Woodrow Wilson to Richard Heath Dabney

Alas, my dear Heath, the pressure of business and of imperative duty has proved too much for me. It would be literally unconscientious for me to do more than the maximum I have promised to do in Staunton. I feel that we ought to get there on a short a schedule as possible and to get back to my duty.

It is a genuine disappointment to me. There is nobody I would rather stop and see than yourself, and this is partly to beg that you will try to be on hand in Staunton so that I may see you there. We go by train which rreaches there, I believe, about 8 o'clock in the evening, leaving New York at about 9:30 on Friday morning the twenty-seventh.

In haste, and deep disappointment,