Washington
October 9, 1868
Dear Walt,
I received your Welcome letter on the 8 ins accompanied With
a copy of New York Herald I am Very thankful for the Paper but i think your description of the Procession beats
theirs all to pieces I can almost imagine myself Wedged & Blocked in on a 3rd Ave car.1
Nothing of interest here at present every thing looks Very Dull & Miserable yesterday & today is Very
Cold leaves all falling off the trees strewing the ground in every direction since i wrote last, i came across
Sydnor2 driver of 7th St he is well & doing first rate3 he
sends his love & best respect. Mr. Hart4 got on my car last night on my last trip.
We had a long conversation about everything in general first we commenced on home affairs he is troubled a good
deal about a house he bought & now wants to get rid of it We next started on Politics he would Vote for
Grant5 but he is no Radical & last we wound up with Newspapers he wants to start
a paper here soon he is tired of working for others You may not be interested with his affairs so i will come
to close excuse this short letter as my car is going [to] start & i want [to] put this in the mail
good bye
My Dear friend
Pete
i will write a long one next Sunday as i am off
Correspondent:
Peter Doyle (1843–1907) was
one of Walt Whitman's closest comrades and lovers, and their friendship spanned
nearly thirty years. The two met in 1865 when the twenty-one-year-old Doyle was
a conductor in the horsecar where the forty-five-year-old Whitman was a
passenger. Despite his status as a veteran of the Confederate Army, Doyle's
uneducated, youthful nature appealed to Whitman. Although Whitman's stroke in
1873 and subsequent move from Washington to Camden limited the time the two
could spend together, their relationship rekindled in the mid-1880s after Doyle
moved to Philadelphia and visited nearby Camden frequently. After Whitman's
death, Doyle permitted Richard Maurice Bucke to publish the letters Whitman had
sent him. For more on Doyle and his relationship with Whitman, see Martin G.
Murray, "Doyle, Peter," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia,
ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing,
1998).
Notes
- 1. Doyle may be referring to
Whitman's letter of October 9, 1868, in
which the poet chronicles his observation of the sights, sounds, and people on
Broadway street in New York: "it is a never-ending amusement & study
& recreation for me to ride a couple of hours, of a pleasant afternoon, on a
Broadway stage in this way. You see everything as you pass, a sort of living,
endless panorama—shops, & splendid buildings, & great windows, & on
the broad sidewalks crowds of women, richly-dressed, continually passing,
altogether different, superior in style & looks from any to be seen any where
else—in fact a perfect stream of people, men too dressed in high
style, & plenty of foreigners—& then in the streets the thick crowd of
carriages, stages, carts, hotel & private coaches, & in fact all sorts of
vehicles & many first-class teams, mile after mile, & the splendor of such a
great street & so many tall, ornamental, noble buildings, many of them of white
marble, & the gayety & motion on every side—You will not wonder how much
attraction all this is, on a fine day, to a great loafer like me, who enjoys so
much seeing the busy world move by him, & exhibiting itself for his amusement,
while he takes it easy & just looks on & observes." [back]
- 2. Whitman described William Snydor as a
"driver car boy on Pittsburgh's car 7th st" (Whitman's Commonplace
Book, Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman,
1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Whitman inquired
about Sydnor's health in his October 2,
1868, letter to Lewis Wraymond. [back]
- 3. In his letter to Lewis
Wraymond (sometimes known by the nickname Pittsburgh) of October 2, 1868, Whitman
inquires about Sydnor: "I have heard that William Sydnor on 65, was
laid up sick. I wish to hear about him, & whether he is well, & again at
work. If you see him, tell him I have not forgot him, but send him my love,
& will be back in Washington again." [back]
- 4. Michael C. Hart was listed as a
printer in the Washington Directory of 1869. Whitman sent Hart publicity puffs for insertion in the Washington Daily Morning Chronicle; see Doyle's letter to Whitman of October 5–6, 1868. [back]
- 5. Ulysses Simpson Grant
(1822–1885), commonly known as U.S. Grant, led the Union army to victory in Civil War.
He generally supported Radical Republican efforts while he continued to oversee the army during the
Presidency of Andrew Johnson, 1865–1868. Grant usually sided with Radical Republicans during his
own two consecutive terms as president, starting in 1868 and 1872. For example, he signed the Civil Rights
Act of 1871 into law, and he worked aggressively to beat back the rise of paramilitary groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. [back]