I hope to soon meet you here, and enter into a friendly interchange of thoughts and feelings without the formality of paper and ink. I am anxious to give you a hearty shake by the hand and welcome you to Washington. If you are left to your leisure hours, you will undoubtedly have much enjoyment both in society and in Congress. You must not anticipate too much pleasure in the crowded parties of the metropolis. To me they are perfect bores.
Let me know when you are to come on, and if not immediately I will write you a long letter. Read this if you can.
Yours in the true bonds of friendship,
H. Wager Halleck.
Although unable to procure the cadet appointment for Oliver, he greatly enjoyed his first visit to the capital, especially the debates in the Senate, where he listened to both Clay and Webster. The former impressed him as more a leader of men and controller of measures than the latter.
One would think that with his official duties, and all the studies and pursuits he was carrying on, every minute of his time must have been taken up; yet he organized a course of lectures for the winter, and himself delivered an address on Oliver Cromwell, whose character and achievements he greatly admired. In this lecture he presented with great force and clearness a new and original conception of the great Puritan, depicting him as a true patriot and a religious, God-fearing man, obliged by the circumstances of the times to seize the helm of state in order to save his country from despotism or anarchy. This was much the view afterwards so ably set forth by Carlyle. This lecture excited no little attention at the time; and when Carlyle’s Cromwell appeared, not long afterwards, it was said that the lecture would seem to have been taken from that work, had it not been delivered before that was published. He afterwards delivered this lecture in Andover and other places.
In the spring of 1841 he was placed in charge of Fairhaven Battery in New Bedford, Mass., in addition to his duties in Newport. This required frequent trips to the former place, which he usually made by stage, but several times he traversed the intervening country on foot. On one of these trips, in an economical mood he refrained from dinner in order to save the cost of the meal. Soon afterwards a lean and friendless dog attached himself to him, and followed his footsteps so persistently, and looked so piteous and hungry, that the young man’s sensibilities were touched, and he stopped at a farmhouse and purchased a good dinner for the half-starved animal, which, as he laughingly declared, cost all he had saved by his self-denial.
MARGARET LYMAN STEVENS
From Miniature by Staigg, 1841
A letter from Mr. Bishop conveyed the afflicting and unlooked-for intelligence of the death of Susan, April 8, 1841, from pulmonary disease, after a brief illness. Thus unexpectedly passed away another loved sister, and one whose sunny, affectionate disposition, fine mind, and high principles had especially endeared her.