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I am once more seated at my patternal fireside, in circumstances of comfort & enjoyment. Yet I am unable to confine my thoughts to the smiling circle by which I am surrounded. They are ever on the wing, and at this moment ^are^ hovering over the sport where I have left behind my dearest my most valued treasure. Oh my dear dear Harriet, how I wish you was here. How often have I wished I was... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
Hearing this evening that Mr. Monell goes down in the morning, I am unwilling to pass by so good an opportunity for writing, and abandon every other employment for the pleasure of spending a few moments with you. I received the first letter I have had from you in four weeks, this evening. Mr. Hoyt brought it from the P. O. and observed while I was opening it, that he was happy to see me smile,... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I have feared to day that I should be obliged to forego the pleasure of writing you, because there was no letter paper, or any other fit to write on to be found in the office, but after searching in every direction I laid my hands on a blank sheet imprinted with the seal of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, & intended for some of our legal proceedings. As I could write with nothing... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I thank you a thousand times for your sweet presents by Mr. Abbott. Both you may rest assured were highly acceptable. You were right in supposing that they coming from your hands, would be received by me with the greatest pleasure. I did like the Candy better far better, than any I could have met with if the whole world had been ransacked to procure the best. I liked it so well that I eat it all ... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I am rejoiced to find that you are already a "little philosopher." For that philosophy which triumphs over disappointment is certainly correct. You appear to have submitted with so good a grace, that I shall not be afraid of offending you by saying that I am very glad you was disappointed. Not that I wished to deprive you of the pleasure you undoubtedly would have derived from listening to the... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
Then I am soon, very soon to see you. How happy, how uneasy your last letter has made me. Happy because it has promised me a delightful interview, yet uneasy and impatient till my expectations shall be realised. When do you leave Hudson? When may I start? When shall we meet? Tell me dear, immediately, and I'll hasten to the spot, with all the ardour and impatience and alacrity of love. You talk... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
My friend Olcott has shewn me a letter form his sister in which she says that you will leave Hudson on Monday, but as I presume the mail will have arrived in town before you start, I shall ^still^ venture to write you. I was in hopes to have heard Mr. Stanton today, for about this time we expected him to return, but I begin to be apprehensive that he has not taken Albany in his route, and is... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
As it is nearly a fortnight since I ^have^ had the pleasure of conversing with you upon paper, a period which would have been unbearable if a great portion of it had not been spent with you. We stopped yesterday at K. H. & at Castleton and though the weather was <stormy> & boisterous arrived at Albany without suffering much from the cold. I wanted to seat myself immediately at the... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
Your letter has just been handed to me and I need not say <was> <opened> with great avidity and pleasure. It's just two weeks to night since I have received one, so that I begin to be impatient as soon as I returned to Albany for the revival of our correspondence. You have exceeded my expectations, you have written me before I hoped to hear from you, you have given me a good long... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I last evening wrote you a letter which I intended to put in the mail this afternoon, but upon looking over it to day, I found so full of expostulation & complaint on the subject of letter writing that I concluded not to send it, and as I had not time to write another to day, I was obliged to give up the idea of writing you till Friday. I thought too, tho' I should certainly hear from you by... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I have but just sent you a long letter by Edwd Jenkins, which I suppose you will receive tomorrow, yet I have at this moment so great an inclination for spending a few moments with you that I can not refrain from doing it. I have spent this evening, or a good part of it, with Ann Maria who complains considerably of you for not answering her letter. She will remain here from 8 or 10 days I suspect... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I today received your letter of yesterday, and have read it with all that attention, to which the pure affection it breathes, & the rational doctrines it inculcates so truly entitled it. I did not expect that you would be pleased to learn that I had been considerably occupied in political affairs, because I feared you might suppose, that I had suffered my imagination to be dazzled by the... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I had hoped for the pleasure of writing you a long letter today, but a great press of business which could not be dispensed with, has prevented me from commencing the delightful task, untill so late an hour that you will be compelled to take up with a meagre communication. I was delighted by the receipt of your letter by Gen Edmonds tho I did not receive it till Monday evening. I am pleased and... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I received your letter just as I was starting for Mr. Chesters meeting house. I stopped long enough to read it there, in which I hope there was no harm for I still arrived there in good season. I had been calculating all the week upon spending the whole of last evening with you, and had actually spread my paper on the table for the purpose of <illegible> my evening's visit, when I was... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I address you ^to night^ with a lighter heart and a mind less burdened & perplexed than I have done before for a month. Do you wish to know the reason? It is because now I am perfectly & completely clear of that demon Politics to which I have been enchained for a month or more. The nomination for Govr. was made last evening, and the party whose side I espoused were (as we had anticipated... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
The mail due on Thursday did not arrive till today. You may suppose that I looked for its arrival with considerable impatience, as I knew it would bring me a letter from you. I was at the Post Office two or three times in the course of the afternoon & evening of yesterday, enquiring for the mail. And the expectation of hearing from you produced so great an impression on my mind, that I fairly... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I am unable to account for your disappointment on Monday. The fault was not with me. I wrote you a letter, though not an interesting one by any means ^partly^ on Saturday & partly on Monday morning because I was informed at the Post Office that they for the future send their letters to Hudson by the Steam Boat. I was particular in my enquiries as to what time the mail would close, & they ... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I owe you an apology for some of my last letters. They have been shorter than usual, and duller than dullness itself. The first objection you must attribute to the haste in which they were written, the second is the fault of nature & education. I make no pretensions to the talent of letter writing. I am miserably deficient in the qualities which constitute the grace & charm of epistolary... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I have not sufficient time to say much to you to night. The first part of the evening was spent in hearing a sermon from Mr. Chester. Immediately after the service, I walked down street to ascertain whether the Steam boat had <arrived> <to> <day> as I expected Mr. Barker up with her. She had come & so had Mr. B and one of his boys. He detained me till between ten and eleven... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I intended to have written you at length last evening, but was prevented by several engagements. And this morning at 6 I took a walk to the Steam Boats, for the purpose of ascertaining whether any one went down on Friday. I found that the Richmond left here on that day, & I was congratulating myself on the good fortune I could have in leaving here on Friday & remaining with you till... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
We have now passed Kinderhook and ^are^ advancing with a sure & steady pace towards the point of destination. Finding the materials for writing on board, I have gladly seated myself in the forward cabin as far away from the card party by which, it is always infested, and of which Mr. H. L. Webb of Cooperstown, is one of the present members, as I can conveniently get, and I am sure I shall be... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I did not intend to have written you this evening. It is so shortly since I have furnished you a sheet that I thought you could dispence with a letter tomorrow. Besides I wished to devote the whole evening to study. But the arrival of Mr. & Mrs. Stanton has compelled me very willingly to give up the last plan & induced me with much pleasure to alter the first. I received your letter this... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler
I waited with great impatience & anxiety for the arrival of the Paragon yesterday, because by her I expected to receive intelligence of the result of my application. Late in the evening she arrived here and then I had the disappointment to discover that there was no letter from New York either to me or Mr. V. Buren. I was really disappointed for I had made my arrangements for going to... Continue Reading
Sender: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Recipient: Harriet Allen Butler