Record Data
Source citation
William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter from William Tecumseh Sherman to D. F. Boyd, September 7, 1860, General W.T. Sherman as College President: a Collection of Letters, Documents, and Other Material, Chiefly from Private sources, relating to the life and Activities of General William Tecumseh Sherman, to the Early Years of Louisiana State University, and to the Stirring Conditions existing in the South on the Eve of the Civil War, 1859-1861, Fleming, Walter Lynwood, editor, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1912, p. 399.
Recipient (to)
Boyd, D. F.
Type
Letter
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Michael Blake
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as it originally appeared in print. Spelling and typographical errors have been preserved as in the original.
Lancaster, O., Sept. 7, 1860.
Dear Boyd: I am still here, but already a little tired at "nothing to do" and therefore for want of better employment I begin to imagine all sorts of troubles to be encountered and overcome the coming year. I will endeavor to meet the books and clothing in New Orleans, and if the river be navigable, all right; if not, I will bring them up to Snaggy Point, or even the mouth, and then arrange to haul. The bedding will be bulky, books heavy, and clothing so so, and if all reach New Orleans when I calculate we can make good load.
The regulations are in the hands of the publishers in Cincinnati and instead of pitching in, they, of course, write back for some minor instructions about eight dollars and twelve dollars. The result will be I must go down and stay there during the printing.
I have heard a good deal of political speaking, and the conclusion at which I have arrived is that whoever is elected will be installed and forthwith will be renewed the war of secession. The nigger is a blind, and though all the politicians pretend to believe in a crisis, they know it is all humbug.
I was over yesterday to see Blondin walk his rope in a neighboring village. There was an immense crowd and Blondin walked his rope, eight hundred feet from steeple to steeple, right over the housetops and streets.
At Cincinnati or Orleans I will try and get a successor to Frank but I suppose we had best train some darkey, because boys are restless and overestimate their importance. I could get a host of them here, but if accident befall them as was the case with some I took to New Orleans in 1853, the parents [would] have a feeling against me.