Metadata
Title
Sarah Josepha Hale to David E. Hale
Creator
Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879
Date
1832-11-21
November 21, 1832
Medium
Manuscripts
Language
eng
Type
text
Collection
Sarah Josepha Hale Collection, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
Identifier
46-M-139
Rights
http://www.philaathenaeum.org/rights.html
Text
Boston Nov. 21 - 1832
My ever dear Son - I feel fully assured
that you will do what you resolve
[?] than [DE: ?] opinions which
would lead you into errors when you
leave West-Point. I believe this because
I think your early education can
never be eradicated, that the good seed
which was then sown will overcome
all the tares (or most of them) which the world
scatters. - Do you think I did not know
that the hour of temptation would come?
Indeed, my dear son, it was in reference
to that my calculations were made. I kept
you not only innocent but happy in
that innocence that you might, when
temptations should assail you, know
from actual experience, that there
was happiness to be enjoyed innocently.
Do you think, if all the young men
at West-Point had been trained as
you were, kept from evil, not by rigid
authority & punishment, but by pleasant
studies and amusements at home, that there
would be so many vicious - so many whom
you find dangerous & disagreeable? O, no.
The most dangerous & hopeless corruption of
heart & morals is that which commences in
early life - the earlier, the more desperate.
But you, my dear Son, never can be like
them. You may do wrong, but you will
feel it is wrong, and you will yet, I trust, overcome
all their temptations. I know you went
to West Point too young. I regret it as much
as you can - but I would hardly do otherwise. I
had so many to support, and I could have the
situation for you - and I so much wished to give
you an education. And now we must endeavor
to make the best of this, and I am sure you will.
- I have just rec'd a letter from Miss Leslie.
a paragraph I will copy. She says -
"When at West-Point I sent for your Son that I might
give him remembrances of you. [It?] gives me great pleasure
to inform you that I heard Mr Hale spoken of in the
highest terms by the professors as one of the most
promising young men in the Institution, and that
if he continues to apply himself as he has done &
avoids being drawn into seditions & mutinies and other
acts of insubordination, there is no doubt of his finishing
his academic career in the most honorable manner
and obtaining an excellent commission. Not that I
had the slightest reason to think your son is the
in the least [tinctured?] with a refractory spirit; but it
does sometimes happen at West-Point that the bad
boys get up something like a rebellion & persuade
the good ones to join it, and the end is they are all
dismissed without any reference to their previous
good character, or the respectability of their connections."
- There, I have given you the whole, because I wished
to warn you of the necessity of being extremely prudent,
and maintaining that independence in your
own principles, which I know incline you to do
right, that shall prevent you from joining any
cabals of the idle & vicious or discontented. Do not
permit any feeling of disappointment to sour your
temper - go on steadily - you will succeed - The next
year will give you an opportunity of availing yourself
more of the miscellaneous knowledge you are acquired
In your early reading.
I have something more pleasant wherewith to
conclude - Your Aunt Hale is now in Boston - she
has been here about a week, leaves tomorrow. [She?]
says she shall write you immediately after her [return?]
has a letter begun - and so she will tell you all
she saw [etc.?] She had her miniature [taken?] -
a beautiful one it is - As soon as I have money
to spare I intend to have mine taken for you.
Horatio is well, and still busy at his Babel - Willy
happy as a kitten - The girls well & all going
as happily as I can wish.
My own health is pretty good - only I am
tired of writing as you will infer from this
scrawl. Your friends here or mine, more
properly, always enquire for you. Write soon -
I will send you the Mirror - Yours affectionately
Sarah J Hale
Cadet David E. Hale
West-Point
N. York.
My ever dear Son - I feel fully assured
that you will do what you resolve
[?] than [DE: ?] opinions which
would lead you into errors when you
leave West-Point. I believe this because
I think your early education can
never be eradicated, that the good seed
which was then sown will overcome
all the tares (or most of them) which the world
scatters. - Do you think I did not know
that the hour of temptation would come?
Indeed, my dear son, it was in reference
to that my calculations were made. I kept
you not only innocent but happy in
that innocence that you might, when
temptations should assail you, know
from actual experience, that there
was happiness to be enjoyed innocently.
Do you think, if all the young men
at West-Point had been trained as
you were, kept from evil, not by rigid
authority & punishment, but by pleasant
studies and amusements at home, that there
would be so many vicious - so many whom
you find dangerous & disagreeable? O, no.
The most dangerous & hopeless corruption of
heart & morals is that which commences in
early life - the earlier, the more desperate.
But you, my dear Son, never can be like
them. You may do wrong, but you will
feel it is wrong, and you will yet, I trust, overcome
all their temptations. I know you went
to West Point too young. I regret it as much
as you can - but I would hardly do otherwise. I
had so many to support, and I could have the
situation for you - and I so much wished to give
you an education. And now we must endeavor
to make the best of this, and I am sure you will.
- I have just rec'd a letter from Miss Leslie.
a paragraph I will copy. She says -
"When at West-Point I sent for your Son that I might
give him remembrances of you. [It?] gives me great pleasure
to inform you that I heard Mr Hale spoken of in the
highest terms by the professors as one of the most
promising young men in the Institution, and that
if he continues to apply himself as he has done &
avoids being drawn into seditions & mutinies and other
acts of insubordination, there is no doubt of his finishing
his academic career in the most honorable manner
and obtaining an excellent commission. Not that I
had the slightest reason to think your son is the
in the least [tinctured?] with a refractory spirit; but it
does sometimes happen at West-Point that the bad
boys get up something like a rebellion & persuade
the good ones to join it, and the end is they are all
dismissed without any reference to their previous
good character, or the respectability of their connections."
- There, I have given you the whole, because I wished
to warn you of the necessity of being extremely prudent,
and maintaining that independence in your
own principles, which I know incline you to do
right, that shall prevent you from joining any
cabals of the idle & vicious or discontented. Do not
permit any feeling of disappointment to sour your
temper - go on steadily - you will succeed - The next
year will give you an opportunity of availing yourself
more of the miscellaneous knowledge you are acquired
In your early reading.
I have something more pleasant wherewith to
conclude - Your Aunt Hale is now in Boston - she
has been here about a week, leaves tomorrow. [She?]
says she shall write you immediately after her [return?]
has a letter begun - and so she will tell you all
she saw [etc.?] She had her miniature [taken?] -
a beautiful one it is - As soon as I have money
to spare I intend to have mine taken for you.
Horatio is well, and still busy at his Babel - Willy
happy as a kitten - The girls well & all going
as happily as I can wish.
My own health is pretty good - only I am
tired of writing as you will infer from this
scrawl. Your friends here or mine, more
properly, always enquire for you. Write soon -
I will send you the Mirror - Yours affectionately
Sarah J Hale
Cadet David E. Hale
West-Point
N. York.