"138 EAGLE STREET, ALBANY, _Aug. 11th, 1876_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--Mrs. Van Buren has been so kind as to send
me your letter to her. I am glad to renew an acquaintance which,
although slight, has not wholly passed from my recollection.
"You mention an inquiry of yours in 1872, whether I had entirely
abandoned public life. In the sense of official life, I can scarcely
be said ever to have any. Tho' I have given almost half my life to
public affairs, it has been as a private citizen. In 1846 I went to
the Assembly for a special object, to help Mr. Wright in a crisis of
his administration, and retired. In 1872 I went again to the same
body to obtain the impeachment and removal of corrupt judges who
swayed the administration of justice in the metropolis, and again
retired. In 1846, and again in 1867, I served in conventions to
revise the State Constitution. That is all in that long period.
"I never destined myself to a public career. I did not come into
my present trust until I found myself unable in any other way to
have it on the side of reforms I had begun three years before, and
to which I had surrendered my professional business, attention to
my affairs, and my peace and comfort. I had felt gloomily the decay
of all my early ideals of my country, and engaged in the effort to
restore them in the city and State in which I live, with no idea
of any result to myself except of sacrifice. The logic of events
has brought me into my present situation. I have been tempted to do
so much to satisfy the curiosity of an old acquaintance, and, as I
stop, I do not know but I have provoked more than I have satisfied.
"At any rate, it is a real pleasure to refresh what remains of a
set of early associations. I think you were something of a pet of
Mr. Van Buren, as I was also. He would have been interested in the
course of present events; and puzzled about me, for he told me, near
the close of his life, when he had observed me for thirty years,
that I was the most unambitious man he had ever known.
"I will send you a pamphlet which will give you some idea of the
events in this State to which I have alluded.
"With much esteem, I am very truly yours,
"S. J. TILDEN.
"_Hon. John Bragg, Mobile, Ala._"