Washington Wednesday Feb. 25th 1863.
A bright pleasant day but the Snow has mostly melted and the thin mortar composition lies from four to eight inches in depth in the streets. Little boys are at the crossings broom in hand trying to keep back the flood from a narrow path and saying “Please give me a penny.” I fear they do not get many, few will give a five cent “shin plaster” or “stamp” and cents are scarce which is bad for the boys. Went up to the Capitol after leaving office and the “Enrolment Bill” passed while I was in the chamber of the “House.” It now only needs the signature of the President to become a law. Wrote to my sister Harriet and to (?) today. Sent Agricultural Reports to Capt Budd Sag H. and to Dr Ford of Chemung NY. This evening I have been to hear the celebrated Mason–Jones, the Irish Orator. He was a fine speaker and all that I had expected. He spoke about one hour and a half without the least hesitation and without a note or scrap of writing. His subject was “John Philpot Curran.” The House (Willards Hall) was crowded. Four Soldiers have called upon me today for assistance in getting their discharge papers, or pay, or for clothing. A stream of discharged soldiers has been flowing through the R Road Depot for the past two months, from one to two hundred pr day. It is astonishing how prevalent the heart disease has become since this war began. I think it should in most cases be called the “faint heart” disease.
