67

University of Va.

Sept. 29, 1860

My dear Sir,

I lament that a protracted
absence from home prevented me from
receiving until this morning, the invi=
tation with which as Chairman of the
Executive Committee of the Board of
Trustees of the University of the South,
you have honored me, to attend the
ceremony of laying the Corner Stone of
the Institution on the 10th day of October.
And I lament still more, that my
duties here oblige me very reluct=
antly to decline it. I should be much
happy to be present at the actual, for=
mal commencement of an enterprise
so unprecedented, in the annals of Edu=
cation, for magnitude & splendour, & trust