The Dorr Letters Project

Samuel Adams Dorr to Thomas Wilson Dorr:
Electronic Transcription

Introduction

This is the oldest letter in the Thomas Wilson Dorr correspondence files at the John Hay Library at Brown University. In March 1820, Thomas Dorr was a 14-year-old freshman at Harvard College. Dorr enrolled at Harvard after completing three years at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Samuel Adams Dorr (1775-1855), an older brother of Thomas' father, Sullivan Dorr, was stationed in Canton, China, representing the merchant firm of J. & J. Dorr.

Letter


Canton 17th March 1820
My Dear Nephew,

Your kind letter under date 26th Sept. last, by
the Washington affords me great pleasure. You have long since com-
menced your Collegiate life with with the most flattering prospects as
I’m informed, the foundation, laid in part at Exeter, you will find
great advantage from during the two first years particularly, if not
for the remainder of life. I need not recommend diligence to one
who has afforded already so prominent an example of Industry –
I need not say that I hope you will in all cases conform unequi-
vocally to rules of College as well as the wishes of the Lecturers & instruct-
ors because I presume you made that resolution before you entered
college. Amongst the young men who compose the number of stu-
dents, frequently there are restless spirits wont to give difficulty to
the Governors of the Institution, who upon slight disgusts, are apt to raise
tumults & effect combinations in direct hostility to their teachers & en-
tirely subversive of the views with which they entered the Seminary. These
my dear boy are to be avoided by all young men who value their honour,
peace or happiness. You have commenced a life of study & will of course
pursue it with your accustomed endeavor, the reward you will certainly
obtain in due time in the respectability & influence attached to a man
of Literature & in the internal satisfaction derived from a cultivated & well
stored mind, affording an inexhaustible treasure for contentment and
happiness. Please bear in mind the sons of Harvard must in some
fact be considered as public property, & those selfish views of individual


aggrandizement must give place to more elevated notions of public
utility. Where shall we look for prominent men in Church & State but
if we do not find them issuing from the first literary institution of America
numbers to fill the ranks of eminent men gone & falling into the
shades of death. Could I again commence my career at college, how
delightful, the prospect, by patient & unremitting exertions, to acquire
a fund of knowledge, an extensive acquaintance, well confirmed hab-
its & a fair prospect of future usefulness, if not excellence in the
profession which I might select. I sometimes wish I could resume
my youth & join you in your delightful pursuits, but that is
forbidden, & time is not to be recalled. I could say many things my
dear boy, but you will by your own ingeniousness obviate the necess-
ity of any cautions or instructions touching your future views & conduct.
And Miss Ann then has resolved upon becoming Roman, as young la-
dies generally make rapid progress in literary acquisitiveness I shall expect a
Latin Epistle from Ann at least 6 mo. before Allen, who I’m confident
when he gets roused will take great strides in his learning & become a
most enterprising fellow. Miss Mary Throop will will progress
quietly & surely & our Sullivan must do well in everything to justijustify
the expectations which all are led to place upon him ...
I must now close not being quite well & request you to say to your Mamma
that as I have not yet rec’d the preserves & I shall not give her the whole of
my gratitude for her kindness but impose some future opportunity

for that purpose. Make my [...] remembrance to your good
mother, your father & all the [...] folks & believe me as ever
your sincere friend & uncle.


Samuel A. Dorr
Master Tho’s W. Dorr

Questions

What advice does Samuel Dorr give his young and impressionable nephew and why was this advice important?