The following letter was written by James Morrow (1820-1865) of South Carolina, a graduate of Philadelphia Medical College and a young physician with an extensive background in natural history and agriculture. In 1853, Secretary of State Edward Everett appointed him to serve as agriculturist with the U.S. expedition to Japan led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry. The objective of the expedition was to open diplomatic and commercial relations with Japan, despite that island nation’s strong tradition of cultural isolation. Besides armed vessels to intimidate the Japanese, the U.S. government also loaded supply ships with samples of American products, and enlisted Dr. Morrow to gather samples of Japanese plants for scientific study and for propagation at a new greenhouse on the grounds of the U. S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. To read more on this expedition and the role played by Dr. Morrow, see Oqui Adair: First Chinese Resident of South Carolina, Part 1.

Dr. Morrow wrote the letter to his stepfather and plantation owner, James Baxter Bull (1790-1855), and his mother Sarah Dunn (1794-1857) of Willington, Abbeville District, South Carolina. His father, David Morrow, was an Irish immigrant who came to the US in 1818 from County Down, Ireland.

The doctor’s letter addresses several topics, but particularly emphasizes the prevailing political concerns of the moment, including the apprehension among citizens regarding the Legislature’s consideration of the annexation of the “neck” to the City of Charleston. Additionally, he mentions the criticism directed at the State Bank.

It should be noted that Dr. Morrow’s surname was spelled Morrah in the 1850 Census record and the gravestones of several of his relatives in the Willington Cemetery bear the name “Morrah” as well.

T R A N S C R I P T I O N

Charleston, South Carolina
December 15th 1849

Dear Pa & Mother,

Your kind & welcome letter of the 11th inst. came safe to hand in good time & I felt truly thankful to hear once more from my dear parents & that they were well. And I feel thankful to be able to tell my kind parents that my health is still very good.

We have had two days of pretty cold weather this week. It is now quite cool & growing colder. The health of the city is as it usually is in winter; some colds and croups among children but very little among grown up people. Even in the hospital & alms house there is very little acute disease. Nearly all of the cases are chronic that may happen any time of the year.

There have been more strangers in the city during the fair and circus than I have seen here before. Now nearly all have left & many planters & their families have gone to their plantations for the winter so that the city is unusually still & quiet & will probably be so for the balance of the winter.

The citizens of the city and neck have been & are still a little anxious about the proposed annexation by the Legislature now in session of the neck to the city. The citizens of the neck are generally opposed to annexation because they fear that their taxes might be increased while the citizens of the city are anxious that the neck should be annexed because the neck citizens have all the advantages of the city without paying anything for them & because they refuse to improve their streets & yet they tax heavily all drays, omnibuses, &c. which draw over them so that a double tax has to be paid by all who keep these conveyances. Many more reasons are given & all good ones we believe, particularly the one with reference to the bad order kept by the patrol in the neck, while the city would introduce the regular police & night watch. It seems strange that the two should ever have been separated & strange that after separation they should not have been reunited long ago.

A certain citizen here and in other parts of the State have been attempting to destroy the State Bank, whether intentionally or not. They got our Senator from Abbeville appointed foreman of the Committee to look into the state of the affairs of the bank. The committee made things out as bad as they could and still they were better than they had been represented to be so that the Legislature concluded to maintain the honor of the state & let the bank remain unaltered. They postponed indefinitely the Bill to destroy it. Do not think I have been discussing & studying politics for I have said nothing about them & belong to no party & intend to belong to none but I have been listening learning all I could when it came in the way.

Cotton is selling more briskly now than when I wrote to Pa last. It sells now from 10 to 10.75 for good cotton & the prospect is rather on the side that it will keep up for a few weeks at least. Maybe Pa knows that this is always uncertain.

Give my love to my dear Mother & tell her that I have had one patient but he did not stay sick long. Please Pa, tell me if Dr. Anderson expects to come soon to Charleston soon. Mrs. Fell has had an application for his operating room for some kind of office—an eye operating office, I think, & is anxious to make some arrangement with him about it. Please write to me often. Adieu, dear Pa & Mother & believe me your affectionate son, — Jas. Morrow

To Mr. John B. Bull

P. S. I sent Pa & Mother’s kind love to Uncle John’s family. I wrote to Cousin Mary.