"SELMA, NEAR WINCHESTER, VA., _12th Novr., 1860_.
"DEAR SIR,--I have just read your pamphlet--'The Union, its dangers,
and how they can be averted.' To say only that it is the best which
the occasion has called forth, would be to do as little justice to my
discrimination as to its merit.
"It is too late now to arrest the catastrophe which it shows impending;
but it must, to minds capable of understanding fact and logic, force
the people to pause and consider.
"I trust that measures will be taken to give it an extended circulation
in the Northern States; in the South its effect only can be to make the
people comprehend what they already feel.
"My note, however (which I am obliged to write through an amanuensis),
is only to thank you for this great contribution to American thought,
and, like the hungry schoolboy, to ask for more. Can you oblige me by
sending me some twenty copies, or as many as you can conveniently spare?
"From your obliged
"friend and servant,
"J. M. MASON."
"_S. J. Tilden, Esq., New York._"