Whitman writes a letter from Washington to his brother Jeff. He has visited Mt. Vernon and has been to the funeral of Count Gurowski.
Full Text
To Thomas Jefferson Whitman
Attorney General’s Office,
Washington, May 7, 1866
Dear brother Jeff,
By Mother’s letter I have heard about the moving & the new quarters—Mother says that she is glad they are no worse, under all the circumstances. I enclose an envelop to mother, with a little money in it. As you see, I am still in the same place, with easy times enough, & a good place as I could expect. The Attorney General is absent now in Kentucky. There is not much work. I can’t tell whether I shall keep on here, or not. There is nothing at present that looks like a chance—I feel quite well this spring—but a clerk’s like here is not very interesting—I went down last Thursday to Mt Vernon, 16 miles down the Potomac—I think it is the pleasantest spot & farm I ever saw—went through the house & grounds &c—I was very glad I went—Yesterday we had the funeral here of a man you must have seen mentioned in the papers, old Count Gurowski. I have been very well acquainted with him since I have lived here—he was a strange old man, a great lord in his own country, Poland, owned 30,000 serfs & great estates—an exile for conspiring against the government—he knew every thing & growled & found fault with everybody—but he was always very courteous to me, & spoke very highly of me in his book, his “Diary,” printed last winter—his funeral was simple but very impressive—all the big radicals were there—
The fight between Congress & the President is still going on—I think the President is rather afraid of going too far against Congress, for Stevens & the rest of 'em are very determined.
My hospitals are dwindled down to a small force—but there are plenty of cases to occupy me a couple of visits a week—Julius Mason is here in barracks yet—Jeff, I wish I could now & then be home & see you all, even if it was only a couple of hours—
Give my best respects to Mr. Lane, and the Doctor—I send my love to Mat & the little girls. Write & tell me all about home affairs, & how George is getting alone—dear old Mother, as she gets older & older, I think about her every day & night—
Walt.
