De Smet, S.J., Father Peter J., St. Louis University, Missouri, to Archbishop Anthony Blanc, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1855 December 16

Annexed Blanc will find a receipt for the papers connected with the Walsh case. The manuscripts, etc. of the good Bishop have been delivered by Father Peter Tscheider to the Provincial. It is a considerable disappointment not to find in the package the letter of both of them to him nor those of their superior in Rome. As these letters are all of a confidential nature addressed not to the Bishop but to the Jesuit, they can be of no use to his successor. Consequently when they have been examined by Blanc they should be returned to them. Those from the superiors, are directed by their rules to be burned unread; this will be religiously attended to. They have received a few letters addressed in early times to the Bishop and presume there remain some received by him as superior of this vice-province. They ask to receive them also. They would be pained to learn that anyone else might read them. A.L.S. On the same paper: