"FORT WASHINGTON, _June 14th, 1875_.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--Herewith you will receive a fair copy of the views
which strike me as just in respect to the leases.
"There does not seem any need of occupying your time with a call. Your
allowance for this task of passing on the bills is so near its close
that every intrusion, however slight in duration, must be an evil.
"But a single thing occurs to me in your aid.
"Where you cannot approve a bill, is not a simple withholding of your
signature the true course?
"Such appears very clearly to me to be the proper course. A written
memorandum of the reasons which governed you might be useful, and, if
time admitted, should always be made; but a formal veto does not seem
to be called for or expedient. It must necessarily wear an aspect of
severity. A purely negative course is less offensive.
"Yours truly,
"CHAS. O'CONOR."