"MY DEAR SIR,--I am more impressed even than when I saw you as to the necessity of you seeing Mr. Chase, as I have just seen some influential Democrats, one of them practically representing a State, who tell me that they are for Chase first, last, and all the time, because: "1. They believe he can win. "2. Because it is a necessity for them, by their political action this fall, to show that there is no practical barrier between the races, and that this can be done in no way so well as by Chase's nomination. They are in earnest, and will not yield their convictions lightly. "If he will answer for Carolina on the negro question, I do not know but we could take him. "Y'rs, "S. L. M. BARLOW." "_Friday._" MONTGOMERY BLAIR TO TILDEN "WASHN., _June 5th, '68_. "MY DEAR TILDEN,--I send another missive from Frank by which you will see his hopes are revived. You asked me to keep you posted, and therefore I send these advices, as they come to me intended only for me. I think the Chase fever will die out and will help Frank in the end. I wrote Barlow yesterday, who seems, by the way, to be _enthused_ about it, that it was regarded here as an attempt like Pendleton's to subordinate the great constitutional questions involved in the reconstruction measures--a question which is fundamental and will determine whether this is to be a free govt. or not--and the subordinate one of whether the debt was to be paid in gold or greenbacks. It is impossible that the public mind shall make such a diversion, and those who attempt it are swayed by personal, not public, interests, and can have no real hold on the country, and no comprehension of the serious mood in which the people are at this moment. You, who really believe in the people and have faith, a real faith, in the Democratic philosophy, can comprehend how dangerous it is for the leaders of a great party to trifle with this subject, and that it is trifling with it to set up a man as the representative of a cause who has no heart in it, and only because he has quarrelled with his own party for their daring to prefer another man.