TILDEN TO HON. CHARLES CAREY
"New York, Wednesday Morning, June 5th, 1878.
"Dear Mr. Carey,—I received your telegram late last evening, and answer by mail because the telegraph is leaky.
"My appreciation of Mr. Henderson has been so manifest that I need not say how competent I deem him, or that he may fairly be classed among those from whom a choice is to be made.
"But I am totally uninformed of the views of Governor Robinson. He may, for aught I know, have a purpose already formed; and he is always independent and persistent. I think it would be advisable for you to learn the situation as fully as possible before making our friend a candidate, whom you do not wish to expose to a failure. Perhaps you had better go down to Albany quietly and get what information you can. The attempts of the Republican press, when Governor Robinson first came in, to create an impression (utterly unfounded in fact, as everybody who knows his independent, self-poised, and firm nature must see) that he occupied to me a relation of dependence, was intended to wound him and his friends, as well as to misrepresent me; and induced me to adopt the rule of not recommending anybody, or anything to him, of my own motion, or unless he had occasion to consult me, which he seldom, if ever, has any need to do. Under that rule of delicacy and respect, I am less advised of his ideas than might be supposed.
"Very truly yours,
S. J. Tilden."
S. S. COX TO TILDEN
"House of Representatives,
"Washington, D. C., June 17th, 1878.
"Dear Sir,—In rummaging over and burning up the documents which have accumulated through twenty years' service, I found your old pamphlet, which gave to me many lessons during our perilous days before and during the war. Thinking that it might be of more interest to you now than to one who has learned it by heart, and knowing how valuable, after many years, are one's own thoughts for memory and suggestion, I cannot refrain from tendering it to you—if only for a retrospect. It may be more useful to you than to myself.
"We are just closing up the long session. You will see by my last vote, all alone from New York—though for one, if alone—I would never consent to quiet bad title, even though technically legal. The worst things that I have ever known in public life have been statutory.