folio, two pages, in very good, clean and legible condition, accompanied by original mailing envelope
“Dear
Friend Shaw,
Here I am, rusticating a short
distance from Baltimore, enjoying myself lustily, and intending to do so while
I may remain. I find the cause progressing finely here, although it is in the
very hot bed of Catholicism (Roman) as you can scarcely turn without
overturning a Jesuit, or setting your foot upon their property.
The Irish here are as “green” as
you find them everywhere else. I heard a tale the other day about one, whether
it be true or not, is left for you and me to determine.
An Irishman having started on a
gunning excursion came to a tree, and seeing what he imagined to be a bird,
fired, afterward on going to look for his game, found a little tree frog at the
root, and picking it up said “och, fother – el – dol! What a beautiful bird ye
were, before I shot the fithers off ye entirely.”
But for a fact an Irishman just
over coming to my Uncle to get work, in conversation said they raised corn in
Ireland to a very great extent, and that he understood how to cultivate it, on
turning round and seeing a field of fine corn growing near the house enquired
in good faith, and seriously asked “sure Misther is thim beans ye are growing
there”
… On Monday I start for
Washington, where if I should stay more than a day you may hear from me from
there, if not then not.
… Write me if possible so that I
may get it before Monday. Mail me if you please a copy of the Aug. number of
the “Friend” & I will try and oblige you some time in the way of papers
&c. if you have anything that you think will interest the cause here, and I
can be the means of forwarding the interest I shall be pleased to receive &
make such use of. If I can attend to anything for you I am willing …”
The “cause” to which Mitchell refers was
apparently that of the newly-renamed American Party, formerly called the “Know
Nothings,” an anti-Catholic (as well as anti-slavery) movement which sometimes
led to violent confrontation; just days after this letter was written, in
Louisville, Kentucky, 22 people died in an anti-Catholic riot during a hotly
contested race for Governor.