still very vivid in my mind, and I trust you have not forgotten them. You may well believe me when I assure you that every word I wrote to the Invitation Committee came straight from my heart.
I congratulate you most sincerely upon the appreciation of your merits which now comes to you so abundantly, although you are out of public life—which, by the way, you ought not to have been as long as your strength held out—and wish you many, many more happy days. Let me call you my old friend, as you may be sure I am
FROM ALLEN G. THURMAN
My dear General: Your very kind letter of the 8th ult. was duly received and gave me the greatest pleasure. I should have thanked you for it before this, but for weeks I have been unable to write, owing to a severe attack of rheumatism; and even now, owing to a lame wrist, I can scarcely hold a pen. I am therefore obliged to avail myself of a typewriter.
You may rest assured that I shall never forget our pleasant intercourse in the Senate, and I shall always recollect it with the highest pleasure. The banquet was a wholly unexpected compliment, and of course I am sincerely grateful for such a mark of friendship and esteem. I am but a private man now and shall never be anything else. Indeed I never desire to be anything else. My family, friends and books give me all the pleasure that a man of my age can expect to enjoy; and I leave to the younger men the active management of public affairs.
I have not received your speech on the tariff, to which you refer. I fear that it has miscarried, but it may be that it will turn up. Whenever I get hold of it I shall certainly read it with great interest. I read your Life of Clay with great interest and think that as a literary production it is of a very high
