I have received your letter of the 11th Instant.1 I remember the conversation which you held with me, in relation to the necessity of an additional apartment, to be used as an office or study in connection with your Quarters at West Point. I will call the attention of the Secretary of War to the subject, and if there be no appropriation applicable to such an object, I will request him to bring it to the notice of the Military committees of Congress.

I was gratified to learn from your letter that [the]2 young men in the institution at West Point, in whose welfare I take a personal interest were “doing credit to themselves & [their] friends.” In the absence of any other information, than the monthly conduct Reports, I feared it might be otherwise with my nephew Cadet Marshall T. Polk . He is a fine boy, and has no vicious habits of which I am aware. He is however fond of gaiety and of amusements, and I apprehended, might not be as attentive to his duties, as he should be. He has recived more Demerit marks for October & November than he should, and I have written him a strong earnest admonitory letter on the subject.3 He is the only child of my deceased brother, and since he has been at the Point he has lost his mother, who was a pious & excellent woman. I am his guardian and he has lived with me for the last four years. I take as deep an intrest in his welfare as if he were my own son. He has I know great respect for you, (having often heard you preach in this City) and I have no doubt he would receive kindly any advice which you might think proper at any time to give him. May I ask the favour of you, to keep an eye to him, and to exercise a parental care over him, as far as you may think it prudent or proper, and as may be consistent with your official duties? He is without a fortune, and I wish him impressed with the idea, that he is to rely upon his own good conduct and character, and not on me, for his success in future life. Situated as he is, youths of his age, sometimes take up false impressions and conclude that there is no necessity of making personal exertions. I have feared that he may be disposed to fall into this course, and rely more on my support, than upon his own resources. In this I may be mistaken, but I mention it, that you may disabuse his mind on this point, should you deem it necessary. I will esteem it a personal favour, if you will occasionally write to me in regard to him.