"_Personal and private._
"SUNDAY, 8 P.M., WASHINGTON, _Aug. 6, '76_.
"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I have been very unwell all day,
caused by the nervous exhaustion of yesterday's work in the House.
And yet I will try to give you some idea of the situation and the
results. The banking and currency committee decided to report
the repeal of the resumption date on Friday. I persuaded them
to wait till Saturday, hoping that your letter would come and
change the situation. The letter did come, but the committee were
perfectly fixed in their determination to report. I tried to get
them to substitute a commission to inquire and report in December
on the whole resumption question. They offered to accept this as
an amendment, but not as a substitute. To this the hard-money
New England men would not agree, and so I decided to offer my
substitute, as we could well vote for repeal pure and simple,
without measures of preparation. We had a debate of two hours.
You will find what I said in the _Record_. After the debate was
over they declined to let my substitute be offered. The House was
determined to get a vote on it, and so no quorum voted on the
motion for the previous question. This brought them to terms, and
they allowed the substitute to be offered. It was lost by twelve
majority. If the House had been full it would have carried. The vote
then recurred on the repeal, and it was carried by 20 majority, all
the hard-money men voting against it. There was no hard feeling, and
no bitterness remains. The hard-money men have made their record,
and the soft-money men have got the repeal, and no longer any excuse
for not carrying their States. I think that the matter is in the
best possible shape. The party is committed to specie payments by
the platform and your admirable letter, and by Hendricks' mushy
acquiescence.
"Immediately afterwards we passed a concurrent resolution
establishing a commission to consider the silver question and the
resumption of specie payments. So that we can say that we have made
provision for investigation and the elaboration of a practical
scheme for resumption.
"On the whole, I now think that the matter has been managed as well
as the difficulties of the situation would admit.
"Your letter gives general satisfaction, especially to the Southern
members, who [are] loud in its praise.
"I hope that Congress will adjourn this week, so that we may
organize for the campaign. I have in preparation all the necessary
documents to show the frauds and corruption of the administration,
and if we have means to circulate them I anticipate the best results.
"Faithfully yours,
"ABRAM S. HEWITT."
Considering the friendly and very intimate relations which had
subsisted between Mr. Bryant and Mr. Tilden from the latter's
early boyhood, it was natural that the Governor should inspire the
request contained in the following letter from one of his nephews.
The correspondence which ensued, and its results, will be found
in Bigelow's _Life of Tilden_, Volume I., page 300. It is proper
to repeat here that Mr. Bryant, at the time he wrote his letter
declining to be named as one of the Tilden electors, was only a
proprietor of half of the _Evening Post_ property, and his partner,
Mr. Henderson, feared the effect upon the prosperity of the paper
which would be likely to result from the appearance of its editor in
such conspicuous relations with the Democratic party. Mr. Bryant,
however, went so far as to give instructions, which were pretty
carefully observed, to permit nothing personally hostile to Mr.
Tilden to appear in the columns of the _Post_ during the canvass,
and voted for him at the election.
Besides the reasons here stated for Mr. Bryant's embarrassing
attitude towards Mr. Tilden, there were others communicated to Mr.
Tilden a few weeks later by Miss Julia Bryant in the note succeeding
Mr. Pelton's.