Poughkeepsie July 2 1820

Dear grandson Sidney Breese!

The chain of correspondence between yourself & this household must soon become rusty -- By our fault it never shall. You are yet I suppose at Brownsville & of course I will direct there. You have mentioned a removal to Vandalia - perhaps you are there now. You journey over the promis'd land like Abraham of old -- Like him you will fix at last. & like him may you become a mighty man & head of a numerous & dignified race. When you have chosen a Sarah, in due time bring her with you & create a holliday in this country of the rising sun.

Say 5 days ago I recd a line from your father, drop'd from the steam boat in his way to Albany. About a month since & your mamma went to NYork: They intended calling here on their return but the boat got to the Poughkeepsie wharf in the dead of the night & it was inconvenient at that unreasonable hour to leave the ship.

It appears the 4th of July is to be celebrated in a novel stile in the land of your nativity. All the boats of the canal are to move in divisions from Utica, Whitesboro, Rome &ct finally, assembling at Salina, then display the Ensigns of festivity & Keep it up.

The re-election of Geo. Clinton is an event auspicious to the great canal-- It now will go thro without the least doubt. I very much wish your people would do something in a similar way & meet us either at Sandusky or Chicago -- Sooner or later it will come to pass -- The day will come when you yourself, Madam at your side, with a blooming little Isaac in her lap, seated in an elegant gondola will in one fortnight glide along from Illinois to Dutchess. My old eyes I think will not -- but other eyes will behold & bless them. Marry my dear child -- Marry in early life -- Marry a respectable amiable young woman: You thereon give a pledge to society that you will never Give Up the political ship. With some experience I announce "That celibacy is good but marriage is better.

Your papa mentions that Sam sailed in the Hornet, say a week since, I believe to the coast of Africa to aid the xx in suppressing the slave trade: Consistent America! send armed vessels 3000 miles to shut the door against slaves & open a portal for their admission at home!

On Tuesday the 20th ult one third of the best part of the city of Troy was conflagrated -- loss, say 200,000 dollars. Within a twelvemonth past the losses by fire in the U.States has been immense: & they will continue until a safer mode of constructing buildings shall become general. A modern American house is none other than a tinder box: post, beams, braces & rafters of white pin - sided with white pine & roofed with white pine or whole cedar shingles & the whole smeared over with linseed oil. In a July drought what more inflamable can be conceived? In the city of Paris a fire is scarcely heard of, because in Paris it is almost impossible to set a house on fire. Every door & window frame & every flight of stairs are of cut stone -- the roofing of slate or tiles & much of the flooring of marble or tiles. Governor Jay has a home in Broadway, formed on the European model. I saw it while building, & is in my opinion one of the strongest & safest edifices in the U.States.

Whenever you build my son, crowd in as much brick or stone as you can & roof with slate tiles or sheet tin if you can get the materials; but if you must shingle, cover it once a year with lime, made into wash, by strongly salted water.

You & Charles I trust will ever embrace when you meet. I exclaim with the Evangelist John "Little children love one another." Persuade Charles to marry some estimable occidental Lady. If she has a few acres of priare the better. His profession even is pointing to matrimony. I shall write to him soon / by the by, he owes me this moment 2 letters /. That same oldest boy of mine I think will do very well, & I anticipate that he will be one of my sturdiest props in my old age. He has a spirit & perserverance that can dash down obstacles. Your Grandmamma & aunts & uncles all all love you & in their turns will write to you. I once mentioned a wish that you would obtain from Mr. Birkbeck a memoir of forming artificial stone of rammed earth, for the use of our agricultural society. Perhaps however you do not often see that gentleman.

Adieu my excellent boy! I leave you in the safe keeping of that POWER whose goodness is as extensive as his might. Again Farewell.

Henry Livingston

S. Breese Esq.