{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/manifest","@type":"sc:Manifest","label":"Sarah Josepha Hale to David E. Hale","description":"Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879, &#8220;Sarah Josepha Hale to David E. Hale,&#8221; <em>Athenaeum of Philadelphia Featured Collections</em>, accessed March 9, 2026, <span class=\"citation-url\">http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/show/3422</span>.","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2337/full/323%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2337","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":"Sarah Josepha Hale to David E. Hale"},{"label":"Creator","value":"Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879"},{"label":"Date","value":["1832-11-21","November 21, 1832"]},{"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-139"},{"label":"Rights","value":"http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html"},{"label":"Text","value":"Boston Nov. 21 - 1832\r\n\r\nMy ever dear Son - I feel fully assured \r\nthat you will do what you resolve\r\n[?] than [DE: ?] opinions which\r\nwould lead you into errors when you\r\nleave West-Point. I believe this because\r\nI think your early education can\r\nnever be eradicated, that the good seed\r\nwhich was then sown will overcome\r\nall the tares (or most of them) which the world\r\nscatters. - Do you think I did not know\r\nthat the hour of temptation would come?\r\nIndeed, my dear son, it was in reference\r\nto that my calculations were made. I kept\r\nyou not only innocent but happy in\r\nthat innocence that you might, when\r\ntemptations should assail you, know\r\nfrom actual experience, that there\r\nwas happiness to be enjoyed innocently.\r\nDo you think, if all the young men\r\nat West-Point had been trained as\r\nyou were, kept from evil, not by rigid\r\nauthority & punishment, but by pleasant\r\n\r\nstudies and amusements at home, that there\r\nwould be so many vicious - so many whom\r\nyou find dangerous & disagreeable? O, no.\r\nThe most dangerous & hopeless corruption of\r\nheart & morals is that which commences in\r\nearly life - the earlier, the more desperate.\r\nBut you, my dear Son, never can be like \r\nthem. You may do wrong, but you will\r\nfeel it is wrong, and you will yet, I trust, overcome\r\nall their temptations. I know you went\r\nto West Point too young. I regret it as much\r\nas you can - but I would hardly do otherwise. I\r\nhad so many to support, and I could have the\r\nsituation for you - and I so much wished to give\r\nyou an education. And now we must endeavor\r\nto make the best of this, and I am sure you will.\r\n- I have just rec'd a letter from Miss Leslie.\r\na paragraph I will copy. She says -\r\n\"When at West-Point I sent for your Son that I might\r\ngive him remembrances of you. [It?] gives me great pleasure\r\nto inform you that I heard Mr Hale spoken of in the\r\nhighest terms by the professors as one of the most\r\npromising young men in the Institution, and that\r\nif he continues to apply himself as he has done &\r\navoids being drawn into seditions & mutinies and other\r\nacts of insubordination, there is no doubt of his finishing\r\nhis academic career in the most honorable manner\r\nand obtaining an excellent commission. Not that I\r\nhad the slightest reason to think your son is the\r\n\r\nin the least [tinctured?] with a refractory spirit; but it\r\ndoes sometimes happen at West-Point that the bad\r\nboys get up something like a rebellion & persuade\r\nthe good ones to join it, and the end is they are all\r\ndismissed without any reference to their previous\r\ngood character, or the respectability of their connections.\"\r\n- There, I have given you the whole, because I wished\r\nto warn you of the necessity of being extremely prudent,\r\nand maintaining that independence in your\r\nown principles, which I know incline you to do\r\nright, that shall prevent you from joining any\r\ncabals of the idle & vicious or discontented. Do not\r\npermit any feeling of disappointment to sour your\r\ntemper - go on steadily - you will succeed - The next\r\nyear will give you an opportunity of availing yourself\r\nmore of the miscellaneous knowledge you are acquired\r\nIn your early reading.\r\nI have something more pleasant wherewith to\r\nconclude - Your Aunt Hale is now in Boston - she\r\nhas been here about a week, leaves tomorrow. [She?]\r\nsays she shall write you immediately after her [return?]\r\nhas a letter begun - and so she will tell you all\r\nshe saw [etc.?] She had her miniature [taken?] -\r\na beautiful one it is - As soon as I have money\r\nto spare I intend to have mine taken for you.\r\nHoratio is well, and still busy at his Babel - Willy\r\nhappy as a kitten - The girls well & all going\r\nas happily as I can wish.\r\nMy own health is pretty good - only I am\r\ntired of writing as you will infer from this\r\nscrawl. Your friends here or mine, more\r\nproperly, always enquire for you. Write soon -\r\nI will send you the Mirror - Yours affectionately\r\nSarah J Hale\r\n\r\nCadet David E. Hale\r\nWest-Point\r\nN. York.\r\n"}],"sequences":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/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/3422/canvas/p1","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[1]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2336/full/327%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2336","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2542,"height":3107,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/annotation/p0001-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/19b422f4065f61aee899206330dbe7a6.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2542,"height":3107,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2336","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p1"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p2","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[2]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2337/full/323%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2337","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2450,"height":3036,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/annotation/p0002-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/66ddc6744738a1e1c5690a63a77ac452.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2450,"height":3036,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2337","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p2"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p3","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[3]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2338/full/321%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2338","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2443,"height":3040,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/annotation/p0003-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/bfc58bdad72d12b6874ac79d5696c6b1.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2443,"height":3040,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2338","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p3"}]},{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p4","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"[4]","thumbnail":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2339/full/327%2C400/0/default.jpg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2339","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"width":2512,"height":3069,"images":[{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/annotation/p0004-image","@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/files/original/4d050a9b7c0c4314b724d790a347a81b.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","width":2512,"height":3069,"service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/image/2339","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json"}},"on":"http://omeka.philaathenaeum.org/collections/items/presentation/3422/canvas/p4"}]}]}]}