Sally Campbell Preston McDowell Thomas Miller
MSA SC 3520-2259
First Lady of Maryland, 1842
From the Statement of Sally McDowell Thomas*
...There was in Mr. Thomas' own opinion of himself - as expressed before,
our troubles began and seeing in my memory with
renewed force, was arguement for him to use against me, which no reason,
or evidence or assurance from me was likely to put
down. I did my best, however, in denying all guilt upon my past and
left the rest to a higher than human power.
During these spells Mr. Thomas would reproach me with Father's not having
given me any property, and said it was because he
knew we could not live together. This was a sore subject with him always,
and I never mentioned without much anger and
excitement. He said moreover that he had watched Robert and myself
at the Hotel, and becoming convinced that there was
something wrong, he had written to William's in Baltimore not to send
the furniture bought from him - thought he would wait to
see how matters would end. I must again repeat, that these things were
not said in the tone of calmness, which they seem to
possess when thus repeated, but in the composure of a deliberate, and
firmly fixed opinion.
And before going farther, I will say that these accusations when the
spell was over were often revoked, and denied, and this
was the case from the very beginning, up to the hour of my leaving
Annapolis. Nor were these spells without intervals. They
came on with the suddeness of light coming, and would go off, sometimes
almost as suddenly - though generally they were of
some duration. Yet the intervals were always filled up with the utmost
kindness to me evinced in every way that the most
thoughtful, and anxious affection could suggest - no personal troubles
being spared, in seeking after and obtaining all that could
administer to my comfort, happiness, or amusement. There was too, throughout
all our difficulties the strongest desire to keep
down any suspicion of them in the minds of his own friends - I mean
of his father and family by whom, especially, by the old
man, I was always treated with marked attention and kindness - and
to his friends, more than once, I think I have been
indebted for deliverance from a threatened storm.
* This statement is from the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia.
A copy is available at the Maryland State Archives,
Special Collections [Radoff Papers] MSA SC 1511.
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