New York, December 19, 1860
Allow me, though a comparative stranger, to express to you the heartfelt satisfaction with which I have read your very able and patriotic article of last Monday.
The statesmanlike view which you take of our present difficulties, and the wise and conciliatory course which you, with so much truth, counsel as the only remedy which can save this great Republic from untold calamities, must command, not only the warm support of your friends, but also the unqualified respect and admiration of your opponents.
As one of the latter, it gives me much pleasure to convey to you my sincere assurances of these feelings.
I have fought to the last against the great party, of which you have proved so formidable a leader, but I shall never regret our defeat if your wise counsels prevail, and with God’s blessing peace and concord are restored, under Mr. Lincoln’s administration, to our distracted country.