The Walt Whitman Archive
Life & Letters
Correspondence
About this Item
Title: James M. Scovel to Walt Whitman, [1884–1892]
Date: [1884–1892]
Whitman Archive ID: loc.03755
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: The annotation, "Scovel," is in the hand of Walt Whitman.
Contributors to digital file: Marie Ernster, Amanda J. Axley, Paige Wilkinson, and Stephanie Blalock
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1030 am
Sunday
Dear Walt
The boy forgot to tell you I am sick in bed with a very much swelli [illegible] throat & will not be able to get down today—Have sent for Doctor.1
—Please put Judge Wescotts2 name in the book—with your own. He said he w'd regard it as a great favor [illegible] [over?]
James
We had a Halcyon & [voceberun?] time. A trifle too Halcyon for me—
Correspondent:
James Matlack Scovel
(1833–1904) began to practice law in Camden in 1856. During the Civil War,
he was in the New Jersey legislature and became a colonel in 1863. He campaigned
actively for Horace Greeley in 1872, and was a special agent for the U.S.
Treasury during Chester Arthur's administration. In the 1870s, Whitman
frequently went to Scovel's home for Sunday breakfast (Whitman's Commonplace
Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). For a description of
these breakfasts, see Walt Whitman's Diary in Canada, ed.
William Sloane Kennedy (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1904), 59–60. For Scovel,
see George R. Prowell's The History of Camden County, New
Jersey (Philadelphia: L. J. Richards, 1886).
Notes:
1. As yet we have no information about this person. [back]
2. John Wesley Wescott (1849–1927) practiced law in Camden County. In 1884, he was appointed Presiding Judge of the Common Pleas for the county. In 1914, he was appointed Attorney General of the State. [back]