Wayne County, NC - Collections House of Representatives Washington D.C. December the 13th 1853 William Robinson Esq Dear Sir: I have been desirous of writing to you for several days past but my time has been as much occupied that I have not had an opportunity of writing until this morning. I went to the Department the other day to look into the matter in relation to the vacancy at the West Point Military Academy. I find that there is one from our District Viz: Mr. Pender of Edgecombe who will graduate next June and consequently there will be a vacancy. The appointment will be made in February next previous to that time they will give me a formal notice that there is a vacancy and then appoint on my recommendation. Your son it seems to me will fill all the ___ and I can on nothing in the way of his appointment, I do not apprehend any difficulty in getting him appointed. I think that it would be ever far you to cause your son William George to devote most of his time to ___ branches as will occupy his attendance at West Point and especially to have him well grounded in the mathmatics branches for they are the most important there. The appointment will be made in February to take effect in June. The Message of the President has given very much satisfaction, it is a ___ Mon nights paper. The views of the President on the Lands Indians must put a price on the Lands Distribution Democracy of our ___ for in advocating this policy they are evidently opposing the Administration. Yesterday Resolutions were offered in our ___ declaring in ___ the expediency on constitutionally of the government, constructing a Rail Road to the Pacific and this is the duty of the government to embark on it such a motion was made to lay those resolutions on the table by a decided majority from which it is manifest the Pacific Road is on the ___ in Congress as some had appeared. I think the message of the President must satisfy the friends of this scheme that they cannot expect any appropriations from the ___ Yesterday the Committees were announced. I was appointed as the Committee of Claims a very important committee and one which has more work to do than any other committee of congress except probably that of Ways and Means. It seems to me that a Representive who does his duty, will have much the greater portion of his time occupied. There has been little speaking ___ as just on the occassion of the announcement of the oath of Wm R King some very eloquent and appropiate address was made ___ ___ made a speech on this occasion and to the great astonishment of all he was much ___. I should be pleased to hear from you often. Excuse the hurried and disconcerted manner in which this is written. Truly Your friend Tho: Ruffin P.S. Another Pacific Rail Road Resolution has just been voted on by the House and laid upon the table by a very large majority so the Pacific Road does not seem very possible here. Tho: Ruffin _______________________________________________________________________ USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. The electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Guy Potts __________________________________________________________________________