LOUISE LIVINGSTON HUNT TO TILDEN
"Montgomery Place, May 4th, 1877.
"Dear Mr. Tilden,—I did not go to New Orleans after all, but I have just had a letter from there of which I think I must copy a few lines to send you, because they are so full of genuine heart-felt enthusiasm for yourself. They are from my brother—who, I think I told you, first mentioned at our own table here his conviction that you would and ought to be candidate for the Presidency. I had written him recently an account of the three cheers for Louisiana given by Mr. Hewitt's guests in New York on the day of the withdrawal of the troops. Mr. Bayard told me all about it, and I was touched to the heart at the generous feeling that prompted the cheers from the defeated Democrats—and their great leader. I mentioned the circumstance in writing to my brother, and here is his answer. 'I read with much pleasure your account of the entertainment where Mr. Tilden was present. The fact is I have felt so strongly his merit, his services, and his patriotism that I want him to be next President. I was, in the beginning, of the first among his friends, and I remain, after the dread experience of the past, where I commenced. Sometimes I am puzzled to think he did not favor an uprising of the people to seat him. I did! Was it because he was wiser that he did not speak when he might have said, "Vous qui m'aimez suivez moi!" I hope so.' 'Yes,' he goes on to say, 'God be praised—the men who have so long oppressed Louisiana are gone. Once more the State breathes free, and, filled with hope of the future, trusts to be again happy and prosperous.'
"I know that these sentiments will not be read by you with indifference, although from one you know not at all.
"I am, as you see by my date, in this spot, which I have loved so dearly from infancy. The snow-storm in the far West has made it cold, but the air is sweet with the fragrance of early spring. The events of each day is the newspaper, and how dull the papers seem after the excitement of the past year. Can't you stir up the elements again? If I dared I could point the way, but perhaps you think women know nothing of politics and would not heed the Sybil!
"With great regard, believe me,
"Very truly yours,
"Louise Livingston Hunt."