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Stanhope New Jersey March 30/67.

W. P. Carlin, Bt Maj Genl. Ass Com.
Nashville Tennessee.

Dear Sir,
Your favour of the 25th inst is recieved, and I thank you for your prompt and full reply. I am glad also to see a high officer in the army write in the style of a Christian.
To three points in your letter I would respectfully respond,- "practical business man", "missionary spirit", "hard work". I indulge the hope that in these respects I would suit you. I have a pretty general knowledge of all classes of business in this land, - commercial, financial, legislative, and even a little military, - and I have had considerable practice, too, in many of the business relations of life. You will judge that a many with such as the following record cannot be very dull in any branch to which he may choose to turn his hand.
I was left a boy of thirteen in a large city without prompter or guardian, yet, with the aid of Providence, worked my own way up to my present time of life, having learned a business and practised it; then acquired an academical, collegiate, and theological education; subsequently became a gospel minister of the Presbyterian church, which I have been nearly twenty years, besides being a teacher of youth, and often engaged in important transactions demanding business tact, foresight, forensic knowledge and enterprise that not the majority of men possess. People often have mistaken notions about gospel ministers not being "practical business men".