"PARIS, _19 June, 1867_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I wrote you some two months ago, but have not heard
whether you received my letter. I expressed the hope that you would be
a member of the constitutional convention, and was very glad to see
that you were chosen.
"I presume the anti-renters will endeavor to get some amendment of the
Constitution, by which they may become owners of the fee of the lands
they hold under leases without compensation. This, if done directly,
would impair the obligation of contracts, and would be declared void
by the Supreme Court of the U. S. It will, therefore, probably be
attempted indirectly--by burdening leased lands with disabilities and
exactions, which will make them of little or no value to landlords.
"In regard to leases forever, it is possible that there may be a
proposition to convert them into allodial tenures by giving to lessees
the right to redeem them by paying to the lessors a principal sum,
which will yield the rent in the annual interest. This would be to
introduce a condition not in the contract. I would not object to it
on any other ground if the sum paid were sufficient to yield the rent
at an interest of four per cent., which is considered a fair rate on
agricultural lands. For instance, if the annual rent on a farm or lot
leased forever were $70, the principal sum to be paid should be $1750.
If only $1000 were paid--a principal sum, which at legal rate (7 pr.
ct.) interest yields the rent--the landlord would be put to the trouble
of reinvesting on less durable and safe security.
"In regard to leases for years or for lives, the convention should not
interfere. It may, if it choose, declare that hereafter no leases for
lives shall be given. The Constitution has already declared that there
shall be no leases of agricultural lands for more than twelve years;
and this is a bad restriction for tenants. But leases for lives are
in the process of rapid extinction, and they are not renewed now. My
father-in-law, Mr. Morgan, gave a large number of such leases sixty
years ago. Some of them are still in existence, although they were
only for three lives, which in England are considered equivalent to
21 years. We are selling on liberal terms to the lessees or their
representatives. There should be no interference with such tenures,
unless it be to prohibit them in future. Every man on Mr. Morgan's land
who has used it in a farmer-like manner has grown rich. Only the idle
or improvident, and now and then an unlucky fellow, have failed to make
money. The lands were leased for the interest of less than $3 per acre.
They have for thirty or forty years been worth treble and quadruple
that price, and the tenants have reaped all the benefit of the advance.
Now to interfere in any way with the reversionary interest of the
lessor would be the grossest injustice to him. Of course it would be a
violation of the contract, which we should resist; and it would do an
incalculable injury to a commercial State like New York, whose vitality
depends so much on the inviolability of its faith and the security of
property of all kinds.
"Should there be any movement of the kind I have adverted to, I
wish you would talk with Evarts, Pierrepont, and others of the
right-thinking men of the convention; and if you please, show them this
letter.
"I am very hard pressed between the exposition, the foreign sovereigns,
and our own home sovereigns, of whom we have a tremendous influx, and
write you '_currente calamo_,' as you see.
"We are all well, and cast longing eyes every day across the Atlantic.
"Ever Sincerely Yours,
"JOHN A. DIX."
"_Hon. Saml. J. Tilden._"