"Nov. 6, 1860.
"My dear Sir,—I cannot content myself with a mere formal acknowledgment of your admirable pamphlet, which I have read with extreme pleasure. Nothing which I have met with on the dreadful subject which now convulses the country has seemed to me more clearly or forcibly urged.
"I remain, dear sir, with high respect,
"Very truly yours,
"Edward Everett."
SENATOR J. M. MASON[28] TO S. J. TILDEN
"Selma, Near Winchester, Va., 12th Novr., 1860.
"Dear Sir,—I have just read your pamphlet—'The Union, its dangers, and how they can be averted.' To say only that it is the best which the occasion has called forth, would be to do as little justice to my discrimination as to its merit.
"It is too late now to arrest the catastrophe which it shows impending; but it must, to minds capable of understanding fact and logic, force the people to pause and consider.
"I trust that measures will be taken to give it an extended circulation in the Northern States; in the South its effect only can be to make the people comprehend what they already feel.
"My note, however (which I am obliged to write through an amanuensis), is only to thank you for this great contribution to American thought, and, like the hungry schoolboy, to ask for more. Can you oblige me by sending me some twenty copies, or as many as you can conveniently spare?