"MY DEAR SIR,--Accept my thanks for the _Cicero_, which I have read, after _cutting the leaves_ and placed with your books. Will return it prepaid. Now, upon the time-honored principle that one good turn deserves a great many, I go on. I have $10,600 dollars of Erie bonds, second mortgage, and I presume they will be paid on the 1st of March. I wish to seek a place for a new investment; have the goodness to let me know whether there is any doubt of it. "In haste, "Truly yours, "M. VAN BUREN." M. VAN BUREN TO TILDEN "FISHKILL LANDING, _October 14, '59_. "MY DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I am here on a visit to Judge Kent; intend to remain till Monday, then go to Mr. Kemble's, remain there till Wednesday or Thursday, and then go home. I left John at Lindenwald, suffering from a slight attack of the liver, which I thought required attention, and with considerable difficulty extracted a promise from him to remain till Monday of next week, and avail himself of Mr. Pruyn's advice; as an inducement, I promised him to ask you to come up and spend a day or two with us the latter end of next week. Can't you come? Take the whole the week after Thursday, or, if necessary, Wednesday to Friday. Perhaps Saturday would be the least inconvenient to you, and to come down with John on the Monday following. I am particularly desirous to see you, as I wish to have some conversation with you on a subject in which my feelings are deeply enlisted. Drop me a line here, if you can, and if not, at Coldspring, informing me of what you can do. The sooner the better, as I would like to inform John so as to assure his inducement to remain. "As ever, "Truly Yours, "M. VAN BUREN." TILDEN TO M. VAN BUREN THE MAYORALTY ELECTION OF 1859 "NEW YORK, _Dec. 25, '59_. "MY DEAR SIR,--I wish you a 'merry Christmas!' It is the first opportunity I have had to acknowledge your kind letter of condolence. I take it up first of a bundle of letters which have waited for me to get out of the ice-pack of engagements which collected around me in ten-days' career in politics. I am just ill enough to be justified in declining all dinners, and am having a quiet time to-day. "If your curiosity to know the 'whys and wherefores' of our defeat is not displaced by some later topic, I will drop you a hint or two towards a theory.