Letter, 1827 May 6, Northampton [Massachusetts] to Richard Brenan (Charleston, S.C.)

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Letter, 1827 May 6, Northampton [Massachusetts] to Richard Brenan (Charleston, S.C.)

Friendly letter to Brenan from a college friend, reporting political news, public opinion of the Federalist party, regional ideas of North and South, his summer plans to go to the Spa, and social news of mutual friends, including report of a pleasant visit with "Mr. Baker" from South Carolina who was visiting Massachusetts, "I was pleased to have an opportunity of passing an hour with such a man as Mr Barker. If I entertained any illiberal feelings toward Southerners as we used to call them in college days, an acquaintance with such men as he would soften them." Noting political news in New England, Durgh writes of party factions in his area and diminishing support for the Federalist Party, "But what is the news in N[ew] England? In politicks amalgamation is the word. The old Federalists begin to think that they may yet die with honour around them but I doubt. There is a personal division of parties in this state at present as it existed when you were here in which too many find interest to suffer the middle wall of partition to be broken down. They say the word 'Federalist' & though few of the people know what it means it is a word of opprobrium. I am not sure that I may not see the day when I shall lose office because I am the son of a Federalist." Teasing Brenan that he should return for a visit before he forgets his New England attachments, he writes "people so famed as you of the South for hospitality ought not to pass through New England without tasting our fresh butter and old wine, our best natural and best imported commodity." Durgh invites Brenan to join him at the Spa during the summer, where he plans to bring law students along on his next trout fishing expedition, "I shall go to Spa next week Trouting and take some of the law students with me. May they have the love of sport you have and the same indifference to wet feet and wet skin." News of mutual friends includes Durgh's surpise at the unexpected focus and professional success as a lawyer of Brenan's "old friend Fay" [possibly a reference to Richard Sullivan Fay?, a fellow member of the Harvard class of 1825]; Durgh also reports news of romantic and economic difficulties: "Locke's engagement with Sally Mills is broken off. Locke is cheerful & happy one whose passion I thought so deep & exclusive that he might die under disappointed love is happy to dally with other lovers. 'I told you it would be so,' said a married lady to me yesterday, 'girls put off their old lover as readily as their old gowns.' I did not use to think so. But the old croaker Dick told some truth about this worlds vanity & woman's frailty"; noting a family of five recently turned out of their lodging, Durgh observes, "probably he was supplanted by the arts of his successor Sam Henshaw. But Boston capitalists when the[y] act individually are unjust & hard hearted, & when they act in corporation, where there is no individual responsibility, 'to love mercy & do justly' is no part of their creed."

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Related Entities

There are 4 Entities related to this resource.

Harvard University

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n9x97 (person)

Harvard College was founded by a vote of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts on October 28, 1636 that allocated “400£ towards a schoale or colledge.” Subsequent legislative acts established the Board of Overseers, but it was the Charter of 1650 that created the Harvard Corporation as the College's primary governing board and defined its composition and authority. The College Charter became a contentious target for College officials, the Massachusetts Governor and General C...

Durgh, W.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rv0r0c (person)

Recipient of this letter, Richard Brenan (1805 - ca.1860s) was a native of Charleston, S.C., and an 1825 graduate of Harvard; in 1829, Brenan married Mary Lavinia Brown (1806-1832), daughter of Joshua Brown, in Charleston, S.C.; by 1832, the couple lived in New Orleans, Louisiana; the writer of this letter, identified as "W. Durgh" of Hampshire County (Mass.) is apparently an attorney and may hold political office; "W. Durgh" likely became friends with Brenan during his college years in Boston. ...

Federal Party (U.S.)

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Brenan, Ricard, 1805-186u

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk6g5k (person)