Dear Sir:—
As chairman of a committee of citizens having the war in charge, every moment of my time is engrossed, and I have only time to thank you for your kind and important letter. It reached me just as I was going to the great meeting on Saturday. I enclose a paper giving my remarks. You will see the use I have made of your letter. I had no time to correct, add or abridge, as my remarks were in type before I left the stand, and, indeed, were in circulation in the streets.
There was one passage in your letter I was very anxious to read to the meeting. I have never taken a liberty with a private letter, though I was never so strongly tempted. The sentence I allude to is this: “The present administration had no alternative but to accept the war initiated by South Carolina or the Southern Confederacy. The North will sustain the administration almost to a man; and it ought to be sustained at all hazards.” May I use the foregoing, if I think it proper and a fit occasion presents itself? Many of our political friends express great gratification at the statement your letter enabled me to make.
I will write more fully in a few days, and am, with sincere respect and regard,
Your friend,
John A. Dix.
P.S.—The Republicans here have behaved very well. They placed me at the head of the Committee on Resolutions, and gave a majority of the Committee to us. The resolutions, with one exception, were drawn by me.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO GENERAL DIX.]
Wheatland, near Lancaster, April 25, 1861.
My Dear General:—