"OFFICE OF THE 'DAILY UNION AND ADVERTISER,'
"ROCHESTER, _Dec. 10, 1874_.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--Your favor of the 8th was this morning received.
It is hardly necessary for me to say that I thank you most sincerely
for your very kind offer of a position on your staff with rank of
Brigadier-General. But I feel constrained to decline for two principal
reasons: 1st, I have no taste whatever, but rather an aversion, for
military display, and could not persuade myself to appear in uniform
on occasion; and I never want to take my position without doing the
full duty pertaining to it. 2d, if I were to accept I might lay
myself open to the suspicion or charge that while I had recommended
a fellow-citizen for position necessary to serve you that I should
accept, the case would be different, and I would be willing to yield
my own preferences and meet the suggested thoughts of others. But I
feel that by declining I enable you to give the place to some one of
the many seekers after it, who have a taste for and will be glad to get
it. I appreciate your reasons for declining to appoint the gentleman
recommended by me, and if I were in your place I would have no one
about me tainted with Hoffmanism in any way.
"Yours, &c.,
"WM. PURCELL."