1838 STAMPLESS LETTER TO BENJAMIN F BUTLER - CIVIL WAR GENERAL - SIGNED BY HIM

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1838 STAMPLESS LETTER TO BENJAMIN F BUTLER - CIVIL WAR GENERAL - SIGNED BY HIM :
$14.99

1838 stampless folded letter with red \"WATERVILLE/Me.\" cds and manuscript \"18-3/4\" rate, addressed to \"Mr. Benjamin F. Butler, Lowell, Mass.\", with manuscript \"Single\" and sender\'s intitial\'s \"N.G.R.\" at lower left.

Lengthy, 3 pg. letter contents, dated at Waterville, Maine, Nov. 11, 1838, from Nathaniel G. Rogers, to his \"chum\" from Waterville College, future Civil War General, Benjamin F. Butler.

Signed by Benjamin F. Butler in his docketing on the back: \"N.G. Rogers to Benja. F. Butler, Nov. 11th, 1838\"

Scarce early cover and letterto, and autograph offutureCivil War General, Benjamin F. Butler, (1818-1893), born in NH, he moved with his widowed mother to Lowell, Mass in 1828; Graduated from Waterville College (now Colby College), in Aug., 1838; Returned to Lowell, Mass., studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1840, and commenced practice in Lowell. Civil War General especiallyhated by the South, and nicknamed \"Beast Butler\" by them, for his harsh occupation of New Orleans.

Great content, written to 20 year old Benjamin F. Butler, who had graduated from Waterville College just 3 months before, from his college friend, Nathaniel G. Rogers, who that year went on to become Principal of the Coburn Classical Institute (Waterville Academy), a preparatory school for Waterville College. He already misses their college life, andreminisces about the good times they had, writes of his activities, and of the doings and whereabouts of several of their mates from College.

The letter includes:

\"Dear Chum,

I\'ve been trying to write to you this long while, but I\'ve not sufficiently overcome my \'Constitutional laziness\' to bring forth any fruit before now. This is the last day of my fortnight\'s vacation and I feel like anything but opening a shooting gallery for young \'ideas\' to display their marksmanship in. If I had not become quite a philosopher in my retirement from College, I should have committed \'felo de se\' (legally speaking) a long while ago. It seems so devilish dull here with all my classmates gone; nobody\'s room to run into & have a good laugh, &c.; nobody to have a bottle of wine with. Oh! for the good old days of Mrs. Caffrey\'s pies, chickens, &c., hard boiled eggs & clams, whist & bolted doors; those were happy days,& nowas, in my gloomy reveries over past enjoyment, the remembrance of all the good things above enumerated comes over my soul, I am led in the bitterness of my spirit to exclaim with some good man, \'Oh, Ichabod, Ichabod, thy glory hath departed\'. But notwithstanding all the alarming symptoms, I do have a little fun now & then, do drink a bottle of Madeira once in a great while; and with whom do you think? Nat, I suppose you say; yes, but not with him alone....with \'Tutor Thomas\'. I see you lift up both hands in amazement. I see you even shake that wise head of yours in incredulity, but it is indeed true. He has two or three times offered me some wine in his room & has two or three times drank a bottle with Nat & me in my room; rather bold, considering that Nat will enter College next year. But there is no fun being in a scrape with him. He intersperses everything with moral lectures & admonitionson the subject of Temperance; damn such half-way business I say. I like to see folks consistent. But he is quite popular here as a Tutor & I suspect really makes a good one, barring these little private passages.

\'Daddy Marston\' continues to occupy as large a portion of his regard as he used to; he (the Daddy) is getting along very well in a school in Charlestown; has 50 or 60 scholars.

I\'ve been studying \'Blackstone\', that prince of Lawyers, for a month or two, like it pretty well, I mean the first vol.; the second is devilish dry. I changed my mind about going to Mass. this fall, or I should have accepted your hearty invitation with pleasure. I shall come on next Summer & then if we don\'t have some \'fun\',I\'m mistaken. Dickerson is here studying Law, & Bert Wells practicing it. Getchell is just about as he used to be \'afore the flude\' (Sundays always excepted). Ihad quite a confab with him the other night, in which he dwelt on his old scrapes with great Gout. Sheperd is getting along swimmingly amongst the barmounters. Hathaway is at Newton; Wiley in N. York, Hinds & Goodnow in Bath, Kelly in Industry (I suppose he works like a dog), Minick the Lord knows where, I don\'t.

The Exhibition this fall was rather flat (after ours). I will send you a Catalogue in a day or two, as soon as they come. For the last fortnight I have been luxuriating in the \'dolce par niente\', as the Italians call it. Sweet idleness! How many shrines have been erected by poor erring mortals to thee! But to sing thy praises aright far transcends my feeble pen; others be the task.

Our Society gets along very well; we\'ve a majority of the Freshmen Class....Your chere amie here is in a good state of health, both bodily & mentally. I believe, has not entirely wasted to a skeleton on your absence. Upon consideration, this is rather a \'harum scarum\' sort of a letter, but I never rewrite you know (too lazy for that), & besides,I like to rattle every thing off as it comes into my head. I\'ll try and be punctual to my engagement in future, & not let that old thief run away with my resolutions. Write me soon and let us know what you are about now-a-days. In the meanwhile, I remain your old friend and Chum,

Nath. G. Rogers\"

Very Fine.

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