TILDEN TO JOHN R. REID
"New York, Apl. 21, 1870.
"My dear Sir,—I am obliged by the kind terms of your note of yesterday, which were also repeated to me by Mr. Frost, who called on me. But I do not change the feelings with which I regard the nomination for the chief judge, and have regarded it since it was presented to my view in December, or weakened the settled preference I have for freedom and relaxation over even such an honorable distinction. Notwithstanding such a definitive purpose on my part, I hope that you will take care to send a good delegate, because you and I will probably never have another chance of doing so much service to the community in which we live, or to the profession to which we belong, as in securing the best possible selection for judge of the judicial court under a comparatively permanent tenure.