Do not "write me"

I noted the (assumed to be) American expression "write me" in my previous post. I find this objectionable, as I believe many native English speakers do. Fowler condemns this usage, but Burchfield notes that "this construction was formerly standard in British English ('frequent from circa 1790' says the OED), but it is now in restricted use..."

My grievance is expressed in the publication The Queen's English; stray notes on speaking and spelling (3rd Edition), published in 1870 and written by Henry Alford (Dean of Canterbury). I have reproduced the text in full, as it is now out of copyright.

442. There is an expression frequently used in correspondence, principally by mercantile men : "we will write you," instead of "we will write to you :" "write me at your earliest convenience," instead of "write to me," Is this an allowable ellipsis? It is universally acknowledged that the "to" of the so-called dative case may be dropped in certain constructions : "He did me a favour ;" "He sent me a birthday present ;" "He wrote me a kind letter :" "The Lord raised them up deliverers." In all these cases, the object or act which the verb directly governs is expressed. But if it be omitted, the verb at once is taken as governing the personal pronoun or substantive, of which the dative case is thus elliptically expressed. Thus : "He sent me" would mean, not "He sent to me," but he sent, as his messenger, me. "The Lord raised them up," would imply, not that He raised up some person or thing for them, but that He lifted them up themselves.

443. And so, when we drop the substantive directly governed by the verb in the phrase, "He wrote me a letter," or "he wrote me word," and merely say "he wrote me," we cannot properly understand the sentence in any other way, than that "me" is governed by the verb "wrote." That this is nonsense, is not to the purpose. The construction of such a phrase necessarily halts, and is defective, not only elliptical. We should say in all cases, "write to me,'' or "write me word" or the like ; never barely "write me."

I love the pejorative use of the mildly ambiguous word mercantile. Henceforth I shall be heard to mutter this in response to a grammatical faux pas.