I very often think most affectionately of you and other friends in Washington. But why should I tax their time by asking them to write answers to letters of mine containing no news. Correspondence ought to be an interchange of equivalents between friends. I have no news to give, and to write letters on the beauty of virtue and on the fitness of things to those who are already virtuous, and are just what they ought to be, would be a vain labor. I wish I had something to communicate which might provoke a long letter from you in reply. My life is tranquil and monotonous, although I see much company, especially from my own State. Ere a month, I shall enter my seventy-second year, should I live so long, and my health is excellent, considering my age. If you could know how glad I should be to see you, and to talk over with you past and present events, you would never fail to come this way on your route to New Jersey and New York.

I regret very much the fate of your able, honest, and time-honored court. I feel a warm personal regard for C. J. Dunlop. Such acts of wanton tyranny will surely return to plague the inventors. There will be a “tit for tat.” Why could not the Judge Advocate General, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a colonel of cavalry, have saved his brother-in-law?

I perceive by the Intelligencer that Judge Black has gained his great Quicksilver Mine cause. This alone ought to make him rich.

Yours affectionately,

James Buchanan.

[MR. BUCHANAN TO DR. BLAKE.]

Wheatland, near Lancaster, April 10, 1863.

My Dear Sir:—

I ought ere this to have acknowledged your very welcome letter of the 21st and 26th ultimos. Your letters are always gratifying to me, and I regret that I can give you so little in return. To attempt to furnish you political news would be truly sending coals to Newcastle.

I do not think it necessary at present to republish your letter in refutation of Mr. Fessenden’s statement. Thanks to your kindness, it is now of record in the Globe, and I presume it has been of course transferred to the Congressional Globe. You might look.