"BROCKIE, near YORK, PA., _April 5th, 1881_.
"MY DEAR SIR,--At Washington last week I took a tentative
look at the business you wot of. The Attorney-General was made
to understand the whole affair. He is anxious to be amiable,
and, I think, would stop this dirty persecution at once but
for Blatchford's decision, which I cannot help but admit is an
embarrassing fact, though seen to be perfectly lawless. He proposes
that a memorial or formal application be made which he will refer
to the local authorities for their report, and he promises to do
whatever he can to accomplish the object. He is, of course, not fool
enough to believe that the proceeding against you is justified by
law. He thinks you had better give a final judgment for any amount
that the District Attorney wants, coupled with a protest, and trust
to a writ of error.
"The thing looks badly. An appeal to the magnanimity of these people
will be so humiliating that I don't see how you can go through it.
It will have to be discussed officially and unofficially by the
inside and the outside of the administration--in public and in
private, and I do not know when it will be ended. Speeding to-day,
it may be put back to-morrow, and be lost at last. On the other
hand, if you give a _pro forma_ judgment, your chances of reversal
will be in inverse proportion to the amount of it for certain
reasons which I need not now give.
"I think Blaine would have manhood enough to do right, disregarding
all other considerations, and sense enough to see that he would make
more politically than he would lose, if the responsibility rested
entirely upon him, but he is not in a situation to force his advice
upon the others.
"The President is not at all equal to such an occasion. He will
probably think it a kind of duty to repeat wrongs upon a man whom he
has already injured.
"Please to think over all this at your leisure, and decide whether
it is not best to defy these devils to their worst.
"I am, yours truly,
"J. S. BLACK."