The life and speeches of Thomas Williams orator, statesman and jurist, 1806-1872, a founder of the Whig and Republican parties

Front matter

i

0DDlD35t.t.7E

(«P)i1iilil N" -

Chapter I. His Forefathers Near the Chesapeake and

Susquehanna and What They Hear of "The Gateway to the Great West." 1785 I

Chapter H. His Youth Amidst His Books and the Historic Hills and Forests of Old Westmoreland. 1806 14

Chapter HI. Learning, Oratory and, Incidentally, Love at the Mountain College Founded by President Dickinson at Carlisle. Class of 1825 22

Chapter IV. He Studies Law Under Two Prospective Justices of the Supreme Court — Congressman Coulter, of Greensburgh, and John Kennedy, of Pittsburgh, and Is Admitted at Both Places. 1825 34

Chapter V. Pittsburgh and Politics. A New Unknown Force in tlie Press. He Goes to Washington to Protest to President Jackson Against the Removal of Deposits from the United States Bank. 1832 45

Chapter VI. The Rising Leader of the Whigs and Editor of Their Organ — "The Advocate." The Great Campaign of 1834 62

Chapter VII. The Whig Fight Against the Anti-Mason Candidate for State Senator. Williams' Notable Oration of July 4, 1835 "j-j

Chapter VIII. The Great Anti-Jackson and Whig Movements in Pennsylvania. Change in State Constitution and Election of Williams to the State Senate. 1836 93

Chapter IX. "The Buckshot War" at Harrisburg and His

Services in the Senate. 1838 107

Chapter X. His Notable Eulogy on President William Henry Harrison Before the Legislature of Pennsylvania on April 17, 1841 145

Chapter XI. Events Leading to the Disastrous Whig Campaign of '44, Which Causes Him to Abandon Politics. His Great Tariff Speech in Pittsburgh, 1841 174

Chapter XH. A Decade of Private Practice, Near the Close of Which He Renews His Long War Against Municipal Subscription to Railways. 1844 221

Chapter XHL Aroused by the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, He Becomes a Founder of the Republican Party and a National Committeeman in '56. He Writes the Call for the Chicago Convention which Nominated Lincoln. His War Against Municipal Subscription to Railways Produces an Amendment to the Constitution. 1855.. 293

Illustrations

I. Frontispiece, Thomas Williams in 1830. From ^

a Bridport miniature.

II Map Showing the Region of the Headwaters of the Chesapeake. After map in Johnstons

"Cecil County"

III. Thomas Williams, Sr. From a small painting. . 4 '

IV The Williams Home at Greensburgh. Drawn

under the direction of Miss S. D. Williams. . 12 '

V. West College (Dickinson College), Carlisle.

From a photograph ""*

VI. Justice Richard Coulter. From an engraving by

Bather -^J

VII. Justice John Kennedy. From a painting 3« '

VHI. Mrs. Robert Williams. From a painting by ^

Lambdin

IX. Map of the United States in 1827. From a con-

temporary atlas

X. Map of Pittsburgh in 1830, by Barbeau and ^^

Keyon

XI. The First Pittsburgh Court House.^^ From Johnston's "Life and Reminiscences" 5° '

XII. Map Showing the Presidential Vote of Pennsylvania in 1828, by Counties 52

XIII. Map Showing the Presidential Vote of Penn-

sylvania in 1832, by Counties 54

XIV. The White House in 1833 • • • 5

XV. William Wilkins about 1830. From a painting ^

by Bowman

XVI The National Capitol as Viewed from the

White House in Jackson's Time. From a lith- ^^

ograph by Currier

XVII. President Andrew Jackson. From a Bisbee print 62

XVIII. The United States Bank in 1831. From an en:

graved drawing by Burton

XIX. "Explosion of Biddle & Go's Congress Water Fount." A Downing cartoon of the United

States Bank War, in 1834 66

XX. Neville B. Craig about 1840. From a painting

by Lambdin 72

XXI. Letter of Daniel Webster on his Presidential

Candidacy, 1835 (a part) 94

XXII. Charles Bingham Penrose at About Thirty-five

Years of Age. From a painting by Officer no

XXIII. The Capitol at Harrisburg. From a litho-

graphed daguerreotype of 1855, by J. T.

Williams 112.

XXIV. Map Showing Canals and Railroads in Pennsyl-

vania in 1839. After a map by Tanner.... 128. XXV. Map Showing Distribution of Population in

the United States in 1840 134

XXVI. Hand-bill of Harrison Campaign of 1840.

Written by Mr. Williams 136

XXVII. "The Almighty Lever," a campaign cartoon of

1840, by Childs 138

XXVIII. Map Showing the Presidential Vote of Pennsylvania in 1840. by Counties 140

XXIX. President William Henry Harrison in 1841.

From an engraving by Sartain 146

XXX. Letter of Henry Clay on His Presidential Candidacy, 1843 (a part) 178

XXXI. "Sold for Want of Use," a Baillie cartoon of the

Campaign in 1844 210

XXXII. Horace Greeley. From a contemporary photograph by Brady 294

XXXIIL Musical Fund Hall. Philadelphia. Where the First National Republican Convention Was Held in 1856 (exterior). From a photograph 296

XXXIV. The Same (interior) 297

XXXV. David Wilmot. From a lithograph by Traubel 298

XXXVI. John C. Fremont. From a photograph 300

XXXVII. Map Showing the Presidential Vote in Pennsylvania in 1856, by Counties 302

XXXVIII. Mr. Williams as First National Republican Committeeman. From a painting by Lambdin about 1854 304

Preface

A foreword to these volumes would hardly be possible without first expressing to historical students the author's grateful appreciation of most generous recognition given to his previous work — "The Life and Times of Thomas Smith, 1 745-1809, a Pennsylvania Member of the Continental Congress." For the present work grew out of essentially the same conditions, is characterized by practically the same method, and is issued in a style uniform with that volume. Since these conditions and that method have been explained in the previous preface, they need only be referred to here ; and since this mention of the work can hardly be avoided, it is a fortunate circumstance, thoroughly appreciated by the author, that it can be accompanied by his expression of gratitude for a generous recognition from so high sources.

The location of the papers of Thomas Williams, 1806- 1872, a founder of the Whig and Republican parties, and the fresh light they cast on the great period from Jackson to Grant, led the author into the preparation of the present work ; and chiefly because Williams was an orator of widely recognized culture and power, among a generation now all but past, whose speeches, at the various crises in a period of almost forty years of public life, if taken consecutively and in their appropriate setting, are in themselves eloquent and vivid contemporary history of every step in that wonderful period — carrying in them its very atmosphere. The importance thus attached to his addresses necessitated two volumes, in which, it may be noted in passing, the pages are numbered continuously, with the entire index in the second and the tables of contents and illustrations appropriately divided between them.

While it is impossible to note all the courtesies extended to the author during the long preparation of this work, the constant helpfulness and aid in the use of the Williams collection by the Misses Williams of Philadelphia cannot be overlooked. Nor can the cordial sympathy and interest of Senator Philander C. Knox, so sincerely evidenced in the introduction, which follows, as well as in his many friendly assurances, be omitted. It is a pleasure also to recognize the helpful conferences with Justice George Shiras, Jr., formerly of the National Supreme Court, Judge Hawkins, Mrs. Darlington, and President McCandless of Pittsburgh; Judge M. Russell Thayer, Colonel A. K. McClure, Henry Pemberton, Esq., Senator Penrose and Sydney George Fisher, Esq., of Philadelphia, and Justice Wylie of Washington, D. C. The kindnesses of Librarian Anderson of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, Librarian Graham of the Mercantile Library at Knoxville, Chief Roberts of the Bureau of Prints and Chief Ford of the Manuscript Division of the Congressional Library, Librarian Montgomery and Mr. Kelker of the State Library at Harrisburg, ofificers of the New York Historical Society and Astor Library at New York, officers of the Dauphin County Historical Society at Harrisburg, the Philadelphia Library, and especially the Pennsylvania Historical Society — m which latter Miss Leech has been particularly helpful — , Mr. Potter of the Potter Title and Trust Company of Pittsburgh, Mr. Lewis Greene of the Supreme Court Prothonotary's office and Mr. Keene, the well-known photographer at Harrisburg, have all been warmly appreciated.

Before closing, it may be well to state, in illustration of the author's purely historical purposes, that as this life and speeches of an aggressive Whig and Republican issues from the press, he is finishing the manuscript of the life and work of a conservative Democratic leader of almost exactly the same period.

BURTON ALVA KONKLE.

Swarthmore, 27 July, 1905.

Introduction

American history has taken on a new meaning and importance in the last decade, with the rise of the United States to its new position among the world powers. Contemporary with this, too, has been widespread activity in the exercise of a new method in the writing of history, namely, that known as the scientific method, which emphasizes original documents and sources. The new method has not only been applied to the nation, but has also been applied, in varying degrees, to the great Commonwealths, whose individual histories have partaken of the new meaning and importance acquired by that of the nation.

That Pennsylvania has from the beginning had a place of the first significance and importance in the history of our country is known to all ; but that she has had a most complex, highly significant, and interesting, as well as profitable, individual history is known, in its full extent at least, only to students of her original documents and sources. It is a commonly held opinion of many of these students that there is a wealth of these sources of the greatest importance still practically untouched, and the work of many of them tends to confirm that opinion. Among such works is the "Life and Times of Judge Smith, 1745-1809," by the author of the present volumes — a book that illuminates with peculiar justice the growth of all of the Commonwealth, east, west, north and south, as well as certain elements in national history itself, for the period it covers, and especially by bringing the reader directly in contact with original sources. The book has deservedly won recognition from some of the highest historical critics.

The author's aim seems to be, because of the extent of the historical field in Pennsylvania, to select a series of important movements in a certain period — important both provincially and nationally — and, after choosing some character that was prominent in them, present the reader to original sources, under the form of a "Life and Times" or "Life and Speeches" of the individual chosen. In his Judge Smith are the movements centering about the long contest over the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, which instrument was characterized chiefly by the feature of a single branch Legislature. In the present volumes — "The Life and Speeches of Thomas Williams, 1806-1872. a Founder of the Whigand Republican Parties" — he takes a later period and a somewhat modified method. Mr. Williams, who died the year before the present writer made his home in Pittsburgh and who was known to him only by reputation, was an eminent lawyer, but more particularly an orator of considerable culture and power. He became a spokesman of one element of public opinion from the time of the uprising against President Jackson, in the crusade against the United States Bank, and so continued until nearly the close of his life, a period of about forty years. In consequence he represents the Whig and Republican movements, culminating with the impeachment of President Johnson, of which he was a leading manager — in a striking manner in some of his leading orations and speeches. He was an orator of the old school and his addresses carry the atmosphere of the contests of his time. He was a leader of certain popular movements, also, notably that against municipal subscription to railways, and his addresses on these are very informing. He was a fearless and independent thinker, a unique mingling of the jurist and propagandist, eloquent and learned, and withal a man and citizen of the purest motives and character. A leader of the Whigs, he became the first Pennsylvania member of the Republican National Executive Committee. His services in the two branches of the Legislature and in Congress were of the first order. His addresses have been made an integral part of the story.

Such studies as this serve to make the present generation appreciate more fully both the problems of previous generations and our own. The first-hand views of those times, resulting from the author's method, give a vividness and reality to the past and a consequent sense of its continuity with the present that are both most helpful.

The author's method also does not provide for the expression of his own opinions, but rather presents the material uoon which the reader himself may form his iudcrments* The author presents his story, but without advocacy. The man, the fact and the event speak for

^'^"^^^^^^" PHILANDER C. KNOX.

Valley Forge, July 17, 1905-

CHAPTER I

His Forefathers Near the Chesapeake and Susquehanna AND What They Hear of "The Gateway to the Great West"

Not all who settled in the beautiful landscapes at the head of the Chesapeake's waters, in the days of the Penns and the Baltimores, knew they had chosen the tidewater landing nearest to the picturesque amphitheatre at the headwaters of La Belle Riviere, Ohio, beyond the mountains, although those forks were the key to solitudes so vast and rich as to be counted by many an explorer the promised land of all the world. Those who had the vision of a general both knew it and were concerned about it, and that, too, right early. The Ohio Company, with their line of storehouses and forts along the trails beyond the Potomac passes, were among the concerned, and when young Washington widened some of those paths for his swivel guns, it became evident that both the colonial and Crown governments had also become vitally concerned in this being the nearest approach. Thereafter probably few about the blue waters of the Chesapeake but were conscious of the cloud, no larger than a man's hand, ever rising at the mouth of the Monongahela and threatening them, down even to the days of the passing of both the Penns and Baltimores.

Nor did all those who came to that rich region, of about a score or so of miles at the head of the Chesapeake, between the Susquehanna and the Delaware, know whether they were in the dominion of Quaker or Catholic. Neither the Unes between Penn's New Castle County and the Cecil County of Lord Baltimore, nor again between the latter and Penn's Chester County on the north, had yet been run, and both proprietors granted lands in all three counties unwittingly at times, before the days of Mason and Dixon or the arc-and-tangent lines of Delaware. So when Penn granted the Welsh a tract westward of New Castle, almost to the banks of the Elk River, and likewise granted the Friends some sections called the Nottingham Lots, a few miles northwestward toward the Susquehanna, the planters little dreamed that they were in Lord Baltimore's Cecil County.^ Nor did the many Welsh Presbyterians who bought land in the first tract, nor the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who purchased Nottingham land, realize it fully until Alason and Dixon made it clear and final in 1767.

Amidst these uncertainties, however, nearly all knew beyond the possibility of a doubt that the liberty of conscience and freedom of thought, for which Penn's colonies were famous, would here be assured to them, as well as freedom of education, which always followed in Presbyterian and other communities that emphasized education. From the time that Henry Reynolds, an original owner of one of the Nottingham Lots or tracts, was said to have made the beginnings of the village of Rising Sun, the settlement of planters which grew up about it, and which was so largely Presbyterian, was destined to be peculiarly fortunate in these respects. A prosperous church stood on the brow of the hill, just northwest of the village, which attracted the great preacher Whitefield, and his burning eloquence and new truth caused such an increase in numbers and such a division in regard to the new teachings, that, in 1741, a second church was built "in the meadow across the brook," just west of the old one. This latter was destined to have a mighty influence, not only upon its immediate community, in stamping upon it belief in the highest standards of classical education, but on all the middle colonies where the name of its great pastor and the school he organized there left their impress. It was in 1744 that Rev. Samuel Finley became their leader and soon founded Nottingham Academy near at hand when he was scarcely thirty years of age.- He

• Map in Johnston's "History of Cecil County, Maryland," 1881. ^ Maclean's "History of the College of New Jersey," 1S77, Vol. I, p. 278, and Johnston's "Cecil County," p. 278.

HIS FOREFATHERS AND THE WEST 3

had been educated in the old "Log College," out of which sprang Princeton, and for the next seventeen years there grew up under the inspiration of his personality men like Dr. Benjamin Rush, Rev. Dr. John Ewing, Governor Martin, of North Carolina; Governor Henry, of Maryland; Colonel John Bayard, Rev. Dr. W. M. Tennent, of Pennsylvania; Rev. Dr. James Waddell, of Virginia, and others of like character. His fame as an educator was such that by 1759 he was thought of for the fourth president of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, of which he was a trustee, and two years later he was spontaneously acknowledged to be the man to head the chief educational institution of the Presbyterians in the American colonies as its fifth president— the last before Witherspoon — and thereafter Nottingham Academy was without the founder who had made it one of the most celebrated schools of its day.

Of such a settlement of planters, dominated by the high value set on classical education, Robert Williams, merchant and planter, became a part in the years before the Revolution. Of his antecedents, however, so little is known it can only be affirmed that he is the first known of his family, and was believed by his grandson to have been of Welsh blood.^ Of Robert's brother, Captain Richard Williams, it is known that he was a soldier of the Revolution as early as 1777, at Germantown, and became one of the early settlers in the upper Ligonier Valley, eastward of Pittsburgh, not far from General St. Clair's home, in the days when it was necessary for him to build a blockhouse on his land on Four-Mile Run, then and long afterwards known as "Fort Williams."^ Robert

1 It is possible that his parents were Robert and Catherine \Villiams, who lived in or near Charlestown as early as January, 1747, five years after the town was founded, and held a mortgage on lot No. 108 when this was the trading town for that region. His will, also among the records at Elkton, Md., dated September 26, 1765, bequeaths a Charlestown lot and other property to a son, Robert, and names his wife Catherine and son Thomas as executors. The persistence of these family names makes it possible, though not conclusive. As early as June 13, 1751, there is record of a Robert Williams as "Deputy Ranger there. Some have suggested that the Williams family were Scotch-Irish, but there seems to appear no confirmation of it.

2 Exact data of Captain Williams' military record is not obtainable. Some ancestor of Robert's grandson was in that battle, according to a speech in the Pennsylvania Legislative Record for 1S61, p. 93, and family tradition makes that one Captain Richard. Albert's "History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania," 1882, p. 716, shows that he was well known as Captain Williams and prominent in that region. The archives of the Record and Pension Office of the War therefore, early became interested in the region of the source of the Ohio, but he remained as the head of one of the well-known families in Cecil County in the days when old Charlestown was its trading and post port. He had married Esther Meek, a daughter of an influential family, and of their family Catherine, Esther, Thomas, Richard and Robert, Jr., the youngest, will enlist the chief interest, although it must be noted that in succeeding years the elder brother, Thomas, took his father's place as a prominent planter in the region of Rising Sun, where, in 1803, he became one of the eight commissioners authorized to conduct a lottery as a means to more effectively unite the two old Nottingham churches, separated since the days of Whitefield, by securing them a new house of worship.^

Robert, Jr., who was born some time after 1773, lost his mother within the next dozen years, for it is known that his father was married about the 28th of February, 1786, to Mary, a sister of Major Abraham Kirkpatrick, who was "as brave a man," says Neville B. Craig, the Pittsburgh historian, "as drew his sw^ord in the struggle for independence."- A few months before this marriage, Major Kirkpatrick and his friend and prospective brother-in-law, Robert WilHams, Sr., made a visit to the region of the headwaters of the Ohio, the objective of the Major being Pittsburgh, where his old colonel and brother-in-law, John Neville, had lived for many years, and that of Mr. Williams being the home of "Capt. Rich'd Williams, in Ligonier Valley, on the glade road."^ The one was destined to himself become a notable resi-

Department show him to have been a captain in the First Battalion, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Troops, on August i6, 1777. and also to have been, from February 10 to March 10, 1778, a captain in Colonel Alexander Bar's detachment of Westmoreland militia in an expedition to the Indian country. Dr. John W. Jordan is authority for the statement that the Westmoreland troops were at Germantown.

' Johnston's "Cecil County," p. 281. Thomas died in 1830 at the age of fifty-seven, and was buried in the yard of the West Nottingham Presbyterian Church. He was thus born in 1773. Catherine married John Matthews and

Esther became Mrs. McCulIough. Their mother's sister was married

to a Lamar.

= The marriage license was issued on that date, as is recorded at Elkton, Md. "The History of Pittsburgh," by Neville B. Craig, 1851, p. 231. Major Kirkpatrick became, in 1777, a captain in Colonel John Neville's Fourth Virginia Infantry. Hamersly's Army Register, p. 27.

* Neville and Kirkpatrick married daughters of the Oldham family, also a well-known one. Address of Captain Williams on a letter of November 19, 1783.

THOMAS WILLIAMS, SR.

Halftoue of a small painting iu possession of the

Misses Williams, Philadelphia

HIS FOREFATHERS AND THE WEST 5

dent of Pittsburgh and the other to furnish it a still more notable descendant.

In the long days of travel on his pack horse over the mountains, how Mr. Williams must have weighed the pros and cons of the historic past, promising present and possible future of this interesting region !^ The forks of the Ohio, which had been fought over by the two greatest nations years before, and afterwards was a bone of fierce contention between two of the greatest colonies even then all too fresh in his memory, not to speak of the knife and tomahawk, ever ready to appear out of the forests to wrest them from the actual settlers — these forks were now practically safe. It was only the year before that the Indians on the farther side of the Allegheny and Ohio were removed, and the Penns, who owned the site, laid out some lots about the fort on the point. One of the commissioners — a Virginian, from the State which had recently lost it — who aided in treating with the Indians for their removal, wrote rather pessimistic impressions of the new place at the time : "The Monongahela at Fort Pitt," wrote the Hon. Arthur Lee, on December 17, 1784, "is about two hundred and eighty [yards] wide. The Allegheny, about two hundred. The former frequently overflows, and falls much sooner than the latter, owing to its rapidity and extent. The banks of the Monongahela on the west, or opposite side to Pittsburgh, are steep close to the water, and about two hundred yards high. About a third of the way from the top is a vein of coal, above one of the rocks. The coal is burnt in the town, and is considered very good. The property of this and of the town is in the Penns. They have lotted out the face of the hill, at thirty pounds a lot, to dig coal as far in as the perpendicular falling from the summit of the bank. Fort Pitt is regularly built, cost the Crown i6oo, and is commanded by cannon from the opposite bank of the Monongahela, and from a hill above the town called Grant's Hill," because explains Mr. Lee, of the disaster there to one of General Forbes' forces.

^ See "The Life and Times of Thomas Smith, 1745-1809, a Pennsylvania Member of the Continental Congress," by Burton Alva Konkle, 1904, for maps and other material illustrating the progress of this region previous to this date.

"Pittsburgh," he continues, in an even more markedly pessimistic vein, "is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log houses, and are as dirty as in the north of Ireland, or even Scotland. There is a great deal of small trade carried on; the goods being brought at the vast expense of forty-five shillings per cwt., from Philadelphia and Baltimore. They take in the shops money, wheat flour and skins. There are in the town four attorneys, two doctors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor chapel ; so that they are likely to be damned, without the benefit of clergy. The rivers encroach fast on the town; and to such a degree, that, a gentleman told me, the Allegheny had within thirty years of his memory, carried away one hundred yards. The place, / believe, will never be very considerable."i

This view was not shared by the inhabitants, nor the large numbers who made application for lots in the new town, as shall presently appear. The growing settlements on the south side of the Ohio all the way down into Kentucky, the settlement of the public lands question by Congress, the opening up of Indian lands north of the Ohio, and the early prospect for a great northwest territory above the Ohio conspired to make the strategic and economic value of Pittsburgh a matter of common belief. So some time after Mr. Robert Williams arrived at Fort Williams "on the glade road," in the upper Ligonier Valley, there came from Pittsburgh a letter from Major Kirkpatnck, dated November 19, 1785, which said : "Agreeable to my promise I have well examined the Lotts in this Town. The No. is as follows Viz. No. 127/257, 258, 259/ 118, 117, 116, 115/ 114, 113, 112, III / 119, 120, 121, 122, / 400, 399, 445-/395, 396/401, 402, 403, 404/ no, 109, 108, 107/ 106, 105, 104, 103. Now Sir any of these Lotts is I think the best Lotts now to be pattented. Their situation is chief of them in and about the 2d range of Lotts on the Allegheny River. However 'tis probable some of them is already pattented. if the first

' Craig's "History of Pittsburgh," 1851, pp. 185-7. The Virginians who had recently lost the Fort' Pitt region to Pennsylvania were liable to be in an indifferent mood toward the subject. The cost of Fort Pitt is given in much larger figures elsewhere.

HIS FOREFATHERS AND THE WEST J

I have set down is taken take the next and so on. I find a push will be made for Lotts in Town and applications will no doubt be made for some of the best of these Lotts before you arrive at Philadelphia unless you are quick. I wish I had sent money with you, but you have money enough — take as many as you will. I will take all or as many off your hands as you please. * * * Major Hoofnagle gose to Philadelphia Tuesday or Wednesday next — he will take as many as he can raise money for himself and his friends. This will be a very advantageous piece of business and should not be delayed — let me know before you leave your brothers if you will go immediately to Phila. I believe the numbers will be best this way No. 127, 119, 118, 117, 116, 115, 120, 121, 122, 114, 113, 112, III, 400, 399, 445. These last four is triangular Lotts and contain nearly double the quantity as the others. These Lotts will be iio each and 25 pr. ct. on corner Lotts. The first range of Lotts on the Allegheny River is £15, however there is none of them to be had now that I would advise to have anything to do with. Make pen [Penn] give you a patent in which he will guarantee (i. e.) warrant and defend the Title. Tell him so, however take such as he will give. Genl. St. Clair is in Town pushing for Lotts with all his might. Mr. Tench Francis who dose business in Bank in Chestnut Street is the man who will do the business for you. A Mr. Peter Miller who is with him will draw the Patent on Parchment. One patent [will] do for all you take and that [ ] will cost you 3 dollars. Francis [may] not wish to give so many Lotts to [one] man — you can tell him they are for [ ] friends. Let me know if you propose coming to Pittsburgh in the spring. [Please] make my compts. to Capt. Williams family.