Having fun with a family present

Garrison is writing to Helen and children, who have presented him with a broadcloth suit for his 56th birthday.  He says he has never been so well suited  before.   He writes that he knows there are many outside the family especially from the south, who like to give him a “good dressing“, who would be pleased to see him wearing “a coat of tar and feathers”, but this suit they have given “is much to  be preferred as a matter of fitness and comfort”.   He “cannot find words to express his love for his wife and children, and the amount of blessedness they have afforded him”.  (Source: readinggarrisonsletters)