"NEW YORK, _Dec. 28, '55_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--Your letter in answer to mine in respect to your debt to
the Bk. N. A., on which I am endorser, came to hand. It was not what
I supposed from your previous assurances I had a right to expect, nor
what seems to me just. Whether it be even wise for yourself, I will not
undertake to judge.
"An endorsement made for a man's accommodation is called
_confidential_, because it is supposed to impart a very high and sacred
obligation to protect the friend who incurs such a liability in your
behalf and for your benefit. It was a departure from my usual habit
and settled rule, wrung from me by the importunity of friendship. With
a good deal of trouble to me, it has been deferred from time to time
at your instance, and in the last case with a strong assurance on your
part.
"You must pardon me if I say that I am not advised of any circumstance
that can excuse the failure of so high an obligation. I have no reason
to believe that an _absolute inability_ exists.
"You allude, in this connection, to other liabilities hanging over you;
by which, I suppose, you mean the claim on the drafts held by the Stark
Bank. I should think that if anything _could_ add to the obligation
to protect me from a liability on your confidential paper, it would
be that I have been engaged, and am still, with infinite care, labor
and trouble, in trying to rescue you from that unjust claim--that the
intricacies of the case, the complexity of the transactions out of
which the claim grows, the witnesses being out of the State--" [The
rest wanting.]