Immediately after my return from Cincinnati I wrote to Mr. Greeley, giving him my views and feelings on the subject without the least concealment. I told him also that I did not know yet what I would do, but I believe it made no impression upon him. I agree with you that the situation is perplexing and humiliating in the extreme, and I would do anything to escape from the necessity of supporting Greeley against Grant, feeling as I do that the latter must be beaten in order to break up that party despotism under which we are suffering and which would only be confirmed and fortified by his reëlection. But I cannot act alone. I should be very glad to see you here.
TO W. M. GROSVENOR
Confidential.
I have received your letters of May 28th and 31st and
June 2d. They came all at the same time. You are
rather hard on me. I think I have about as much at
stake in this business as any one, but I look at things
from a different point of view.
1. I do not think that, as things now run, success is certain or even very probable. There is evidently a reaction against the white hat, which may become very dangerous in the Baltimore Convention. The opposition in the Democratic ranks is becoming more determined every day, and unfortunately it is not confined to men like Voorhees, the Bourbons, but many of the best men of the party, who before the Cincinnati Convention were heartily with us, are in it. A split of considerable dimensions at Baltimore is no longer improbable, and we can scarcely hope to make up by gains from the Republican ranks what is thus lost on the Democratic side.
2. The free-trade people are going to do something,
