{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/manifest","@type":"sc:Manifest","label":"David E. Hale to Sarah Josepha Hale","description":"&#8220;David E. Hale to Sarah Josepha Hale,&#8221; <em>Athenaeum of Philadelphia Featured Collections</em>, accessed March 9, 2026, <span class=\"citation-url\">http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/show/3299</span>.","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1810/full/319%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1810","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"attribution":"The Athenaeum of Philadelphia","within":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/collections/presentation/10/manifest","metadata":[{"label":"Title","value":"David E. Hale to Sarah Josepha Hale"},{"label":"Date","value":["1830/1839-03-17","March 17 [1830s]"]},{"label":"Subject","value":"Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879"},{"label":"Medium","value":"Manuscripts"},{"label":"Language","value":"eng"},{"label":"Type","value":"text"},{"label":"Is Part Of","value":"Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia"},{"label":"Identifier","value":"46-M-169"},{"label":"Rights","value":"http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html"},{"label":"Text","value":"Annapolis March 17th\r\n\r\nMy dear Mother, \r\n\r\nYou complain and justly too that\r\nI do not write often. The fact is that I do not like\r\nto write - I am ashamed that I have been unable to\r\nkeep my promise to send you on my birth day $100, and have\r\ndelayed writing till the end of March when I am sure\r\nto be able to send you at least $50.\r\nBesides your hopeful son has been\r\nfor the last three months engaged in a continual round\r\nof fashionable dissipation. Balls, parties, Routes, [etc.] besides\r\nbeing in love two or three times and, 'don't mention it'\r\nnear being jilted, that is if he had been fool enough\r\nto have proposed.\r\nThe young ladies here are less learned\r\n& literary than those at the North but more beautiful\r\nand attractive. I have seen assembled here in one\r\nroom at a gentlema's [gentleman's] house more beautiful girls than\r\nyou can find in the whole city of Boston!\r\nThey dont talk so much of books, news [etc.]\r\nbut more of love, engagements, weddings courtship [etc.]\r\nthey are not afraid to act either, and can set a \r\nman's heart on fire quicker than the cold, stiff\r\nreserved ladies of New England\r\n\r\nYou ask me how I spent my [twentieth?] birth day\r\nnot so pleasantly as you and my brother did with your friends\r\ncertainly, I was riding in a class carriage on a cold day\r\nfrom Baltimore to Annapolis. I have been to Baltimore\r\nto sit on a Court Martial for a week and was returning\r\nin haste to be present at the Governors Route and a\r\nwedding party both of which were to take place on\r\nthe same day. My necessary expenses had overrun my\r\nallowance about $30 and I had like a fool with some\r\nbrother officers spent more in amusements [etc.] - I was\r\nthinking if \"ways & means' and of you, of my promise and cursing\r\nmy folly in spending what would have assisted my brother\r\nmuch in defraying college expenses.\r\nHowever I arrived\r\nat Annapolis, put in my uniform, when to the Route and\r\nparty danced, looked gay, flirted with my old mistress, a   \r\nbeautiful girl in presence of her future husband, was\r\nsought after by the ladies as all young officers [DE: ?] are here,\r\nselected one to compensate me for my loss, drank more\r\nwine than I out to keep my spirits up, went home to \r\nbed, 'but I bitterly thought of the morrow' of debts unpaid\r\n[etc.] Pray Mother don't lecture me for as old Stapleton\r\nsays \"Human nature is human nature\".\r\nBut the gay season is \r\nnow over, the Legislature is about to adjourn, the members\r\nare departing and carrying with them those whom business\r\nor pleasure brought to this City. One more cottillion [cotillion] party,\r\none more wedding party which by the way, is for a brother\r\nofficer & friend and the gaiety [DE: ?] ceases for the present and\r\nI shall settle down quietly to economise my time & money\r\n\r\nwrite to you once a week and be a good boy. -\r\nI do not intend to go home till I am at least\r\ntwenty one, paid my debts got $500 in my pocket and\r\nbe at least five higher on the [Army?] list. Then you\r\nmay expect me. Promotion is rapid in our regiment; I\r\nhave gained one step since I wrote you last. But there\r\nis a better thing [offers?] for me - It is this, and I don't wish\r\nyou to mention even to Lt. F.A. Smith. A Topographical Corps\r\nis to be formed. It would have been formed at the last of [Congress?] session\r\nhad it lasted longer as the bill had alread passed the Senate\r\nreading. Well, next year I shall get a furlough, [DE: ?] go to\r\nWashington and as everything in these times and under this\r\nblessed government goes by favor and influence of powerful\r\nfriends, I shall get Woodbury or some one of the great\r\nmen to forward my application & If I get in [then] I \r\nshall have the pay of a first Lieut. and have [ED: page damaged]\r\nopportunities of being employed at the same time on\r\n[?] good business as a Civil Engr than I could in any\r\nother situation. In [?] I shall have enough\r\nto do and in several ways in the West & elsewhere have\r\na chance to make a fortune.\r\nI have now written \r\nyou a long letter, - I shall write soon to\r\nFrances Ann - Give my love to my brothers -\r\nsisters and believe me truly\r\nYour affectionate Son\r\nD.E. Hale\r\nLieut. U.S.A.\r\n"}],"sequences":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/sequence/normal","@type":"sc:Sequence","label":"Current Page Order","viewingDirection":"left-to-right","viewingHint":"non-paged","canvases":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p1","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[1]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1809/full/323%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1809","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2482,"height":3073,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/annotation/p0001-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/855079377047ce394ac7bf42964b62a5.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2482,"height":3073,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1809","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p1"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p2","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[2]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1810/full/319%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1810","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2428,"height":3046,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/annotation/p0002-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/e27bf148ea55b122cdbdfdee3378a722.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2428,"height":3046,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1810","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p2"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p3","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[3]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1811/full/314%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1811","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2375,"height":3030,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/annotation/p0003-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/7e0b1b4198339e695630dc4a583fb07b.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2375,"height":3030,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1811","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p3"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p4","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[4]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1812/full/324%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1812","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2451,"height":3029,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/annotation/p0004-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/60f1c579a676e9168ff8e5ed411de754.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2451,"height":3029,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/1812","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3299/canvas/p4"}]}]}]}