Poe Archive

March 11, 1845
Clinton [New York]

To Mr. William Mann,

Dear Sir,
Having a few days since received an interesting epistle from you, I am necessarily drawn into the employment of letter writing Althh I remember of one being called a letter written. I acknowledge without any reluctance that those days are gawn never more to return. I have repeatedly received papers from you as tokins of your regards & evidence of your friendship which was formed in the few weeks that you sojourned with us as a Boarder & sir be assured that although we have been very negligent in keeping up the correspondence we have not been unmindful of you when far away in R. I. in your Joythe factory. I suppose the noise of the hammer has not quite deafened you yet, or if it has, it has not deprived you of the ability of thinking & contemplation.

There has not been any particular alienation of any family since you left Clinton, but by the Devine blessing we are all spared till the present time and are enjoying comfortable health though many have been the changes since you left us last July. Many have gawn to their long home and these accounts are sealed up for the judgement when the secret of all hearts will be revealed to an assembled universe & many are languishing under the power of disease which will deposit them in the narrow House appointed for all living & call them undying spirits home to God to meet there rewards according to their works.

You write that the memory of us you or the visit you made to Clinton in 1844 you should not soon forget. We can with propriety adopt the same language & say the stranger who came along when we were howing corn inquiring for a Boarding place & who on further acquaintance appeared to be Wm. Mann of R. I. we shall not soon have erased from our memory.

You wished me to write respecting the prospects of a School Mr. Strong is teaching in the old Brook School house on the flats[?] with a very goodly number of pupils & probably would be pleased to receive one more even if it should come from the little village of Slatersville. Say now don’t you work to hard, don’t stick so close to the old shop, don’t love to well the profits of the noise of the bellows and the trip hammer to the neglect of things of greater importance. Your scythes have all prooved good & the verry first rate so you nead not fear to come here again on that acc. Although the one I selected proved to be weak in the back owing to the scale it had on it. If you think it best to come up into this region the ensuing summer with some of your grass cutters I will send you all the [?] I can to further the sale of the article.

My wife is boiling sap on the stove rather slow business but the produce we all like extremely well & if you come here we would delight in giving you some pudding & maple mollasses. Oh, how delicious to a Yankee & in fact a good many that are not Yankees like it. My wife remembers that you usto hurry home at noon if the pudding was in prospect. We see you remember with interest Little Charles. He is very well is spending most of his time with his Aunt Mary in Westmoreland. He has been there all winter with the exception of about 2 weeks. She doesn’t think as much of him as she does as she does of his eyes. I think he remembers Mr. Mann. Can talk on a variety of subjects and ask questions which many of us cannot give him clear and satisfactory answers.

You see by the doings on the ten mile square that Texas is annexed to the U.S. The Whigs in this section feel very bad & charge the whole of the Evil to the abolitionists if it should prove to be an evil & the Locos charge it all to the Whigs as having done it. Now Mr. Mann you know my views on these questions. I am opposed to annexation, am opposed to Clay & Polk, am opposed to Tipicannoe & Tyler too, am [?] to doeing evil that good may come. The southerners in his phrinzy & madness to perpetuate slavery & the slave power in this nation & make the fitting strong perhaps have now done the very thing though not designedly that by the direction of Him whose eyeing above give a death blow to the Giant Monster in this land.

You wish me to write respecting the state of religion in this section of the nation. In Manchester there is nothing encouraging at present. Br. Prall is preaching there still in the college. Then is [?] that the Lord has not forsaken us it is said that six or 8 are underlying hopes. The faculty attend the prayer meeting with the students. In Clinton difficulties in the Church perplex & distract & alienate the Bretheren one from another, and now you see my friend I have protracted this epistle beyond all my anticipations & must bid you an affectionate adieu—Miss Joann B. has been very sick but is recovering.

Mary & Ann have been teaching family schools this winter in Manchester and at the [?] then others at Mr. Blackstones. We jointly & severally present our cordial respects to you, Wm. Mann.

Harvey Pollard

PS When you are married send me a piece of the wedding cake.

I had forgotten to mention in the inside of this that Mr. Barber has had the misfortune of having his leg broken. It occurred from being thrown from a horse & truly has been a greate sufferer the winter past—the other neighbors are in usual health. Please excuse all mistakes and imperfections.

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One good thing Congress have done to reduce the Postage on selling [?] It would go into immediate effect after the 11th July, can write oftener.