"NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY MORNING, _June 5th, 1878_.
"DEAR MR. CAREY,--I received your telegram late last
evening, and answer by mail because the telegraph is leaky.
"My appreciation of Mr. Henderson has been so manifest that I need
not say how competent I deem him, or that he may fairly be classed
among those from whom a choice is to be made.
"But I am totally uninformed of the views of Governor Robinson. He
may, for aught I know, have a purpose already formed; and he is
always independent and persistent. I think it would be advisable
for you to learn the situation as fully as possible before making
our friend a candidate, whom you do not wish to expose to a
failure. Perhaps you had better go down to Albany quietly and get
what information you can. The attempts of the Republican press,
when Governor Robinson first came in, to create an impression
(utterly unfounded in fact, as everybody who knows his independent,
self-poised, and firm nature must see) that he occupied to me a
relation of dependence, was intended to wound him and his friends,
as well as to misrepresent me; and induced me to adopt the rule of
not recommending anybody, or anything to him, of my own motion, or
unless he had occasion to consult me, which he seldom, if ever, has
any need to do. Under that rule of delicacy and respect, I am less
advised of his ideas than might be supposed.
"Very truly yours,
S. J. TILDEN."