"DURHAM CENTRE, CONN., _Feb. 23, 1863_.
"S. J. TILDEN, Esq.
"DEAR SIR,--I have just risen from the perusal of your letter,
addressed in 1860 to Professor _William Kent_, and published last week
in the New York _World_. The public were and are under obligations to
you for this satisfactory and patriotic expression of your sentiments;
and, for one, I beg leave to express my thanks. The opinions you
expressed have been confirmed, and the prophecies recorded have been
accomplished by the thick-coming events of the last two years.
"But, unfortunately, it has been the fate of us 'union-savers' that our
prophecies have been disbelieved, as were those of the fabled Cassandra
when she foretold the ruin of Troy.
"'_Can the North understand the full import of the federation idea?_'
This question of yours is pregnant with meaning. It did once understand
it. But two or three generations since that time have passed off, or
are passing off the stage, and this idea has gone with them. Can the
country be restored to 'its first love,' and do its 'first works,' and
thus preserve the Constitution and the Union?
"I have read the remarks of Prof. Morse and Mr. Curtis and yours with
the same satisfaction with which I listened to them at Delmonico's.
"Very truly and respectfully yours,
"WILLIAM C. FOWLER."