"Yours very truly,
"John A. Dix."
"Hon. Saml. J. Tilden.
"My address is 3 W. 21st St. My son forwards my letters when I am out of town."
S. J. TILDEN (CIRCULAR LETTER AS CHAIRMAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE COMMITTEE)
"New York, Sept. 11, 1871.
"Dear Sir,—The time between the meeting of the State convention and the election being a little shorter than usual, it has been deemed advisable to begin preparations for the canvass at once, so that even more than the ordinary period for organization will be afforded. The poll-book for your district has been already sent to the chairman of your county committee, and may be had on application to him.
"The Democracy have never been called on to act when wisdom and courage, and devotion to principle and to right were more needed than at the State convention about to be held.
"I appeal to you, therefore, to attend the primary meeting which will choose delegates to your Assembly district or county convention, and to send to that convention your most discreet and best citizens, in order that they in turn may choose as delegates to the State convention men eminent for judgment, integrity, and honor, and who have, in the largest degree, the trust and confidence of their fellow-citizens.
"Centralism in government and corruption in administration are the twin evils of our times. They threaten with swift destruction not only civil liberty, but the whole fabric of our free institutions.
"The Democratic party was organized by Jefferson to oppose these identical evils. It conducted the national government for fifty of the seventy years of the present century, and gave the people safety, prosperity, and happiness.
"The present demoralization has happened under the ascendency of the Republican party; and though the mass of them, like the mass of all parties, are honest in their intentions, and some allowance ought to be made for the demoralizing influence of a great civil war, more of these results are to be ascribed to the utterly false and corrupting system of finance unnecessarily adopted by these Republican administrations; and there is no doubt the tendency of the principles and measures of the Republican party is unfavorable to purity in government.