General James Jones, Letters from Gov. Pickens
Gen. James Jones, adjutant general of the South Carolina Militia, commissioner for the building of the State House in Columbia, and quartermaster general of SC during the war.
St. Petersburg 8 July 1859
Legation of the United States
Dear Sir
I rcd [received] yours 30th May and I shall direct Coffin & Pringle to pay(?) you 15th Jan. 1860 the full amount of the note, as you prefer it to 10th Nov. next. It suits me better to wait the sales of cotton in Jan(?).
It was my intention to have returned home this fall, but the war in Europe may soon(?) become general, and I would not like to appear even indifferent to the country's general interest as involved, by pursuing my personsal inclinations.
Dreadful as the slaughter has been, it is nothing to what is anticipated. The standing armies of Europe now amount to more than three millions of men, and it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to avert a general and bitter conflict. This govt has recently put in motion near 200,000 men towards Poland and the frontiers of Austria, and it is not uncommon to see from thirty to sixty thousand men, apparently the best equipped in the world, on parade in this city.
With great respect
Your obdt [obedient]
Servant
F. W. Pickens
Genl. James Jones
Francis W. Pickens was the ambassador to Russia in the 1850s and returned to become the governor of SC during the Civil War.
