I am no pessimist, nor ever was, ... but is not the Beecher horror disheartening? Is not Delano discouraging? and Babcock atop of him?... What fills me with doubt and dismay is the degradation of the moral tone. Is it or is it not a result of Democracy? Is ours a “government of the people by the people for the people,” or a Kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools? Democracy is, after all, nothing more than an experiment like another, and I know only one way of judging it--by its results. Democracy in itself is no more sacred than monarchy. It is Man who is sacred: it is his duties and opportunities, not his rights, that nowadays need reinforcement. It is honor, justice, culture, that make liberty invaluable, else worse than worthless if it mean only freedom to be base and brutal. As things have been going lately, it would surprise no one if the officers who had Tweed in charge should demand a reward for their connivance in the evasion of that popular hero. I am old enough to remember many things, and what I remember I meditate upon. My opinions do not live from hand to mouth. And so long as I live I will be no writer of birthday odes to King Demos any more than I would be to King Log, nor shall I think _our_ cant any more sacred than any other. Let us all work together (and the task will need us all) to make Democracy possible. It certainly is no invention to go of itself any more than the perpetual motion. Forgive me for this long letter of justification, which I am willing to write for your friendly eye, though I should scorn to make any public defence. Let the tenor of my life and writings defend me. Cordially yours, J. R. LOWELL.