thousand people there before me. I am every moment busy, and business is pressing upon the office. I think I shall find it as pleasant and like it as well as I can anything away from the Orchard. I shall come up just as soon after the 20th as possible. You can have no idea of the aspect Wall street presented yesterday, or the manner in which I was received from the balcony of the Custom House, from which I spoke without expectation or a moment's premeditation. Love to all. Your affectionate husband, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. MORRIS. The Orchard, August 13, 1865. MY DEAR MRS. MORRIS-My good daughter, Mrs. Courtney, responded to your affectionate inquiry on hearing of my illness. You know not how it cheered the desolation of a sick-bed to be thus anxiously remembered by such a friend. Since then I have yours of the 26th from "Rye Beach," for which accept my best acknowledgments. Sickness I have realized for the first time; it is a fearful thing for any one, and more especially for one who bears so many relations as are upon me. For three weeks I did not look at a newspaper, nor wish to see one; for about two months I did not appear at the family table, nor attempt to write a letter. I now appear regularly at the family repasts with a keen and healthy appetite, and I show my independence over my dear, good secretary, Mrs. Courtney, by attempting this scrawl to you my first effort since my prostration! though my nerves are not yet steady. But I am bright and cheerful, and why should I not be, surrounded by so much affection under the domestic roof-tree, and from those bound by ties of sacred friendship? I ride out some, and walk in our pleasant grounds amidst shade, flowers, and birds, and would that my heart would be tenfold more thankful than it can be for my restoration from the perilous sickness which threatened to close my active, excited, earthly existence. It seems our good Father has yet work for me to do, humble though it may be, and hence He who has watched over me, and rescued me from the "mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear," has saved me from the hand of this uncircumcised Philistine-the typhoid fever. I think, in a few days I shall be quite well again; and my physician says, I will then enjoy, with proper care, improv ed health. Since April, 1861, I have perhaps travelled more miles, made more speeches, written more for papers, and tried more causes, than any man in the United States over sixty; and so far as speeches are concerned, I have made more than any one, young or old. Now that the rebellion is down, it can be kept there without popular effort, and I look forward to much more ease and quiet. I shall go to New York about the first of September, for a while. When are you coming there? And, what is more important and interesting, when are you coming here? Pray, write me as early as consistent, for your cheerful, kindly words are doubly dear to me now. Mrs. Dickinson, Mrs. Courtney, Mrs. Mygatt, Charlotte and her boys, and the baby, all unite with me in love. Your affectionate friend, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. MYGATT. NEW YORK, September 4, 1865. MY DEAR MARY-Lilla, Samuel, and Bell came down to the Astor to dinner, and we had a very pleasant time. Mr. King joined our party. * * * I am glad to learn by your dear, good mother's letter, that my beloved Dickie is better. Poor, dear, good little fellow! I can see his pale, suffering, beseeching face, lit up by his angel spirit, constantly before me. I did not suppose I could learn to love a babe so well at my time of life. You must be very careful of your own bealth. Your overexertion during Dickie's illness has been severe, and you must now have rest. Much love and kind remembrances to all. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. DICKINSON. NEW YORK, September 8, 1865. MY DEAR LYDIA-Your good, kind letter of the 6th came yesterday. I deeply sympathize with you in the labor of love you are performing, in looking over our early family letters; and yet with my acute and painfully sensitive nature at all times, rendered tenfold more susceptible by my recent illness and the kind care given me by you and other members of the family, I should scarcely venture upon a task so full of earlier remembrances and replete with tender emotion. There is no one better qualified than you to arrange such correspondence for those who should come after us, either with or without help from any one; and I cheerfully commit it to you in all the sacredness which belongs to it, always remembering a good letter need not be destroyed because it has a clause in it which should not be given to the public. * * * I want you to be as careful of the letters written by yourself as of the letters written by me, for they are the best of the two. I was dining yesterday at the same table with Thurlow Weed, and Mr. Kinnair, a member of the British parliament, and another English gentleman of note; and a conversation arose relative to Mrs. Kinnair, whom, it seems, Mr. Weed knew. As it all came right, I showed your last letter-the writing, and read some portions of it-that relating to your views of my family letters, and your desire to edit them, &c., which produced any amount of encomium from all the gentle men. I feel my separation from you as painfully as you can, and am only consoled by the reflection, that so the world is ordained and such is life. I hope, if we are spared yet awhile, our present self-denial and efforts may conduce to our comfort when we have less capacity to be useful to others than now. Accept for yourself the assurances of my best affections, and give much love to all. Your affectionate husband, VOL. II.-43 D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. MYGATT. NEW YORK, September 14, 1865. MY DEAR MAI-Your little gem of a book came yesterday. I love it dearly, for it is a treasure indeed; and yet your sweet letter was more priceless still. May God protect and cherish you and all those we love, and teach us how to deserve such affection as that which surrounds the home hearth. The weather is still oppressive, though a shade cooler than yesterday. I do, therefore, just as little as possible. Give much love to that precious mother and all the dear ones. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. CHARLOTTE DICKINSON. NEW YORK, September 15, 1865. MY DEAR CHARLOTTE-Your kind, affectionate, and very beautiful letter came in due time, and is carefully put away with other valued tributes, for safe keeping. I hope God may spare our little household long to each other, and that we may live together in the harmony and love which we so well know how to appreciate. I was touched with the dear and beautiful notes of Stevie and Aubie. I have them also carefully treasured. This extremely warm weather continues, but as Samuel and Mr. Allen are absent, I must be here, though I do very little work. I continue to improve slowly, and should recover more rapidly if the weather were cooler. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. DICKINSON. NEW YORK, September 16, 1865. MY VERY DEAR LYDIA-Your sweet little note with your photograph, and my cards came last evening. I am very glad you sent your photograph for I meant to have brought one, but forgot it. It is, though, so far as I am concerned, a very poor substitute for (as D. D. Barnard said) "that divine original." Ever since I have been here, with the exception of a day or two, when I first came, the weather has been not only hot, but exhaustive and depressing-no life in it, but full of suffocation. I am really much better than when I left, but this weather has kept me back, and my brain is sensitive, weak, and too excitable for anything but routine business, and as Samuel and Allen are both away, it is quite necessary for me to do that. I hope I shall improve rapidly when the cool weather comes. I have taken your advice and the doctor's, and put off all my circuit business. I have been anxious about you, too, my dear one. In all you have to do and find to do, your lot is, I know, a hard one. I frequently feel self-condemned that, instead of having been forced into the channel of life which has made it so hard for you, I had not forced myself out of it, when we could have been more domestic, and you could have had more ease. Perhaps we should not have been better satisfied after all. MR. DICKINSON TO D. S. DICKINSON, JR. NEW YORK, September 16, 1865. MY DEAR STEVIE-Your note, written on my birth-day, was affectionate and beautiful. I read it with deep feeling, and have put it away for choice keeping. You know not, my dear boy, how anxious I am for your happiness, and how earnestly I pray that you may be a good and upright man. You will soon have to enter upon the responsibilities of life. Learn, then, all you can, without injury to your eyes; train your mind to industrious pursuits, and especially be kind to and love those |