Spalding, Bishop Martin John, Louisville, Kentucky, to Archbishop Anthony Blanc, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1856 March 12

After 10 days on the river, including 2 of delay at Memphis, Spalding reached Louisville Sunday. Young Francis Follot remained with him on Sunday and on Monday went on to Cincinnati. Spalding will not soon forget Blanc's hospitality. Blanc's health needs relaxation; he should come next summer to visit the institutions of Kentucky where he was for a time. Spalding wishes to prove that his horse Fox, which he inherited from Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget is better than Blanc's clerical black! That unfortunate Dr Joseph L. Botti is coming down to give Blanc trouble. Spalding encloses a letter Botti wrote him. Neither Spalding or his brother ever wrote to the Abbot of Gethsemani concerning him; this is pure fiction. His object seems to be to extort money. He professes to have a certificate of the boy who came with him to New Orleans from Plaquemines. He is "mauvaise tete" and should have stayed in Italy. A.L.S. Enclosure: