I was sorry to find that you have suffered from indisposition. I went to Coleman’s last night to inquire for you, but found Mr. and Mrs. Plitt absent.
Will you tell me that you are well, or at least better? and will you let me come and see you? and say how soon.
I have a letter, or rather a lecture, from the bishop this morning; not on religion, but morality. He has, however, made me a proposition so singularly flattering and unexpected that I wish to tell you of it.
If you are going to England, how delighted I should be if you were to go in the same steamer with myself and my son, the Great Britain of the first August. But perhaps you would have a ship of war.
I think you would like England and the English upon a near acquaintance, and your sincerity of purpose and warmth of heart would interest their esteem and affections most strongly. But how could you be spared from home, for there is no other Secretary of State in the Cabinet? My hopes of the Ministry to England, if you do not go, are for Calhoun, because he could set the people there right on the slave question, and also, I believe, he would do much to get the duties on tobacco reduced in England.
Though the treaty (making) is on the 49th, I shall, in writing, enforce the superior claims of America, and treat the whole arrangement as a concession on the part of the United States. Yours it will be, yours it must be; and however unpopular may be this doctrine in England, such inevitably will be the ultimate conclusion. To-morrow Mrs. Madison takes me under her wing to pay my farewell respects to Mrs. Polk. I will also call on the President for five minutes before I leave Washington.
The Emigrant Surgeon’s Bill will be lost, but, thanks to the admonitions of the excellent bishop and to your expressions of praise and sympathy, I shall bear the disappointment without repining, and trust to do more for those unfortunates at a future time.
How can I ask you to read this long note, and to see me too? But you have made me bold by indulgence, for you have never refused me any one request.
Believe me, my dear Mr. Buchanan, most respectfully your sincere and grateful friend,
Sarah Mytton Maury.