I am in my usual health. Miss Lane is not at home this evening, or she would send her kindest regards.
I send you the $2 which you paid for the Intelligencers.
Ever your friend,
James Buchanan.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. CAPEN.]
Wheatland, near Lancaster, December 6, 1862.
My Dear Sir:—
I have received your favor of the 30th ultimo, and am gratified that you think so well of my letters to General Scott. That the editor of the Boston Post should not have published them, is to me a matter of astonishment, little reason as I have to be astonished at any event. Throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the great West, they have been extensively republished and, I think, have done much good. New England, however, except Connecticut, is a sealed book. General Scott has, I believe, made a final reply, but it has not yet reached me. This I shall not answer, unless it contains something imperatively requiring it. I have but few copies, and I cannot supply the demand. I send you one of each.
I fear that your History of Democracy, of which I think highly, is so far behind that it will require years for you to overtake the present time. This period would furnish you ample illustrations of the conservative wisdom of its principles.
You ask me what I think of Messrs. Holt, Stanton and Dickinson. I cannot answer this question without going too much into detail.