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Buffalo— | 12 Jany 1863

Dear Sir,

I am very sorry to be so late with my reply to your note, which was received by me just on leaving home to go to Canada, & thence to some of your West N.Y. cities, a journey which has left me no leisure for writing notes to diplomatists, until today.³

If you wish to live in that least attractive (to me) of cities, I must think you can easily do so. Perhaps better in the journalism than in the Departments. You will see that I have dated my note from my known residence.⁴ With best hope,

R. W. Emerson

Walt Whitman, Esq.

The text presented here is derived from Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., Walt Whitman: The Correspondence, 6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1961–77). For a detailed description of discrepancies between this electronic edition and the print source, see our statement of editorial policy.

The manuscript of this letter, dated January 12, 1863, is held in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

1.  Endorsed (by Walt Whitman): "R W Emerson | Jan '63."  (Back)

2.  Address: Walt Whitman, Esq. | Washington.  (Back)

3.  At the time of this letter Emerson was on one of his lyceum tours; see Ralph L. Rusk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949), 418-419, and The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson 10 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964–95), 5:302.  (Back)

4.  See Emerson's letters to Salmon P. Chase and William H. Seward from January 10, 1863.  (Back)

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