"NEW LEBANON, _July 28th, 1863_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I have been peculiarly unlucky in the attempt to answer
your letter of June 18th. It came on my return from an absence from the
city, followed immediately by another; and then by an illness which
wholly disabled me for a week, and from which I emerged only after the
commencement of the riot, and that brought upon me many demands for
attention and counsel amid ten days of excitement and bustle. I turn to
it as actually the first real business of my own to which I have had a
chance to attend for some weeks, indeed, since the 4th of July, when
I had begun an answer, until now. I came here Saturday evening, and
expect to return to-morrow morning.
"How swiftly events move, and how greatly they change! I am reminded,
as I see by what I began to write, how deeply a few weeks ago I was
involved in solicitude for the results of the military operations then
reaching their crisis. At no time since this war commenced have I been
so disturbed as before the battle of Gettysburg; a different issue
of which might, in my judgment, have put us on our defence even as
far as Phila. and New York, and brought a revolution in our thoughts
and occupations, and since that New York has been upon the verge of a
social peril, at that time wholly unexpected.
"I appreciate the frank and cordial spirit of your letter, and shall
state my own impressions in the same confidence which you express that
our long knowledge of each other will, at least, secure us a perfect
mutual understanding. I say impressions, for I am conscious that all
my views of the future, for myself, and for all others in whom I take
interest, may be colored by the peculiar uncertainties which now
enshroud our horizon.
"1. While I think it proper for you to keep your eye upon the
opportunity of forming a future business in New York, I doubt if you
can prudently abandon your present sure and honorable position, or
can count with sufficient certainty upon events to enter at present
into definite engagements of so much importance to your interests
and happiness. I think you will remember in all our conversations a
disposition on my part (arising, perhaps, from the habitual caution
which my views of public events inspire) to contemplate such a change
in your affairs as taking effect after the close of your present term
of official service.
"I think, if the battle of Gettysburg had happened to be such a
disaster to us as is always possible in the vicissitudes of war,
business in New York would have been for the time, and how long a time
I know not, suspended. Who can compute the consequences of the loss
of Washington, Baltimore, and, perhaps, Philadelphia? Nor can I be
insensible to the social disorders to which great cities are exposed
during such civil convulsions as our country is now undergoing.
"You are at present sure of a livelihood by a tenure and in a
geographical position which are not affected by the military,
political, or financial vicissitudes to which all business in the city
of New York is exposed, and which might fall with peculiar severity
upon a newly formed enterprise--undertaken in reliance upon profits
which any of these causes might render illusory, and amid expenses
which city life and city business inevitably involve. Under these
circumstances I hope you will not consider it officious if I express
the opinion that it would be wiser for you, holding to your present
certainty, to await events which can scarcely fail to shift greatly, if
not frequently, before a decision can be practically forced upon you.
"2. I agree with you that after the war shall have closed the city of
New York will afford scope for business corresponding to the revivified
interests of the country; but I agree with this qualification--that
it can hardly be that the transition can be made, changing, as it
will, the application of labor and enterprise from one set of objects
to another, without a shock of more or less duration, and that the
retirement by any process of the paper issues may be expected to
produce a period of constantly increasing depression. It will be after
this that, with its metropolitan character more than ever assured, New
York will return to a state of healthy prosperity, if its position as
the trade centre of all the States be preserved.
"3. In respect to myself. I am not sure that the advantages of a
professional connection with me would be as great as might naturally be
expected. It has been the general opinion of the profession that a mere
counsel business, of large extent and income, could not be permanently
kept up. So far as I have succeeded in doing this, my experience may
have been exceptional. I have years ago abandoned all ideas of regular
clientage, and could scarcely see any reason why my business should
not much diminish, perhaps almost dry up, with the completion of that
pending at the time. The substitution of mere business--easy to be
deputed, regular in its flow, and almost formal in its nature, which is
the basis of large profits in the general experience of the bar--I have
not had, possibly because I had not the organization in my office to
do it, and could not do it myself without abandoning the part to which
I have devoted myself. If ten years ago I had provided for it what it
might have grown to is a matter of conjecture. It is now too late for
me to undertake the labor, care or responsibility, or even to acquire
the disposition to construct such a business. How far, in lessening my
active connection with affairs of the peculiar nature mine has become,
I could transfer would be doubtful. Indeed, it would seem to me that
some species which have occupied half of my attention for five years
past are likely to disappear.
"4. Some years ago I had two suggestions of what seemed to be very
flattering connections. One of them was of several intimate friends,
who thought we could combine and build up a larger concern than ever
existed in this city. I assented to that opinion, but shrank from
assuming obligations and necessities which could not be practically
terminable at my own choice. Uncertain how long health would permit
or necessity require the efforts I was then making, or how long a
disposition to continue them would survive the immediate occasion for
them, I felt that I should unavoidably part with the perfect freedom
of my choice if I allowed friends to build their calculations upon
me--that no reservation I could make would exempt me from a sense that
what I might prefer to do would disappoint or damage those with whom I
had entered into the joint undertaking.
"In the interval these motives for keeping free from all connections
have strengthened, while all motives to form them have nearly ceased.
The necessities of that day have been fulfilled. My health requires
an exemption for a time of more or less duration, from the cares
which would attend any new engagements, or, indeed, the thought
whether or not business is to continue. Everything that I could
endeavor to foresee, whether personal, as health, taste, my remaining
here or travelling to Europe or to the far West, or whether public,
as financial or political events amid the civil commotions of our
country--everything, in a word, which could ordinarily form the subject
of calculation, seems to be more uncertain than ever before. My
habit, therefore, in all things--I scarcely know whether it comes of
disposition or of judgment--is to make no plans at present, except such
as are inevitable; to await events, and to keep myself as prepared as
possible to act, free from engagements and even from predeterminations
of my own mind, according to the changing phases of affairs.
"I have thus, my dear sir, unveiled to you more of my private affairs
and thoughts than, perhaps, are known to any other person; for I have
written them as if we were talking together, writing my ideas as they
arose, without much method or care.
"Please consider them as confidential, and excuse the haste with which
they are expressed and the length to which my letter has grown. Accept
the frankness of my revelations and suggestions as an evidence of my
cordial interest in your views, and be assured that whatever I can do
by way of information, advice, or suggestion towards your purpose, if
you continue to entertain it, will be at all times at your service.
"Very truly,
"Your friend,
"S. J. TILDEN."
"_Hon. Henry Hogeboom._"