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—Sept 20, 1866.—
University of Miss Oxford, Miss. Sept. 18th 1866
—University—
Hilgard—Eug. W. State Geologist
Letter of—
Asking opinion abt what he should do in relation to the publica-tion of a private letter by his indiscreet correspondent casting a slur upon Legislature for this action in reference to publication of his Report.
Private
[seal]
Oxford, Sept. 18, 1866.
Gov. B. G. Humphreys
Dear Sir,
You may have noticed in the papers a letter of mine to Capt. Hargrove, most indiscreetly made pub-lic by the latter, in which I spoke of the bad prospects of my Report, and, inci-dentally, rather cast a slur upon the action of the legislature. I need scarcely ex-plain, that the letter was a purely pri-vate one, written to a gentleman who had on several occasions discussed this matter with me, and whose motive in the publi-cation I am not now disposed to impugn, whatever may be said of his discretion. I greatly regret this untimely sally—hope it may pass by unnoticed; at all events I don't see that I can do do anything
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better than to try and make it be for-gotten. If you think differently, you would greatly oblige me by giving me your opinion. I have been remiss in not acknowledging sooner the receipt of your kind letters of Sept. 3d & 4th; I have been very hard at work trying to finish off some Survey matters before the course begins, & have thus neglected my correspondence. Please accept my best thanks for the kind in-terest you have manifested in this mat-ter, as well as the prompt remittance of the $500, duly received.
I greatly rejoice that Mr. Barksdale is willing and able to act promptly re-garding the Report, and sincerely hope he may succeed in bringing on the copies in time for the session of the legislature, as I think it will promote both his interest and that of the Survey. I sup-pose that under the circumstances it will be necessry for me to leave my
classes for a few days, in order to look after these things personally
Students are already beginning to come in, a week too soon—from all we hear, the prospect of attendance is quite flattering
Very respectfully & truly Your obed't svt
Eug. W. Hilgard.