G. S. HILLARD TO S. J. TILDEN
"Boston, Nov. 19, 1860.
"Dear Sir,—I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of, and to thank you for, your letter on the Union. I agree with you heartily in your views: they are sound, wise, and patriotic; but what avails it to proclaim them? Anybody who preaches moderation and forbearance—who endeavors to calm the tempest of excited feeling—is called 'a skulking neutral,' or, at best, an obsolete old fogy, whose proper place is in Noah's ark. We must learn wisdom by the smart of folly, and it looks very much as if the teaching was begun. I look upon Mr. Seward as the most mischievous man now in the public service; and for his incendiary course he has not the apology of a fervid temperament and rash blood. His words are the more dangerous, because so deliberately uttered. But I rejoice that you have written the letter, and that so many patriotic and judicious men have been willing to speak and write as you have done. Always anticipating the election of Lincoln, I have been in the habit of saying to our friends that the value and importance of the Union party would not be fully apparent until after that event. I think I was a true prophet. If the country is to be safely navigated through the shoals which are around and ahead, it will be by the agency and instrumentality of the Union party.
"Yrs. truly,
"G. S. Hillard."
"Samuel J. Tilden, Esq."