"NEW YORK, _Nov. 29th, 1850_.
"MY DEAR MADAM,--Your letter of Oct. 13th, and that of Mr. Chase
accompanying it, came at the commencement of an illness which disabled
me for some time from making the inquiries which yours requested.
Since my recovery I have been diligently seeking to learn something of
the line of steamers destined to touch periodically at Vera Cruz and
Tampico. Mr. Geo. Law, who is the principal man in the Chagres line,
and Mr. Wetmore, an associate of his in that enterprise, inform me that
nothing of the kind has been connected with their line; and they agree
in thinking that, although such a proposition was before Congress, it
did not pass. Mr. Brooks, who represents this district in the House of
Rep., and who is conversant with such matters, is of the same opinion.
Mr. Croswell, of Albany, _not_ of this city, who is interested in the
Chagres line, and whom I was fortunate enough to meet a few evenings
since, has the same impression, but referred me to young Mr. Worth, of
this city, as having something to do with a project for such a line.
On inquiry of that gentleman I find that he is not aware of any action
of Congress on the subject; that the project is purely commercial, and
that it is so very immature that it can scarcely be deemed to have an
existence. This was for a line between this city and Vera Cruz. The
laws of the last session have not as yet been published, so that I
could not examine them. I am thus particular, because one gentleman
of whom I inquired had an impression that such a bill did pass. While
there seemed to be very little definite knowledge, my conclusion is
that no such line has been authorized, but I shall keep an eye to the
matter, and communicate to you any information which may seem important.
"I found in a N. O. paper that the steamer _Alabama_ will make trips at
intervals of about 20 days from that place to Vera Cruz. The news that
reached you may have originated partly in this circumstance and partly
in the pendency of a proposition, such as you mention, in Cong.
"It would give me great pleasure to aid Mr. Chase, in the way
you desire, so far as I may have power, if such a line should be
established; though the thing is as yet so indefinite--and I am
inclined to think will remain so--that I cannot estimate my ability to
serve him.
"The friends of whom you inquire--Mr. Green, Miss Green, and Miss
H.--are well and pursuing happiness ardently in their customary modes:
each one pursuing his favorite phantom, the poet hath it, but I will
not apply to them the association that rises in my memory. There are
objects in life which are not phantoms--tho' little pursued, and not
by many. I am tempted to seek for myself the gracious welcome that
awaits the bearer of good-tidings by telling you that Miss. H. intends
to leave here on a Southern tour in the latter part of Dec., and has
some thoughts, even hopes, of persuading her father to prolong the
excursion to Tampico. But do not flatter yourself too much. Wind and
weather are not less uncertain on the Gulf than elsewhere, and even the
steady purpose and persuasive power that characterize our friend may
not prevail against every mischance.
"The change in the nat. adn. was as sudden and remarkable as you regard
it. The policy of the gov. was a little modified by it, but on the
whole it was most striking as illustrating how quietly our political
machine works, even while the hands that seem--and seem only--to
guide it are shifted. I do not share, to any considerable extent, the
apprehensions entertained or professed by many as to a dissolution
of our federative union. I would not needlessly put its bonds to the
test. But I think they would prove stronger than is generally supposed;
that danger would bring upon the theatre of public affairs a higher
class of men than the holiday patriots who figure there in a season of
peace--men who would represent the actual sentiments of the masses of
our citizens, the serious, earnest purposes, now applied to private
objects, that would be turned to the preservation of the Union as an
important, practical means to great public ends. The idea of American
nationality--progress and destiny--is the master-thought in the minds
of our people, and creates a tendency to unity in the govt. quite
strong enough. I have, too, a feeling--for it may be that, rather
than a conclusion of reason--on this subject, which some may call
superstitious. I believe that the gradual amelioration and culture of
our race is in the inevitable order of Providence. I see elements which
have been and are preparing our country to act a grander part than any
has hitherto done in this great plan. That part is to be wrought out,
not by an indolent repose on what our ancestors have ordained for us,
but by trials and sacrifices and earnest efforts to solve the great
social and civil questions which necessarily arise in the experiences
of a nation. It seems to me--but here I may read the sacred oracles
not aright--that the Union is an essential condition to the destiny we
appear appointed to fulfil; and I believe it firm enough and strong
enough to endure the conflict of social and political forces which is
going on within its bosom. It will survive them all, working out what
it can, and as far as it can, and casting off to a future period what
it cannot now entirely work out.
"I resume my letter which has been in my portfolio unfinished for more
than a week. A current of affairs suddenly struck me, and swept me
on so incessantly that I have not before been able to return to it.
You must not infer, however, that I affect any special industry, or
that I am ordinarily so busy. My life has vibrated between a leisure
in which I amused myself with books, and the greatest activity in
pubic and private affairs; and, if the last few months have been as
engrossingly occupied as any part of it with professional and personal
business, I do not expect or desire it to be generally so hereafter.
What has most exacted attention was temporary and occasional, and has,
as yet, produced, and may produce nothing to me or to others, though
lest such a confession excite too much pity for me I will add that in
the mean time what has cost me comparatively little trouble has been
sufficiently fruitful. My disposition is not to permit merely private
business to engross me, nor to be in any of an unprofessional nature
which creates anxiety. I have never been accustomed to surrender to it
my inner life, or to allow its cares to fill those little interstices
between actual occupation which are instinctively given to, and
which characterize our ruling habits of thought and feeling. There
no doubt is danger, as the relations of business multiply around us
and our enthusiasm for public objects is qualified or weakened and
our sympathies often come back upon us as the chilled blood returns
from the extremities to the heart, that what furnishes occupation to
our activity without the trouble of seeking it and without making us
inquire whether we choose it, will grow too much upon our attention.
But I desire to reserve something to better purpose--something to
friends and to myself, and possibly, if hereafter I can recall the
enthusiasm of early years, with a share of its former strength and
steadiness, something to consecrate life by a sense that it has not
been wholly given to objects so selfishly egotistical as are most of
those which we pursue. It is time for me to stop; for I am moralizing,
when I began merely to exclude a possible inference that I have not
leisure to care for the wishes and interests of my friends, and to
assure you that I am always happier if I can serve them, and glad to
talk with them, as I now do, even if it be at such a frightful distance
as, in this age of ocean steamers, railways, and telegraphs, to put a
quarter of a year between question and answer.
"I wrote you a very long letter--I tremble to think I ever addressed
such a missive to a lady--all full of finances and figures, on about
the first of October. I mention it lest it may have miscarried. I
should regret if you have failed to get the answer it attempted to your
inquiries. I have hoped, and do hope, to hear from you in respect to
it and its subject, if I can at all aid you. As a whole, it was not
intended to be answered--as somebody said of his own speech--but I do
look for a reply; I hope it may be an early and favorable reply--to
some parts of it--as, for instance, that you are rapidly maturing your
plan of changing your residence to this country, and that, at all
events, you are coming over here next spring. If you should say that,
you may take your own time for the statistics of the money-market and
of money-making. Waiting patiently as I can for such an answer, and
begging you to present my best respects to Mr. Chase, I remain,
"Very truly, your friend,
"S. J. TILDEN."
COPY OF DRAFT-LETTER, FULL OF "FINANCE AND FIGURES," REFERRED TO IN THE
PRECEDING LETTER
"There are, of course, the U. S. sixes, if you are content with so low
a rate of interest. The New York stocks are about the same. There are
others which are lower. If put to the choice myself, I should prefer
bonds secured by mortgages on real estate, or, as we familiarly call
them, b. and m. at 7 p. c., which, with care, can be had, even in the
present plethora of money. There are also many varieties of bonds of
private companies paying 6 or 7 p. c.; but, as a general rule, I should
decidedly prefer bonds and mortgages on real estate.
"There are also stocks of private companies. Many of the banks are
earning 7, 8, 10, or even more per cent. But these stocks are at
considerable premiums, and have risen much recently. They cannot be
always continuing on the ascending series. When a commercial depression
shall occur these bonds will feel it more promptly and more deeply
than that of most corporations; their dividends will be reduced,
the premiums (which are equivalents for future, unearned, dividends)
will fall off; and you may lose more by this decline than you have
realized in the excess of the dividends over a fair interest. The
same remark is applicable to the few railways which pay very large
dividends, although they are not so sensitive to the fluctuations of
commerce as the banks--in this as in the other case. The Delaware &
Hudson Canal Company--whose business is to produce and bring to market
anthracite coal--has declared about 16 per cent. for the last four or
five years. The premium on its stock is now 50 p. c. That is lower
than it has been, because of special circumstances, while I think that
the next year's business will be better. The dividend is over 10 p. c.
on premium and all. I would rather risk the continuance of its high
premium than in any other case of a railroad. I may say, any other
similar case. There is a similar company which has just come into
operation--a very solid concern--which we think will be at least as
good; its stock at a premium of 15 p. c. It is not so well known or so
promptly marketable, and its stock is in a rather complex form, which
it is expected to simplify next winter. It would be idle to say that I
have not great confidence in it, since I have transferred what I had in
the other to it, and have put in it more than the sum you mention in
your letter; but I should not like to have another person invest in it
or any similar thing merely on my judgment; and, to do so on his own,
he ought to have more detailed knowledge than could be communicated in
this hasty letter. The claim is that its stock will not advance much
for the next 3 months--perhaps not for the next 6 or 8 months.
"There are also classes of ins., to some of which I have great
objection, but it would be futile now to discuss their merit.
"With respect to investments in private companies generally, I have
some observations to make. A very large proportion of one's means
should not be concentrated in one institution, especially without the
most thorough familiarity with its affairs. A wise selection between
them requires at any time special knowledge and individual judgment;
and more so now than usually. The abundance of capital and low rates
of interest causes high premiums to be given for the most productive
stocks as well as the most ____ so that it is scarcely possible to get
them at prices [half a page is here utterly undecipherable] unless in
special cases where the enterprise is comparatively new and unknown, or
its real merits are not fully appreciated by the public, in which cases
you rely upon what you suppose to be superior information or judgment.
"I ought to add, in qualification of those general views, that I do
not mean that the market has reached its highest elevation. I think
it probably has not; nor can I now see the particular time when, or
the particular event by which a change is to take place. We are not
in a state of high speculative excitement; we appear to be tending to
such a state, though causes may occur to check the tendency. But we do
know that--whether the present abundance of capital and prosperity of
business shall, temporarily, increase or not--we cannot expect them
to continue for a very long period, _even to the present degree_. It
is desirable to make your investment at as low prices as possible,
in order to enhance your interest and have greater security against
possible contingencies; but even this consideration may be so modified
by peculiar circumstances that it is difficult to state an absolute
rule applicable to all cases.
"On the whole, your main interest is to find your money safe and
available when you come here, and are able to make a permanent
disposition of it on your own judgment. I am gratified to be able
to believe that you have already secured an ample provision for the
future--its reasonable tastes as well as its necessities--at a rate
of productiveness which will give the greatest safety. Anything that
you can hereafter add to your income or capital would be really of
very slight importance to you, compared with what you now have. I do
not undervalue your fortitude and energy, or concede to own to the
impertinent advances of time, when I say that your chief care should be
to avoid even the possibility of being compelled to begin anew the work
of life--so far as the providing for its material wants can be called
such--when, if the period most fitted for that purpose have not passed,
the years which have been allotted to it cannot be recalled. The
advantages of such skilful disposition of your means as are consistent
with safety--and such advantages there are--will be to be enjoyed by
you when you shall become--as I hope you soon may--a resident in our
country. In the mean time, a deposit with the trust company seems to
be as good a temporary arrangement as you can make at your distance
from the scene or as I can suggest in my ignorance of your particular
affairs, wishes, and future movements. I need not add that any aid
which I can give you in making this or any other disposition _of your
remittances_ which you may prefer will be very cordially rendered. I
shall be happy also to answer further inquiries and convey additional
information, as far as can be done by correspondence; and shall hope to
do so more promptly than I have been able this time, and more briefly;
for without purpose to be very ____ I happen to have been visited by
unusual concourse of people talking to me about all sorts of things and
by a necessity of ____ my talk with you ____ very rambling and diffuse.
I have had the ____ to read it over--with something of dismay that I
should ever have written such a letter to a lady, and I must beg that
it be communicated to Mr. Chase, to whom, in truth, it seems mainly to
be addressed--and to all eyes but his remain forever a sealed book. It
might ruin all my prospects with less forbearing fair ones if it were
supposed there could be any risk of a similar epistle.
"If you should place a deposit, or otherwise temporarily dispose of
such remittances as you may make through the winter, would not the true
policy be for Mr. and Mrs. C. to come on here for a short time, next
spring or summer, to make more permanent arrangements? The journey
is not much, and might be more than repaid by the business results.
If you could leave your affairs at home the trip might be useful in
all respects. I have left myself little space for other topics. But I
must find room to say, in reply to the friendly message of Mr. Chase,
that I consider myself already, in some sort, acquainted with him,
and to beg that he will not measure the little attentions I had the
pleasure of rendering to a lady who interested me, as well by her
personal qualities as by the situation in which I met her, by the
disproportionate sense of them which she entertains.
"I fear the probability of my being able to visit Tampico at present is
not sufficiently substantial to fabricate a dream of. My consolation
must be the hope of meeting you here, in which I trust you will not
disappoint me. The authority with which you commission me to 'say many
kind things' to certain of your friends--if intended to be general--is
too flattering in its conferment and too agreeable in its exercise to
be renounced. And yet I fear I should not be the 'faithful agent' you
hope if I did not candidly admit how little, in this respect, you need,
or can be aided, by any service of mine.
"Hoping to hear from you shortly, and to see you at an early period,
and wishing Mr. C. and you every prosperity and happiness, I remain,
"Very truly, your friend,
"----."