Text: John Allan to E. A. Poe — March 20, 1827

Sir

Your letter of Monday was received this morning, I am not at all surprized at any step you may take, at any thing you can say, or any thing you may do, you are a much better judge of the propriety of your own conduct and have general treatment of those who <have> had the charge of your infancy & have watched with parental solicitude & affection over your tender years affording you such means of instruction as was in their power & which was performed with pleasure until you became a much better judge of your own conduct, rights & priveledges than they, it is true I taught you to aspire, even to eminence in Public Life, but I never expected that Don Quixotte, Gil Blas, Jo: Miller & such works were calculated to promote the end.

It is true and you will not deny it, that the charge of eating the Bread of idleness, was to urge you to perseverance & industry in receiving the classics, in presenting yourself in the mathematics, mastering the French &c. &c. how far I succeeded in this you can best tell, but for one who had conceived so good an opinion of himself & his future intentions I hesitate not to say, that you have not evinced the smallest disposition to comply with my wishes, it is only on this subject [page 2:] I wish to be understood, your Heart will tell you if it is not made of marble whether I have not had good reason to fear for you, in more ways than one. I should have been justly chargeable, in reprimanding you for faults had I had any other object than to correct them.

Your list of grievances require no answer the world will reply to them — & now that you have shaken off your dependence & declared for your own Independance [[Independence]] — & after such a list of Black charges — you Tremble for the consequences unless I send you a supply of money