"Philad., July 28, 1863.
"My dear Sir,—Our proposed litigation here, as to the conscription law, has thus far failed—from want of courage on the part of the litigant, whose chance of success, within the law, was not very encouraging, and whose doom, in the event of failure, was very certain. The form which was adopted by Mr. Ingersoll and Mr. Wharton was that of an injunction bill against the enrolling and drafting officers, and the hearing hoped for was before the court in banc. I now very much doubt if it will be resorted to. A habeas corpus before a single judge on the receipt of notice, which constitutes a technical custody, seems to me preferable.
"The draft, in the mean time, is going on and, I confess, I am puzzled by the apathy with which it is received, especially in connection with the admitted fact that New York and probably New Jersey are to be exempt. Still, I think there will be an outbreak whenever the actual kidnapping begins.
"Of course you see or think you see the dangers which threaten you more clearly than we at a distance do. But the apprehension is very prevalent here that Gov. Seymour is in danger at any moment of secret arrest. Things of that kind have been hinted at, and certainly I saw nothing in New York to make such an outrage practically difficult. There is inducement enough, for his removal puts the whole Democratic North under the heel of the radicals. My theory about arrests is that they are always fatal. No public man ever recovered from the stain they seem to inflict. I doubt very much if Mr. Vallandigham will ever recuperate. Gov. Seymour is the only public man who at this moment stands in the way of a centralized despotism, and him a small guard of Federal soldiers could easily and secretly remove.
"I am, no doubt, very nervous and very suspicious, but, I assure you, these facts are not confined to my own bosom.
"Very Truly Y'rs,
"William B. Reed."
"S. J. Tilden, Esq., New York."
TILDEN TO HENRY HOGEBOOM
"New Lebanon, July 28th, 1863.
"My dear Sir,—I have been peculiarly unlucky in the attempt to answer your letter of June 18th. It came on my return from an absence from the city, followed immediately by another; and then by an illness which wholly disabled me for a week, and from which I emerged only after the commencement of the riot, and that brought upon me many demands for attention and counsel amid ten days of excitement and bustle. I turn to it as actually the first real business of my own to which I have had a chance to attend for some weeks, indeed, since the 4th of July, when I had begun an answer, until now. I came here Saturday evening, and expect to return to-morrow morning.
"How swiftly events move, and how greatly they change! I am reminded, as I see by what I began to write, how deeply a few weeks ago I was involved in solicitude for the results of the military operations then reaching their crisis. At no time since this war commenced have I been so disturbed as before the battle of Gettysburg; a different issue of which might, in my judgment, have put us on our defence even as far as Phila. and New York, and brought a revolution in our thoughts and occupations, and since that New York has been upon the verge of a social peril, at that time wholly unexpected.