"I am passing the winter at a country home perched upon a cliff overhanging the Hudson four hundred feet above the tide. I send you a picture of the place.
"With best regards for yourself and Mrs. Bancroft,
"I remain, very truly yours,
"S. J. Tilden.
"P. S.—Since writing you, I have received the Evening Post of this afternoon. It is a 'Mugwump' journal. I send a cutting from its editorial columns upon your Plea."
HIRAM SIBLEY TO TILDEN
"Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 6", 1886.
"Hon. Samuel J. Tilden.
"My dear Friend,—This is my birthday, and, as I remember, yours. I see in the papers they say you were born on the 9th of Feb. But I dare not place much reliance on what some newspapers say of you.
"Seventy-nine is not eighty. Eighty is considered old. While it is unsafe for us at this age to make plans for the future, we may contemplate the past, and that is what I am doing to-day.
"Among those who took active part in the Free-soil movement of 1848, you were an able leader. Your associates, Wright, Gardner, Van Buren, and many others from whom I took counsel, are gone. You among the larger, myself among the less important of that band of noble patriots, are left to enjoy the consolation of doing what we could at that early day to check the growth and extension of slavery.