(ADVICE VOLUNTEERED BUT NOT FOLLOWED)
"COWEN'S LAW OFFICE, NO. 15 TOWN HALL BUILDING,
"SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y., _Sept. 21, 1874_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--We have known each other for many years; have passed
through many heated political campaigns together, striving for the
same political results; therefore I hope you will not deem it amiss
if I write you a short letter. I premise by saying what every one
knows--that without the aid of the personal friends of Tweed the State
ticket this fall will be defeated by forty thousand majority. Can his
friends be made our friends in this campaign? I answer 'yes.' You
inquire, 'How can this be done?'
"The object of criminal punishment in theory and practice, as laid
down by all elementary writers, is to reform the offender, to deter
him and others from committing like offences, and to protect society.
Has not this object been accomplished in the case of Tweed? Gen. Dix,
if elected, will not pardon him; will you? If his friends have your
promise, when elected, to pardon, will they not put in a half million
into a fund for your success? Then let them say to their friends in
each county that they desire your election _for a purpose_, and we have
the whole strength of the Democratic party. That will not, perhaps,
be enough. Let the temperance men be paid and their organizations
sustained by money, and success is certain. Let one man in each
Assembly district be re-elected who will be in the secret and have the
desired funds, who will thoroughly work his district--both in getting
out the Democrats and taking care of the temperance people--and you
have the desired result. You and the reformers can afford this promise.
I am not and never was a Tweed man--I thought his punishment just--yet
I think he has been confined long enough for all purposes, legal,
moral, or political. The above is a bold proposition; if you think of
it, it will appear a just one. But be that as it may, without some such
move we cannot carry the State. Excuse me if in writing thus I presume
too much.
"Yours Respectfully,
"P. H. COWEN."