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was better too for me to feel and have them feel that I was underpaid rather than overpaid. As I thought it over, the conviction came upon me so strongly that I felt as if illuminated; I had no misgivings upon the subject.

On Monday previous, Mr. Henderson of the firm of Wm. C. Bryant & Co. called upon me, and said he had written to me at Highland Falls to have me call upon him. After many inquiries about the time and terms of my contemplated arrangement with the Times, he informed me that Godwin had left the Post; that he had not been a member of the concern since he left for Europe the last time; that he returned from Florida last spring a year in consequence of a hitch in the arrangement for separation, which was then finally closed. Mr. Henderson wished further to know whether it would suit my taste, in case I made no arrangement with the Times, to return to the Post, and if it would, he would go up to Cummington and see Mr. Bryant, whom he had not consulted in regard to his proposition. I thanked him and told him I would talk with him further upon the subject if the negotiations now pending should fail.

This same day I received the following note from Senator Sumner:

SUMNER TO BIGELOW

BOSTON, 26th July, '69.

My dear Ex-Minister:

On your proposed return to the press I offer sincerely my best wishes rather than congratulations. It is a grave responsibility which you assume, with hard work.

The Times is an important pulpit always "beaten" with ability, but with nipping ways. I do not know how completely you intend to continue drum & nippers.

The general tone is excellent - on some subjects all that could be desired. I write thus freely, because I suppose that down to this time no censure or praise belongs to you on account of it.

There are literary articles frequently, which read well. To-day I read the long article on Forster's Landor, & was much interested. I wished I knew who among us wrote so well.

I wish you a great deal of success, which means money & fame, & also congenial employment. Ever sincerely yours

BIGELOW TO SUMNER

My dear Senator:

You are at least anticipating events in addressing me as the Editor of the Times. The future may be big with some such event, but is not yet delivered of it. I have been invited to take the direction of that journal and it is possible, indeed probable, that the conditions attached to the invitation will be made acceptable to me. In reply to some misgivings scarcely disguised in yr note, let me say that it is proposed that I should edit the Times, not that the Times should edit me. Neither my political philosophy nor editorial ethics have undergone any material change since my separation from the Post that I am aware of. Perhaps experience has taught me to think bad men in general not quite so bad, nor good men quite so good, as I used to think them, and that our most deliberate judgments of other men's actions would often, indeed generally, be modified if we knew more about them. Under this limitation, and allowing for an esteem for yourself personally and an appreciation of your talents and public as well as private virtues, which have grown with my growth & strengthened with my strength, I am not conscious that I have undergone any change which can seriously affect my editorial character. I am here only for the day or I would run up to see you before deciding this question finally. That is now impossible. I hope when you are next in N. Y. you will give me an opportunity of seeing you.

Always faithfully yours

HAY TO BIGELOW

My dear Mr. Bigelow:
I owe you many cordial
this moment reached me.
judgment, to go to Spain

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS,
July 2, 1869.

hanks for your kind letter, which has I have determined, malgré my better for a little while. I have read and

HAY TO BIGELOW

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thought a good deal about revolutions, and I cannot resist an opportunity so favorable of lifting the very pot lid and seeing the "hellbroth seethe and bubble." I submit to all your reproaches but go. agree in advance that I am an idiot for going

The ease with which I slip my newspaper cable, answers several of your questions.

I leave here to-day to go over to Warsaw and spend a rainy day with my mother: then I go East & sail in the first steamer I can catch.

I will be in New York one or two days at the St. James Hotel. If you are then in the city, will you be good enough to send me your address?

(This in confidence) I shall not be gone more than a year at utmost. I must get settled some time. I have some debts also, and cannot postpone seeking some gainful employment more than a year longer.

I await, with the deepest interest, the result of the discussion in regard to Mr. Raymond's successor. I shall be greatly disappointed if you do not go there. It is a powerful and well placed machine, and you can take it now and carry it up to a higher and broader field of usefulness than it has ever yet occupied. It is a pity that petty jealousies or spite should enter into the consideration of so weighty a matter.

My faithful homage to Mrs. Bigelow and my love to the children.

BIGELOW TO BECKWITH

My dear Beckwith:

THE SQUIRRELS, July 16, 1869.

I only returned last evg. after an absence of nearly three weeks, which will explain my delay in acknowledging your letter.

In answer to your questions. The West lives mainly by speculation, and its credit is strained to pretty nearly the last figure. If a very bad time comes, the heaviest bolts will fall there I think. Otherwise emigration may carry them through.

To guarantee the Cuban ransom to Spain would be to establish a protectorate, and I am against protectorates. The independence of Cuba means annexation to the U. S., and cannot be

made to mean any thing else more than a year or two, if so long. What Cuba is worth in cash I do not pretend to know, but I do not think we are in a situation to buy more territory except at a decided bargain, and that we had better guarantee our own, than Cuban bonds — that is, we had better buy of Spain than of Cuba. We are in no hurry if they are not; still less if they are.

Perhaps if I knew more of the situation in Spain and in Cuba I should think differently, but I suppose I know as much as the mass of the people, and therefore I think my opinions on this subject are likely to correspond with theirs.

I expect to sail in the City of Paris in August.

Yours truly

BECKWITH TO BIGELOW

NEWPORT, 20th July, 1869.

My dear Bigelow:

I was rather in hopes of hearing that you had thought better of it & had put off going till "next year" - tho' if you go at all it is better to go at once.

Poor Boutwell must feel as if "whatever I do the rogues turn it against me" the complaint of many honest men who undertake things they do not understand.

The old idea was a purchase of Cuba, but that I hope has had its day.

The programme now is:

Ist. Mediation of the U. S.

2d. Spain to offer independence to Cuba on the basis of indemnity say for surrender of crown property - 100 or 150 millions!

3d. U. S. to guarantee interest & take lien on Cuban Revenues. Consider first, that in point of fact we don't want Cuba, but that she is going to drop, & we must prevent her falling into our hands & keep the Spaniards out of Congress; second, [that] this method will give us a chance of keeping her off, and at the same time getting all the advantages, commercial & naval, that are possible without the calamity of annexation; third, [that] it will not excite the jealousies of Europe, but rather their concurrence, & it will set up & confirm the new order in Spain, now so weak &

poor that she can only carry on a lingering contest, that will depopulate & desolate the Island, & draw us in at last; fourth, [that] once separated and organized, a preference for independence will become strong in the Island: it will be the interest & policy of all other nations, ourselves among them, to help her to secure & maintain independence; & placed as she is, with much more civilized light flowing through her than Mexico or the other Spanish States here, with less of the aboriginals & a better influx of all peoples at once, she will have a fine chance of

success.

At all events, if you can chalk out anything better than this, to keep her off our hands & at the same time conform to the course of events, pray let us have it.

Why can't you run down here & make us a brief visit before you go? I shall be very glad to see you & take charge of you here only let me know a few hours in advance.

I hope to get a telegraph from P. S. Forbes soon to

know how things look at Madrid.

believe me very truly yours

SUMNER TO BIGELOW

BOSTON, 30th July, '69.

My dear Editor:

For, so it is or is to be! The law-writers tell us that "time" is of the essence of a contract. I suppose they are right. If you were 10 years younger I should have no doubt in your present temptation. I should say yield.

I was hoping for you something different. I wished yr practised pen engaged in some solid book, which you could compose at yr own hours, & in yr own house, without the perpetual Charivari of a daily press. Perhaps, I am too Capuan & wish too easy a life.

Yr idea that the Times shall not edit you is excellent — with salt enough to save independence & to savor the paper. Whichever way you go, my good wishes will be with you.

Ever sincerely yours