James M. Scovel to Walt Whitman, [June 1885–March 1892]
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Camden
Monday 9 AM
My Dear Walt
As I feared the "Repub" is not bursting with Liberality—as you see by the little "ence" Bowles1 $8—does not seem to me capable of division but I am ready to do whatever you say, in the Beaises. I send you a bottle of the best "Gibson", this City affords. Mrs Scovel2 bids me say she is reading the the Gilchrist article3 but will return it Tuesday.
Thine Cordially James Matlack Scovel
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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. Samuel Bowles (1826–1878), the editor of the Springfield Republican. [back]
- 2. Mary Mulford Scovel (1831–1893) of Camden, New Jersey, was the daughter of Dr. Isaac Skillman Mulford and his wife Rachel Mickle Mulford. Mary was a member of the Society of Friends, and she married James Matlock Scovel in 1856. [back]
- 3. Anne Gilchrist's "A Confession of Faith" appeared in To-Day in June 1885, 269-284. [back]