"NEW YORK, _July 3rd, 1872_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--I _did_ intend sooner to acknowledge your letter and
make answer generally to it, tho I have foreseen that it is a case in
which, as Gov. Seymour says, 'letters answer themselves,' and I should
only pay my respects to you.
"The Cincinnati movement has been so early and long encouraged by
you and by me and by many who thought with us, that it grew to have
an impetus and volume which were important and not easily turned
aside from the channel it made for itself. Our people, in being
educated to favor it, had become accustomed to count on it, and at
last became dependent upon it. I never saw how its acts were capable
of readjustment, or how the question now before us would be other
than the simple issue between Grant and Greeley. On this I concur
with the instinctive sense of our people that a change is necessary
in the Federal administration. It is rarely, if ever, possible for a
party in office to reform itself by the internal force of its best
elements. We must have a better state of things in national, State,
and municipal government, and a higher standard in the public mind by
which official men will be tried and to which they will refer in their
silent meditations and in their actions, if we would preserve anything
of value in our political system. But I am getting beyond the limits of
my time.
"In haste.
"Truly your friend,
"S. J. TILDEN."