"... Taking now as many papers as I can well pay for, I am induced to
support the Messenger nevertheless, from the great anxiety which I feel
for the progress of literature in the South, and to show to the country
that the soil of the Old Dominion, so fertile in the production of
patriots and statesmen, can also support and rear to age the bright
scions which adorn smoother and more ornamented fields. I feel that
this is a solemn duty, which the youth of Virginia owe to the memory of
their fathers,--the mantles of whose patriotism have descended upon
them unsoiled; to men who were cast upon so rough a sea as to have
little time to think of any thing else save the dangers around them:
their whole lives having been spent in bringing the noble vessel,
freighted with every thing dear to American bosoms, into a safe harbor,
where she has ever since continued to ride triumphantly in prosperity
and glory, it can be nothing more than sheer justice in us to raise
this 'tardy bust' to buried merit. As almost the pioneer in this noble
undertaking, I bid you God speed, and I trust that the success of your
paper may not only blot out the only spot on the escutcheon of
Virginia, but in every way equal your most sanguine expectations."