[Letter from Andrew D. Campbell to Elizabeth Upshur Teackle, May, 1809]

Glasgow [page torn] May 1809

I had just dated this with the intention of addressing your husband when I recollected that ten years ago you, my ever dear friend, directed a part of this day in compliance with my request, before leaving you at Church Neck, to writing to me. It was the first letter I ever received from you and that I have not enjoyed more pleasure in hearing more frequently from you than I have since done, has probably been partly my own fault, but I have also to regret the loss of the longest letter I ever wrote which was sent by the and the conduct of the master of that vessel in suppressing it, in suppressing also a letter of mine to Guest & Bancker of Philadelphia, a letter of my agents at Greenock, Ewing etc., to the same Gentlemen and including a bill of lading, similar to this enclosed, for your daughter’s box, and the box itself, appears a train of villainy that I sincerely hope Littleton may be able to trace and to punish as I learn by your and his letter of 10 January last that some of them had been received. Pray inform him that the then Captⁿ Clark, who [regxx] the bill did not go in the Vessel but is now in this neighbourhood, and writes to me that Laurence & Whitney were the Agents at New York and they probably can give information of the box, but the letters doubtless were destroyed. I shall very much regret if mine to you has fallen into any improper hands. It cou’d give none but yourself any pleasure but was to give a complete picture of my mind and account of myself for a long time being begun at Brighton where I rapidly recovered from that illness which had for two

or three years being upon me and more than once nearly closed my career in this world. It was continued from Edinburgh where I spent a good deal of that winter, and also of the last, and finished either from this or Sweethope.¹ I cannot exactly recollect which. If ever it does reach you it will disclose more to you than I think I shall ever again have courage to write, altho’ if your husband is not flattering me with vain hope, it did not contain so much as I may yet tell you should as, which God grant may be the case, ever may again. This day announces to us the very agreeable intelligence that your Country and this are again upon the point of being upon terms of unity and friendship after being so long with the sword half drawn. To me personally, as a matter of business, it is of little consequence. To many of my friends here in the West India Trade, it is rather [a] matter of regret but to the country at large – to your country and to the World it is subject of rejoicing. The flames of war burn already too widely and too furiously for suffering and outraged humanity. Too many individuals have to deplore the loss of country, of relatives and of friends without the addition of a conflict betwixt your country and mine which, if once begun, would probably have been more bloody. Altho’ dread more individual distress, considering our former ties, than all other wars in which we are and have so long been engaged. A Brighter prospect is now open, and I trust this dispersion of their cloud will produce a long

period of serenity and peace.

Sincerely do I thank you and Littleton for your kind sympathy (but pray tell him never to write me by his clerk or secretary) and I regret to learn that death has also been dealing his Wares in the happy county of Northampton. Poor Eyre was frequently sickly, but from what I have heard, I thought his wife would have preceded him to the Grave.

Should I ever have the pleasure of returning to America, I will much regret his and my good friend Stratton’s death. To all who remain, pray do not fail to remember me. Having written Mr. Teackle upon 1 January, and again soon after, I shall soon expect to hear from him and how you and your little Eliza continue. I hope the box may reach her that [may] have the promised letter. If not, and that I fear will be the case, I may perhaps find another altho’ I certainly never saw any before or since which pleased my fancy so well. As the loss of the letter I have alluded to will throw you far back in the account of myself and my friends, I must take an early opportunity of writing to you again and shall devote the few minutes left before the departure of the post, which ought this day to overtake the packet of the [month], to address a few lines to Littleton, in the meantime therefore, my very dear friend, farewell. God Bless you and yours,

Ever sincerely
A.D. Campbell