"I wrote him a reassuring letter, and suggested quiet on his part until the close of the Jumel trial. I promised then to take up the business and put things on a definite footing.
"Once that trial is over I shall be free; and if great and controlling reasons do not oppose, I will proceed at once to deal with the questions and the persons of the hour as public necessity shall, in my judgment, seem to demand.
"Fidelity to a cause once espoused is the first law of my nature. This alone has tied me to these troublesome and engrossing Jumel law suits. They will be over when the corrupt gang of villains engaged in the present enterprise shall have got their quietus. This can hardly fail to happen within a fortnight; and thenceforth no private person's affairs shall prevent the entire devotion of all my time and power to the good cause in which you have so faithfully toiled and of which you have been the most efficient as well as the foremost champion.
"I am, Dear Sir,
"Yours truly,
"Ch. O'Conor."
TILDEN TO CHARLES O'CONOR
"Jan. 28, 1872.
"My dear Sir,—The friend and the counsel of the gentleman we talked of came to see me last evening in response to a telegram from me. The former says and the latter assents that no change on their part has happened. It is obvious that the prejudice against venturing into this city is invincible; and they thought from the last interview that you did not feel interest enough in the matter to pursue it further.
"Their present plan is to have instructions issued which shall protect their man from arrest if he comes personally to his home, and then to have him come there and to have me or some other of us meet him at the house of his friend.
"That, they say, they are willing still to carry out.