"2. Because you could, after election, make a party of the right materials. The only set of men who can bring back our politics to purity and statesmanship are the Barnburners of this State; after carrying the election these men, whether they have voted of late years the Democratic or Republican ticket, could, under you, be brought together--could make a new Democratic party, slough off the corrupt elements, especially that malign influence with which we shall have to act this election, T. W., and dictate a reform in the Cabinet which should give the influence of the general government to the same sound principles as of old controlled this State. This, I think, is the _great_ movement to be made in politics--the reconstruction into compact force of the divided Barnburners, and for this we must carry this State election first, no matter what allies we have to take in for the present. "I, of course, shall not mention your name for the place to any one, but, if it should be offered you, you must not decline. Stranger things have happened than that it should be offered amid the conflicting claims. "Yours respectfully, "JNO. D. VAN BUREN." "_S. J. Tilden, Esq._" TO BE DESTROYED "MY DEAR SIR,--If you should decide on talking with our venerable father of the faithful _fully_, I thought it might be well you had an excuse for doing so in a suggestion from some one, no matter whom. To that end you may use the enclosed if worth using. "Y'rs, "J. D. V. B." TILDEN TO HUGH MCCULLOCH "_Confidential._ "NEW YORK, _Sep. 17, 1866_. "HON. HUGH MCCULLOCH, "_Secretary of the Treasury_, "Washington, D. C. "MY DEAR SIR,--There is a rumor here that some changes in the Federal appointments for this city are being projected. My object in writing you this morning, in too much haste to allow of any discussion, is to say that _before anything of this character is done_ those who represent the mass of President Johnson's supporters in this State, in an authentic and authoritative form, wish an opportunity of submitting their views to him. "It is important, in the last degree, that in any changes which are made in the great appointments here, and, indeed, in any of them, the influence which these offices are capable of exercising should be held and exerted as a sacred trust for the success of the administration and the policy of President Johnson. "To give them away as mere personal benefactions--to allow them to become the mere aids to ambition or interest of a selfish individual or clique, to be disposed of by him or it as mere patronage or for pecuniary gain--would be suicide on the part of the President and a betrayal of his supporters and his cause. "In the course of a week or ten days I shall have the pleasure to see you and to discuss these matters.