John Milton Binckley to Mary Louisa Mitchell Binckley, January 22, 1865

[John Milton Binckley at Washington City to Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley at Eastville, Virginia, January 22, 1865]

Washington, DC
Sunday, 22 Jany 65

My poor Mary,

How I pity you, and your mother, & especially your father when I imagine his receipt of Mr. Bowdoin's letter, which I sent yesterday morning. As anything is possible in the mail, I repeat its contents.

The crout was utterly rotten, & the whole lot, including Dr. Smith's, sold for $40!! The freight etc. will have even of that sum, nothing. Mr. Bowdoin evidently did the best he could. Dr. S will blame your father, perhaps very ungenerously. The disappointment you may imagine, as it affects me. Nevertheless, in my personal situation, I may, think I will, be able to get credit on my guano. My money in hand will cover the whole bill, as made out down there, . . . cow, horses & guano. The sent money & what your father can spare, will make up the rest.

We shall get through, my dearie. Be not afraid, now give up the sadness. Be of good cheer. On Wednesday I go to Balto. & will ship the things by the first schooner afterwards.

I have already written you that I had accepted the post of financial Editor of the Chronicle. It is in some sense, the most dignified & respectable, though not, with respect to the conduct of the paper, the most responsible place.

My few articles have already created much talk, and are freely quoted at the grand money grabbing metropolis, New York. I have not much doubt that I shall creditably fill the place, and in the main, have a taste for it. It is a matter of facts figures and severe Logic -- In short, Finance, the most intricate of all practical things.

I have no more to do with politics in the paper than the newsboy who sells it. My department is entirely distinct. My pay is $35 per week, and I get $10 a week more from the Intelligencer, for a duplicate copy of the court report which I also furnish to the Chronicle. But I pay $7 per week to a young lawyer for collecting the data, as my time does not admit of attending the trials, so that my weekly wages are $38.00, 52 weeks a year = $1,976, about $2000 a year. But I shall soon be able to add $15 or 20, per week to that sum, by correspondence, which will be comparatively a small matter of time, as my other duties will always have filled my head so full that it will be a relief to pour it out.

Indeed, if an Extra session is called, which I think is morally certain, I believe I shall coin out of my brains, $3000 per year. But that is not all. I shall be laying up that foundation the want of which has made me all my life an alien among men. 

In the most desperate circumstances, my beloved wife, I have confidently adjured you to bear up. More so, now, that it has come to pass that I am profitably employed, with new hopes, which when I think of you, are prizes. I shall faithfully pursue these, and oh my Mary, let me . . .

[remainder of letter, perhaps nine more lines, redacted -- cut from the page]

[John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930) 
Your mother and father = Jane Mary Wood Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892) and Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866)
$1 in 1865 = about $14.00 in 2016
The Chronicle (Washington, D.C.)
The Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. 

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.