23 August 1874 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01118)
I keep forgetting about that bill for carriage hire. I didn’t want it sent to me. I gave ma $50 expressly ing intending it to pay interest on what I owed her, & to pay any extra expenses we caused, like carriage hire &c.
About the Naval Academy I am perplexed. Every Congressman without doubt has his own pet; the vacancies are scarce; they are bespoken early;. Are you sure that you cannot get the vacancy that is to occur in your district two years hence? But of course you can’t know. It will belong to a Congressman who is not yet elected. So will all future vacancies. Present vacancies are of course bespoken already—or none exist.
The truth is, you stand your best chance where you are, no doubt. You are known there, the boy is known; & when that future Congressman is nominated will be the time to apply to him. If Sammy were sent into a new District purposely to rob some poor lad there of his chance for Annapolis, it might be shrewd sagacity but mighty poor morality. We must drop that idea. The more I think of it, the more repulsive it becomes. Is your present Congressman bound to be re-elected? If so, find out why he wouldn’t appoint Sammy. I would take it upon myself to try to make him show cause why. 2explanatory note
You think & plan—I will, also.
in margin: Am writing the Secretary of War about the matter.Yrs affly
I would consider it perfectly fair for Sammy to go to Annapolis from St. Louis. No boy there has a fuller or better right. And there are more chances from so large a district.3explanatory note
Clemens might have written this letter on either of two Sundays, 16 or 23 August. The first may be safely ruled out: his “I keep forgetting” suggests that more than a day had passed since his 15 August letter to Jane and Pamela. And although he evidently did not yet know the name of Pamela’s congressman (see the third paragraph), he did know it by 28 August, when he wrote the next letter to the secretary of war, so that Sundays after that date also may be eliminated.
Pamela wanted Clemens to obtain a nomination for Samuel Moffett to the United States Naval Academy. She had evidently already applied unsuccessfully to her “present Congressman” (see the next letter, n. 2). Founded in 1845 as the “Naval School at Fort Severn” in Annapolis, Maryland, the school had reorganized under its present name in 1850–51, moved to Newport, Rhode Island, during the Civil War, and then returned permanently to Annapolis in 1865 (Soley, 43–63, 90–99, 104–10). The following procedure for nominating academy candidates was in effect in 1874:
The number of cadet-midshipmen allowed at the Academy is one for every Member or Delegate of the House of Representatives, one for the District of Columbia, and ten appointed annually at large. After March 5 of each year the Secretary of the Navy notifies each Member or Delegate of any vacancy that may exist in his district. The nomination of a candidate to fill this vacancy is made upon the recommendation of the Member or Delegate; but if not made by July 1 of that year the Secretary of the Navy is required to fill the vacancy. The nomination of candidates from the District of Columbia and at large is made by the President. (Soley, 151)
For additional admission requirements that would have applied to Samuel, see the next letter, nn. 3, 4.
Moffett lived in St. Louis from his birth in 1860 until his family moved to Fredonia in April 1870 ( L4 , 114–15, 118 n. 2).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L6 , 210–211.
see Mark Twain Papers in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.