Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Walt Whitman, [15 July 1868]
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15 July 1868
wensday ten oclock1
Well Walter dear
i write
again to let you know we
are all in the land of
the living had a pretty
hard squeese to worry through
but we have got along
so far all pretty well
considering this awful
weather we have had) these
rooms is quite cool if there
is any air at all but monday
night we had to keep shut up
all the front part of the house
on sunday there was one
of the car horses died and
he laid just acrost the
street and he laid there
till tuesday and the whole
neighborhood was distressed
with the smell the horses dropt
from the cars in several other
routs
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well walt i got the
letter tuesday this week
it dont make any very
material difference only
i get figgety for fear its
stolen there dont seem to
be quite so much complaint
of loosing letters as there was
at one time) i hope you will
keep well walter you
are very carefull i know
i think its so nessary to
be i wish george was half
as carefull they havent done
much on the main till to
day they have been raising
the stone from where the old
tunnel was filled up so
they havent laid much
pipe till to day so it was
well for george2
as it
wouldent take much
to get him to feel the effects
of the heat
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georges house3
is
raised was raised
last saturday three
story and cellar with
stone under smith is
in a hurry to get it
done as he is going
to oversee frenches4
buildings) i seldom
hear from the st lou is
folks they are very
slow to write i wrote
a letter to matty5 telling
her i just wrote to let
her know mamma
lived in brooklyn
yet i think matti might
write oftener
as for han6
i dont know as i shall
ever hear from her
it seems so strange
if they was old and
lame like me i
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shouldent think so
strange well i suppose
they all have enoughf
to doo) o walter the
nomanation aint it
great i wish you
could see the eagle
it is worse than ever
all the respectable
radicals is in favor
of seymore7
the eagle
says they are nearly
all copperheads around
here8
but they are kinly
put aback if chase9
had only been the one they
would have carried
everything before them
Notes
- 1. This letter dates to July 15, 1868. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman dated the letter only "wensday," and Richard Maurice Bucke assigned the date July 15, 1868. Edwin Haviland Miller agreed with Bucke's date (Walt Whitman, The Correspondence [New York: New York University Press, 1961–75], 2:361). July 15, 1868, was a Wednesday, and the date assigned by Bucke is correct because it corresponds with stories about politics in the newspaper and because Louisa Van Velsor Whitman replied directly to a query in Walt Whitman's most recent letter. The letter refers to the Democratic presidential candidate Horatio Seymour, and Louisa drew from an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which appeared on July 7. She responded to Walt Whitman's request for her (and George Washington Whitman's) opinion of the Democratic ticket in Walt's July 10–13, 1868 letter. [back]
- 2. George Washington Whitman (1829–1901) was the sixth child of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman and Walter Whitman, Sr., and ten years Walt Whitman's junior. George enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 and remained on active duty until the end of the Civil War. He was wounded in the First Battle of Fredericksburg (December 1862) and was taken prisoner during the Battle of Poplar Grove (September 1864). After the war, George returned to Brooklyn and began building houses on speculation, with a partner named Smith and later a mason named French. George eventually took up a position as inspector of pipes in Brooklyn and Camden. For more information on George, see "Whitman, George Washington." [back]
- 3. The house was probably the one on 1149 Atlantic Avenue. Louisa had discussed George Washington Whitman's difficulty in locating a surveyor and his progress on the cellar in her July 1, 1868 letter. George purchased the property outright from his partner—a man named Smith—and Louisa and her son Edward moved there in late September (see her August 26, 1868 letter to Walt Whitman and his September 25, 1868 letter to Peter Doyle). [back]
- 4. George Washington Whitman started a business building houses on speculation with a man named Smith in 1865, and they were joined by a mason named French the following year. Walt Whitman described Smith as "a natural builder and carpenter (practically and in effect) architect," and he advised John Burroughs that Smith was an "honest, conscientious, old-fashioned man, a man of family . . . . youngish middle age" (see Walt's September 2, 1873 letter to Burroughs). See also Jerome F. Loving, "Introduction," Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1975), 3–35. [back]
- 5. Martha Mitchell Whitman (1836–1873), known as "Mattie," was the wife of Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Whitman, Walt Whitman's brother. She and Jeff had two daughters, Manahatta and Jessie Louisa. In 1868, Mattie and her daughters moved to St. Louis to join Jeff, who had moved there in 1867 to assume the position of Superintendent of Water Works. For more on Mattie, see Randall H. Waldron, ed., Mattie: The Letters of Martha Mitchell Whitman (New York: New York University Press, 1977), 1–26. Mattie's June 8, 1868 letter may be the most recent one that Louisa has received (see Waldron, 54–56). [back]
- 6. Hannah Louisa (Whitman) Heyde (1823–1908), Louisa Van Velsor Whitman's younger daughter, resided in Burlington, Vermont, with husband Charles Louis Heyde (ca. 1820–1892), a French-born landscape painter. Charles Heyde was infamous among the Whitmans for his offensive letters and poor treatment of Hannah. [back]
- 7. Horatio Seymour (1810–1886), former governor of New York, was the Democratic Party nominee and opponent of Republican candidate Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election of 1868. "Seymour among the People" reported enthusiastic crowds for the candidate along the train route for his return to Utica, New York (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 14, 1868, 2). The term "Radical" was the Democratic-leaning Eagle's party designation for Republican candidates and voters, and it reserved terms like "respectable" and "respectful" for moderate Republicans who advocated generous terms for the southern states and so would consider voting for Seymour. For more on Seymour, see Joel H. Silbey, "Seymour, Horatio," American National Biography Online. [back]
- 8.
Louisa Van Velsor Whitman's support for Ulysses S. Grant and the Republican presidential ticket was genuine. Walt Whitman had been employed in the office of the attorney general for a Republican president, and his brother George Washington Whitman served in the Union Army. Louisa read against the grain of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Louisa replied to Walt's query in his July 10–13, 1868 letter, "How do you all like the nomination of Seymour and Blair?" Despite her annoyance with the daily paper's political orientation, she continued to subscribe to it out of habit and familiarity (see her February 17, 1868 letter to Walt).
"Copperhead" is a derisive term for an antiwar Democrat.
[back] - 9. Salmon P. Chase (1808–1873) was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He sought the 1868 presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, but his support for African American suffrage undermined his candidacy. Horatio Seymour was selected as the party's nominee. Also see Louisa Van Velsor Whitman's response to a Thomas Nast cartoon on Chase's politics in her July 8, 1868 letter to Walt Whitman. [back]
- 10. Louisa Van Velsor Whitman (1795–1873) married Walter Whitman, Sr., in 1816; together they had nine children, of whom Walt Whitman was the second. For more information on Louisa and her letters, see Wesley Raabe, "'walter dear': The Letters from Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to Her Son Walt" and Sherry Ceniza, "Whitman, Louisa Van Velsor (1795–1873)." [back]