Details of the group:

1.     Giavannetti, Giaovacchino, Rome Italy, July 22, 1841, three pages, plus address leaf, to George Clymer in Pennsylvania, rerouted to the USS Cyane, Norfolk, Virginia

In Italian, not translated, but mentions John Battista Sartori, the US Consul in Rome, a wealthy Italo-American Catholic who had lived in Philadelphia earlier in life – establishing the first spaghetti factory in the United States – and was close to the Clymer family. One of his relations, Dr. Louis Sartori, was also a Naval Surgeon and a close friend of Clymer’s.

2.     Godon, Dr. V.L., Philadelphia, August 13, 1841, to George Clymer, USS Cyane, off Norfolk, Virginia, 1 page

A letter of introduction of a male nurse at the Frankford Asylum who was seeking an appointment as a Hospital Steward aboard the Cyane, Godon himself was applying for a medical position at the Naval Asylum and had been recommended by Clymer. “I hear the Raritan is ordered to be launched … for the Coast Squadron. Wishing you a pleasant cruise and safe return …”

Victor L. Godon was another Philadelphia physician, active in the Academy of Natural Sciences, who had been Assistant Naval Surgeon aboard the Cyane in the Mediterranean in the 1830s.

3.     Clymer, William and (sister) Mary, August 14, 1841to George Clymer, US Sloop Cyane, Norfolk, Virginia, 4 pages including address leaf

“… glad to hear that all your articles reached you in good order and that you are so well accommodated in your arrangements. I hope you will be able to come home… till the time of the Vessell’s sailing. If she is detained till more is known of our position with England, she may be kept till after McLeod’s trial, in which case her destination may be fixed with certainty …” Family news. “The papers have told you of the death of Mr. Morgan … the anecdote you mentioned of Capt. Reed...” Mentions the Hargous family, who were later expatriate businessmen in Mexico. “I hope you may find room for your sea chest. It’s too good to meet with a watery place of rest … Soon after your departure, inquiry was made whether you were a full surgeon… I am glad … you are well pleased with your ship … nor would you mind again visiting the Mediterranean… If during your voyage you come across any curious stones or minerals…”

England and the United States were at loggerheads over the Oregon border question, a diplomatic conflict settled the following year by negotiations between Daniel Webster and Britain’s Lord Ashburton, another friend of the Clymer family, who is mentioned in several letters. Another source of acrimony between the two countries was the arrest and trial in the United States of Alexander McLeod, a minor Canadian official.

4.     Clymer, Thomas, November 27, 1841, Highfield, Germantown, to George Clymer, USS Cyane, Pacific Ocean, 4 pages including address leaf [Docketed: Rec’d at Callao by arrival of the U.S. at midnight, May 14, 1842] (Repaired with non-archival tape)

“… the States has dropped down preparatory for sea… Rittenhouse Square … The times do not mend but grow worse. The locos have carried most of the elections … Exchanges are again up … Phila. And NY specie has risen … Geo Mcall … regretted that he had not known of your going to the Pacific, as he would have given you a letter to his cousin Edward in Lima... Col. Cadwalader on business for the Hamilton Estate …”

5.     Clymer, Thomas, April 4, 1842, Morrisville, to George Clymer, USS Cyane, Pacific Ocean [Docketed: Rec’d on reaching Callao, Aug. 8, 1842]

Sending letter “by the vessel which is to sail in a few days to Lima”. Otherwise would send to Jamaica to be forwarded to Panama. “Wm. Is busy writing… about the Nicholson Court which took him to Harrisburgh & Phila… the Legislature are hard to move. They have done nothing but mischief since they met and are now on the eve of adjournment to meet at an extra session in the summer to act upon the apportionment under the new Census when it shall please Congress to settle the matter of representation. The only measure which has passed the Legislature was an act requiring immediate resumption by the Banks. This has broken some of them and added much to the scarcity of money and to the number of bankruptcies. You are aware that there is a new bankrupt law. Hitherto there were merely state insolvent laws which discharged a debtor from arrest within the limit of a single state. The present law gives a general discharge or person and property and enables the bankrupt to begin the world anew without vexatious prosecutions. Much roguery perhaps will be practiced under it but on the whole it may do good… the Commissioners of Bankruptcy for Phila. The office may be worth a thousand a year…They got other appointments from the new District Judge…a fellow student of Hodges in Peters’ office…The resumption by the Banks has destroyed the premium on specie and reduced Treasury notes below par and there being no money in the Treasury to redeem them…there is a proposition before Congress to make them carry interest till paid. We are at a pretty pass when Government credit is at a discount, when Pa. state stock is selling at a little more than 30 in the hundred, when other states have repudiated their debts, and when we are in serious difficulties with England and Mexico. You know the state of our defenses. Mary…got your letter from Rio. Your next will be from Valparaiso. …Mr. Clay made his farewell speech the other day…and after his successor Crittenden was sworn in, the Senate adjourned. A Clay ball is to come off on the 12th. You may know Lord Ashburton is coming in a sloop of war, as special Ambassador… Augustus Sartori sailed…for Leghorn, via the West Indies. I sent by him my measure for some Italian boots…Fanny Elssler is at the Havana and has become manager of the Lacon Theatre…A house in Washington, the handsomest there, together with the furniture was taken for Lord Ashburton at the rate of a thousand dolls a day for three days, with the privilege of using it for six months at the rate of five thousand dollars, including the three days. ..Le Guen is also bankrupt. It is a 54 gun Frigate Lord A is coming on…Lyell the Geologist lectured in Phila. and is now lecturing in NY. Meredith thought him a precious humbug. Dr. Lardner on the contrary, was capital…I have obtained from T.P. an autograph of Whitefield. Perhaps you can get one of Bolivar. …T.M.W.  said last summer than when your friend Col. White was keeping your friend  [Vespucci?] at great expense, he found her in bed on one occasions with some Dr. for whom she had sent, pretending to be sick. …P.S. Lord A. had arrived at Annapolis in the Warship…”

6.     Clymer, Thomas, March 15-18, 1843, to George Clymer, Surgeon US Cyane Pacific Ocean, 4 pages, including address leaf

“The Sec. of the Navy having given public notice that he will forward letters to the Pacific if sent to the Dept…Mary has sent [news]papers through the Lyceum tho we are equally in the dark as to their fate… a decoction of Black tea has been found an effectual remedy for burns and boils…note the remedy in your Mem. Book and try it the first smooth chance…Allison’s Hist. of Europe during the French revolution was republishing by the Harpers in N.Y…He (the historian) has written to said publishers correcting a misstatement in his work in regard to the treatment of the crew of the Frigate Java by Com. Bainbridge in which he charged him with cruelty. He also expressed a readiness to correct any other errors that had crept into his work on the subject of America, which the superior information of the Harpers would enable them to point out. Liberal enough this and desirable too, as the work is said to be faulty in regard us. …I notice the arrival of the Louisa at Valparaiso the middle of Nov. She took out letters and papers for you…’Arnold’s bill’ was not called in the Senate. You therefore remain in ‘Status quo’ in regard to your pay…Mr. Everett has been appointed Minister to China and…J.M.Porter of Easton has been made Sec. of War. Unless the late terrible Earthquake in Guadeloupe and the Comet now visible may be considered as signs of the approaching end of all things, as predicted by Miller, there are not present tokens in nature of such a catastrophe…St. Patricks day. The St. was not an Irish, but a Frenchman…carried as a captive to Ireland in early youth, escaped to Gaul, studied at Tours, dreams of Ireland, returns there and converts to Christianity… four papers containing principally matters about the Court Martial…”

7.     Brother, December 12, 1843, to George Clymer, USS Cyane, Pacific Ocean via Chagres” 4 pages including address leaf [Docketed: “Rec’d at Callao, Friday noon, April 26, 1844 … on arriving from Valparaiso”] (Repaired with archival tissue)

“Mother having just inquired of me where Chagres is…approaching termination of your cruise…The General who is now…reading the Sect. of the Navy’s report…says that it recommends medical grades, an increase of the warrant officers, and is in favor of calling into service the old hangers on. But as the administration has no strength in Congress, or out of it, any recommendations, however useful, may be less apt to be carried. In noitcing the death of Capt. Joseph Jenkins of the Albany, our New York papers remark upon his uniform respectability since the editor first knew him on the Delaware, 25 yrs ago, as commander of the Franklin; when the Capt. In speaking in praise of his boat, said, somewhat exultingly, that he thought she could go nine miles an hour. In reading this, the General smiled, said I, 25 yrs hence our present speed may equally be derided. Capt. Stockton has lately launched, at Phila., a sloop of War (the Princeton) with the machinery of wheels beneath; out of reach of guns. It is to have also a big gun, an improvement of his on the Paxham principle, which will carry a ball three miles. He has been flourishing his ship about from port to port, till he is making as much noise as his gun, and is to be dined publicly, for employing Phila. mechanics, etc. The principle of motion in Erickson’s propeller, which since this successful experiment, is to adapted to some Liverpool sail packets and to some that play between Boston and Albany. You were pleased with Prescott’s Ferdinand and Isabella. He has just written the Hist. of the Conquest of Mexico, which Irving thought of but abandoned when he learned that the other had made some progress in it. It is well spoken of, both at home and abroad, and was written, like the first work, without the authors having been able from the state of his eyes, to correct or even to read his own manuscript…Count Bertrand has been in the country…and has gone home, having been much feted. His son, an unworthy scion remained in N.Y. …”

8.     Clymer, Mary (Mrs. George) April 16, 1844, Washington, D.C., to her father Commodore Shubrick, USS Independence, Pacific Station, 4 pages, including address leaf

A chatty letter of family news written at her husband’s Washington home: “…attentive listeners while the Doctor read aloud some good book when there was a ring at the bell and Mr. Price came in, telling us that he had seen you…and that you were perfectly well then. How truly rejoiced we feel at this late Intelligence…preserving you from all the evils to which you are exposed…Mr. Price came in, he said he brought no letter, even to the Secretary, but was charged with a verbal communication to him. He said your request to Mr. Mason was to return by the East Indies, or the Horn, in the Independence…the pang of disappointment…we had been indulging the expectation that…a joyous meeting was in store for us in a short time, but certainly we wish you to act in the manner that will contribute most to your permanent satisfaction, even at the sacrifice of present comfort to us, as well as to yourself, for the separation is as great a trial to you as to us…My husband is all that I could desire in every respect…Since we known of your being at Mazatlan, we have had three and perhaps four opportunities of writing you through Mexico, which of course we have embraced….Cousin George has returned from Santa Fe and he and Cousin Sam? have gone back, expecting to make their fortunes this last trip…dined with Mr. Ingersoll, a small and delightful literary party, professor Nichols, the Astronomer Dallas Bache, etc....”

Commodore William Branford Shubrick briefly took command of the Pacific Squadron in the immediate aftermath of the American “conquest” of California, and was unhappily caught up in a political power struggle between Commodore Robert Stockton, Colonel John Fremont and General Stephen Kearny over who would organize the first civil government of the new territory.

When her father received this letter from his daughter, he had successfully conducted the closing operations of the Mexican war on the Pacific coast, including the occupation of Mazatlan, and soon headed home to take command of the Philadelphia Naval Yard.

The “Price” mentioned in the letter may refer to Sterling Price, Military Governor of New Mexico during the Mexican War after his superior, General Kearny, departed for California

9.     From sister, September 29, 1850, to George Clymer, USS St. Lawrence, c/o US Consul England, 4 pages, with original mailing envelope

“New York has no charm beyond the family being resident here, but on the contrary has many things to make it unpalatable to them who have so long resided in obscurity…Mary had the gratification of hearing the ‘Swedish Nightingale’…had the good fortune to procure excellent seats for only $7 a head…You will have seen by the papers the excitement which has been kept up ever since the arrival of the songstress on our shores and the enormous sums that have been given for tickets by the Bostonians and that ‘the Fever’ continues to rage with greater  violence. She is as good as she is great and will therefore always be a favorite with each and every class. She seems to feel such unbounded gratitude to God for the gift he has bestowed upon her that she can never do enough for her poor fellow beings toward whom she is overflowing with benevolence…”