Letter from James Miller M'Kim, Philadelphia, [Pennsylvania], to Mary Anne Estlin, [1856] March 11
Description:
James Miller McKim writes to Mary Anne Estlin in regards to information he obtained from encyclopedias on the national history of the tomato, sweet potato and lima bean. He writes a story involving Mrs. Motts. He writes about Mary Anne's "great sorrow." He speaks of her father and says, "He was a man finely endowed of rare attainment of lofty excellence: but in regarding yourself as having been a mere appendange moving to his impulse & reflecting his light--for this seems to be your estimate of yourself. You do not 'judge righteous judgment nor..represent the facts'; on the contrary you have and have had a distinct and independent existence of your own: a character of your own: an experience, attainments, talents of your own. These are such...for happiness and usefulness..you are now careful: happiness will come in due time. When your nervous system and bodily machinery in general shall have received their normal condition you will feel differently on this."