"Adams Building, 23 Court St., Boston, January 10, 1906.
"My dear Mr. Bigelow,—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of yesterday, the 9th.
"The extract you make from the letter of F. O. Prince is quite intelligible to me. I remember all the circumstances.
"Mr. Tilden was very anxious, indeed, that my father should be the Democratic candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1876. Mr. F. O. Prince was then chairman, I think, of the Democratic committee; at any rate, he was influential. Mr. Tilden, as you very well know, was never at a loss when it came to handling men.
"Mr. Tilden worked through Mr. Prince to accomplish his end. William A. Gaston, afterwards Governor, desired the nomination. It is he who is referred to as a 'certain candidate.' My father was wholly unwilling to accept the nomination unless it came to him unsought, and with 'reasonable unanimity.' The Irish were strongly opposed to him. Their dislike, or rather personal antipathy, to him dated far back—as far, indeed, as 1840, when the questions relating to the burning of the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown were before the General Court of Massachusetts, of which my father was a member.
"Considerable pressure had to be brought to bear upon Mr. Gaston, who finally consented to withdraw, and did, although not with very good grace, nominate my father at the convention. His nomination, of course, gave a certain prestige to the ticket. As a popular candidate in that election my father did not prove a success. A considerable Irish element refused to vote for him.
"It is rather strange to reflect that all these events occurred now thirty-one years ago—nearly the lifetime of a generation; but it is the Irish opposition to which Mr. Prince refers as the 'Fenian sympathizers.' They proved quite irreconcilable. The whole thing is now ancient history.
"Believe me, etc.,
"Charles F. Adams."