(MS: CU-Mark)
Hartford, Nov. 27, 1875
Livy darling, Six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life and won you, and thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by sending you into the world. Every day we live together adds to the security of my confidence that we can never any more wish to be separated than that we can imagine a regret that we were ever joined. You are dearer to me today, my child, than you were upon the last anniversary of this birth-day; you were dearer then than you were a year before – you have grown more and more dear from the first of those anniversaries, and I do not doubt that this precious progression will continue on to the end. – that is , if my strong but sluggishly demonstrative love has not already reached its limit & perfection.
Let us look forward to the coming anniversaries, with their age and their gray hairs without fear and without depression, trusting and believing that the love we bear each other will be sufficient to make them blessed.
So, with abounding affection for you and our babies, I hail this day that brings you the matronly grace and dignity of three decades!
Always Yours
S. L. C.