speak at Bridgeport on the 14th, Hartford the 17th, and New London the 19th. If you and John come, I would prefer to see you at Hartford, and hope I may. Your dear mother joins me, as do all the family, in much love to you both. Most affectionately your father, D. S. DICKINSON. PROF. TYLER TO MR. DICKINSON. AMHERST COLLEGE, September 13, 1861. MY DEAR SIR-I cannot refrain from expressing to you the high satisfaction with which I have seen the career of patriotism and public spirit which you began in your eloquent and noble oration at our late Commencement, and continued by addresses of like tenor in several of the principal cities of your own and other States. You have struck a blow at treason and rebellion, and at that scarcely less blind and mad monster, party spirit, from which they will never recover. I trust you will not withhold your hand until they are utterly extinct. God, and your native land, will approve and reward you. I rejoice to see that the people of the great and noble State which has delighted to honor you, are now so prompt to appreciate your services. Proud as I am of old Massachusetts, I am obliged to acknowl edge that, in the coming State election, New York promises to outdo her in enlightened patriotism; and Republican as I am to the back-bone, I would like to be a citizen of that State long enough to cast my vote for the late leader of her Democracy. The Faculty and students of Amherst College, I am sure, all unite with me in these sentiments. They take pride in having had something to do in calling you out from your retirement to buckle on your armor again in a battle with the mistaken or pretended friends of our institutions, no less patriotic, and scarcely less heroic, than that which our soldiers are waging with open enemies on the field of mortal strife. Mrs. Tyler desires an affectionate remembrance to Mrs. Dickinson, and unites with me most cordially in the approval and admiration of your course. She is prouder than ever of her native State, and wishes to congratulate the State on its future Attorney-General. With sentiments of sincere respect and high regard, I am, dear Sir, Yours truly, W. S. TYLER. MR. NAGLE TO MR. DICKINSON. BROOKLYN, September 13, 1861. DEAR SIR-Allow me to express my sincere gratification in seeing your name at the head of the Union ticket of our State. It is a proud position to be thus placed before the people as the choice of four millions of united patriotic citizens, rising above all former prejudices, casting aside the shackles of party, and calling upon you to lead the way. It is a great tribute to your natural truth of character; a tardy acknowledgment of the place you have long filled in the hearts of a large portion of the people, but which has been heretofore denied you by a faction of demagogues, who laid the foundation of our present national distress by opposition to and abuse of you. The same men are now found, true to their nature, secretly and treacherously striving to divide public sentiment, and thus give aid and comfort to the traitors against our country. As one who has ever admired the Roman dignity of your public career and the purity of your private life, I congratulate you that in this, our dark hour of trouble, when political managers and parties have been forced to succumb to the popular will, that the people, ever true to themselves when left free to act, call upon you with an unanimous voice to come forth the representative man of their choice. That many years of health and vigor may yet be granted to you by an all-wise Providence; that the united nation, once more peaceful and happy, may, in a future day not far distant, ratify for the highest place in their gift the verdict which will be given by your own Empire State next November, is the sincere wish of Your obedient servant, WILLIAM J. NAGLE. MR. DAVIS AND OTHERS TO MR. DICKINSON. ALBION, September 19, 1861. SIR-The convention held at Syracuse on the 10th inst., representing the people of the State, independently of all party ties, and whose purposes were avowed by the declaration of which a copy is enclosed, unanimously nominated you for the office of Attorney-General. The undersigned were appointed a committee to notify you of your nomination, and request your acceptance. The convention was aware of your repeated interdiction of the use of your name for any office, and appreciate and honor the motives that have prompted it; but it was felt by the convention that no other name would enable the people to give so clear and emphatic an expression of their determination to lay down all party spirit in the effort to maintain the Constitution and the Union. Regarded, as you long have been by the South, as one of the ablest and warmest champions of what you and they believed to be their constitutional rights, and by the great body of the North as too rigidly conservative in those views to receive its concurrence or support, your election, after the noble stand you have taken for the government, by the overwhelming vote you will be sure to receive, will at once exemplify that the people of this State are united in the firm resolve to put down the re. bellion, and repel the idea that they prosecute the war in any spirit of hostility to the constitutional rights of any Southern State or citizen. The nomination now tendered, honored as you have been by the highest office in the gift of the State, might, under other circumstances, be justly considered as unworthy your acceptance; but at this time, when all that is valuable to the country is at stake, the committee hope, in view of the patriotic motives that dictated the selection, you will feel it your duty to yield all personal considerations and accede to the wishes of the convention. We have the honor to be, &c., NOAH DAVIS, Jr., HIRAM PERRY. To Hon. D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MR. DAVIS AND OTHERS, COMMITTEE. BINGHAMTON, October 17, 1861. GENTLEMEN-On my recent return from the East, I found your favor of the 19th of September, advising me that a convention of the people, without distinction of party, assembled at Syracuse on the 10th of the month, with full knowledge that I desired not to be named for any office, unanimously nominated me for the office of Attorney-General, and you presented me with a declaration of the principles asserted by the convention. Under these circumstances, I regard the selection of my name as evidence that, in the judgment of the convention, it was believed that it might contribute essentially to advance the principles and purposes in view; and approving as I do, most cordially and heartily, of such principles and purposes, I deem it my duty and make it my pleasure to yield my public tastes, business interests, and domestic conveniences to the wishes of the convention. With high appreciation of the honor shown me by the unanimous voice of the convention, and thanking you for the generous terms in which you have authentically made known to me its action, I have the honor to be Sincerely yours, D. S. DICKINSON. Messrs. NOAH DAVIS, JR., WILLIAM DUER, and HIRAM PERRY. MR. SEWARD TO MR. DICKINSON. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, } MY DEAR SIR-I have received your letter, and I thank you sincerely for it. Let me also avail myself of this opportunity to thank you for your able speeches, which are producing so excellent an effect upon the country, and giving reason for the highest hopes of the triumph of our cause. Very truly yours, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. MYGATT. THE ORCHARD, November 4, 1861. MY BELOVED MARY-That God may bless you and shield you from every harm, and give you fortitude and faith, is the prayer of your devoted father. Mrs. Phelps, we fear, is dangerously ill. All well at home and send love to you and John. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. DR. NILES TO MR. DICKINSON. NEW YORK, November 6, 1861. MY DEAR SIR-I have long wished to thank you in person for the noble course you have taken in behalf of the Union, and the suppression of the most causeless and unjustifiable rebellion on the records of history. Your efforts began at the right time, and have thus far been effective in averting the dangers of a divided sentiment at the North on the subject of the war. Your voice silenced the first lisps of treason, under the dulcet notes of peace. A wide-spread scheme for organizing rebel sympathizers into a peace association, all over the free States, had been formed, who were to deluge the country with resolu tions denouncing the war, and imputing bad motives to the national executive in the adoption of energetic measures to render it successful. I believe that your potential and ubiquitous voice alone saved the country from that anarchy of opinion. which would have paralyzed the government, and, perhaps, led the way to civil war among ourselves. Your speeches, your eloquent and impressive illustrations, have saved us from this great calamity, and preserved to the North an unanimity of opinion and patriotic sentiment, which constitutes our only reasonable hope for the final restoration of the confederacy on the basis of our national Constitution. In this view I regard your services as more important to the success of our cause than those of any other man since the rebellion broke out. I |