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Fortress
Monroe
February 4th 1829.
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Dear
Sir,
I wrote
you
some time ago from this place but have as yet received
no reply. Since that time I wrote to John Mc Kenzie [sic]
desiring him
to see you personally & desire for me, of you, that you would
interest yourself in procuring me a cadet’s appointment at the Military
Academy.
To this
likewise I have received no answer, for which I can in no
manner account, as he wrote me before I wrote to him & seemed to
take an interest in my welfare.
I made
the
request to obtain a cadets’ appointment partly because I
know that — (if <y> my age should prove no obstacle as I have
since ascertained it will not) the appointment could easily be obtained
>>either<< by your personal acquaintance with Mr Wirt — or
by the recommendation of General Scott, or even of the officers
residing at Fortress Monroe & partly because in making the request
you would at once see to what direction my “future views &
expectations” were inclined.
You can
have
no idea of the immense [page 2:]
advantages which my
present station in the army would give me in the appointment of a cadet
— it would be an unprecedented case in the American army, & having
already passed thro the practical part even of the higher partion [[sic]]
of the Artillery arm, my cadetship would only be considered as a
necessary form which I >>am<< positive I could run thro’ in
6 months.
This is
the
view of the case which many at this place have taken in
regard to myself. If you are willing to assist me it can now be
effectually done — if not (as late circumstances have induced me to
believe) I must remain contented until chance or other friends shall
render me that assistance.
Under
the
certain expectation of kind news from home I have been
led into expences which my present income will not support. I hinted as
much in my former letter, and am at present in an uncomfortable
situation[.] I have known the time when you would not have suffered me
long to remain so. [page 3:]
Whatever fault you may find with me I have not been
ungrateful for past services but you blame me for the part which I have
taken without considering the powerful impulses which actuated me — You
will remember how much I had to suffer upon my return from the
University. I never meant to offer a shadow of excuse for the infamous
conduct of myself & others at that place.
It was
however at the commencement of that year that I got deeply
entangled in difficulty which all my after good conduct in the close of
the session (to which all there can testify) could not clear away. I
had never been from home before for any length of time. I say again I
have no excuse to offer for my [con]duct except the common one of
youth[fulnes]s — but I repeat that I was unable [if] my life had
depended upon it to bear the consequences of that conduct in the taunts
& abuse that followed it even from those who had been my warmest
friends.
I shall
wait
with impatience for an [page 4:]
answer to this letter
for upon it depend a great many of the circumstances of my future life
— the assurance of an honourable & highly successful course in my
own country — or the prospect — no certainty
of an exile forever to
another[.]
Give my
love
to Ma —
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I am
Yours affectionately
Edgar A Poe
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