Augusta County: L. Luckett to Alexander H. H.
Stuart, December 23, 1861
Summary:
Luckett requests that Sandy visit the Lucketts as Staunton schools "must be in a
state of disorganization & must remain so during the war." He also
discusses relations with England.
Dec 23 1861
Ashbourn La
My dear Sir
I wrote you some two or three months ago and as there were two or three letters sent off at the same time, to neither of which any answer has been recived I think it more than probable that none of them reached their destination. They were sent to our office during our rainy spell & as our mails frequently came up more or less[illeg.] [unclear: and] by the sudden showers, it is likely the letters shared at that time the same fate but [unclear: werte] & they were [unclear: srcully] thrown away by our Mail boy--who sometimes played us other tricks by his negligence.
In my letter I conveyed a wish from all the family & particularly from
Henry that you would permit Sandy to pay us a visit and [unclear: uitie]
our family school for the winter & spring, as your schools must be in a
state of disorganization & and must remain so during the war--a
[unclear: rendence nither] us too at this [unclear: parune]
would impress his
[page 2]
[unclear: health quietly besides] the
advantage of [unclear: trar] it to our that has led to
[unclear: domertre] a life as [unclear: he]. We have an
excellent Teacher--a Virginian but a little too much of the Puritan order in the
[unclear: thinking] of his rules &c such as rising at day
break and an occasional confiniment in
[unclear: May house] for [unclear: very] minor dificiences, but I will [illeg.] to him
[unclear: dffny] any saturday that they may enjoy thier
[unclear: Horses] & [illeg.] to their hearts desire.
We have [unclear: piest] had the [unclear: tiding], of Englands
demand for the restoration of our Captured ministers, which has [illeg.]
more [illeg.] to others than to me--I would rather she would have told
us a [unclear: fire] iron clad [unclear: war streamer] with
[unclear: Armstrong] guns & [illeg.] as have whipped
the Scoundrels ourselves. Our People here are very much at a loss to account for
[illeg.] madness & folly on their part as to [deleted: ] a quarrel with England at this time, for judging from their acts there never
was a people so [illeg.] & crazy since the world was made. But
there may be method in their madness--Like Macbeth they may [illeg.]--I
am in [unclear: blood] slipped in so far, returning,
[unclear: now] as [unclear: hard] as to
go
[unclear: over]
[page 3]
They may [illeg.] themselves on
the brink of [illeg.] whipped they certainly are, and unable to stand
the [unclear: outside]
[unclear: nature]& fear of discovery of the lies and [deleted: ] they have so long practiced on their [illeg.] of victors
& [illeg.] won of [unclear: sin parts]
[unclear: opened] that the [illeg.] now
[unclear: haunts] their imagination & to [unclear: dark]
them from the Truth, [illeg.] get up a war with England--dont you believe [unclear: Cameron] was telling
an enormous lie when he made out his report of 6 or 700,000 men in [deleted: ] arms. I doubt whether they have or had over 350000 in the fold
of [unclear: arms]--I doubt too whether they ever got 150000000 loan
from the Banks. They are to me with [illeg.] Gulf Stream that takes its
[illeg.] at the Cape of St. Rogue [illeg.] the North
American coast [illeg.] the climate of western Europe & scarcely
[unclear: mingles] with any other [unclear: water]--They
have [illeg.]
[illeg.]
[illeg.] the [illeg.] man Conquest a separate & distant
[illeg.] we with such [illeg.] of [illeg.] that they
never [unclear: cropped] out [illeg.] before in the
[unclear: lives] of [unclear: Cromwell]-as
[unclear: haters] of other people but masked their
[unclear: motive] as [unclear: lay] as they could fatten on our
tobacco sugar & cotton crops by high Tariffs &
[unclear: fishing] counties--but when like [illeg.] the copper
smith they find their [unclear: craft] in danger they show themselves in
their their
[page 4]
caracter--the [deleted: ][unclear: Hirarado] of the [unclear: Chinese], the [deleted: ] ferocity of the [illeg.], with his cowardice &
lying [illeg.]
[illeg.] of the Gipsy
[illeg.] my Eyes [unclear: devl] [illeg.], I hope to read of their buring town, smoking ruins & devastated fields.
I fow now the [unclear: mor] will be too [unclear: short]--I want the whole South to imitate Carthagenian who swore his children on his coutries altar eternal hate to the vile wretches. They have learned one lesson and Europe too, that our peculiar institution that they hoped was our weakness, is a lever of strength, [unclear: We] of the [unclear: better] [unclear: rejoiceful] that subject more than you of Virginia, Tennessee or Kentucky--that their wishes & expectations [unclear: been] realized, can the mind of man conceive the awful horror of a [illeg.] [illeg.], the midnight conflagration & the [unclear: stagnation] of innocence. Had they [illeg.] succeded, if alive, no doubt I should with my [unclear: other], now have a coporal with a [illeg.] [illeg.] on my family, like my bale of cotton nor [illeg.], to pay for the [illeg.] of our Subjugation--
I [illeg.] of Everett in [illeg.] in this & there on that, his Electioneering speech of 1860 & his 4th of July address that the [unclear: gallaries] is the fate of Lincoln Sewared [unclear: Cameron] [unclear: Bates] [illeg.] & the Blairs
It is very late & cold, & if you can read this it is more than I can do. Our kindest regards to Mrs. S & the children all.
by truly Sincrely yrs
L Luckett
P.S I have no room to say any thing of family & it is too late to add another page.
