"As to myself, it is only the condition of things at home that prevents me, if I could make the necessary arrangements, from going abroad. It is the only thing to which I look with any confidence or much hope to act upon my own constitution; and would separate me from circumstances not calculated to lessen the weight of an inevitable misfortune to which I have been long subject. "I think that if you are able to come now, your visit will be more pleasant than last year. "Write to me. "Aff. y'rs, "S. J. TILDEN." JOHN M. NILES[2] to ELAM TILDEN "WASHINGTON, _December 12, 1840_. "MY DEAR SIR,--I have your letter of the 7th inst., and thank you for the copy of the excellent speech of your son, which for the facts it contains, and sound, practical views, is worth more than all the speeches Daniel Webster has delivered on the currency question. The principal article in the _Globe_ on prices and the wages of labor was from my pen, and I am pleased to learn that it met your approbation. "That measures will be adopted before Congress closes to reorganize the Democratic party and settle on the course of action for the future is so manifestly proper, not to say indispensable, that I cannot doubt it will be attended to. "Arrangements should be adopted for obtaining the facts from every country, town, and precinct in the Union, in relation to the foul frauds practised in the late elections. The statements and certificates of these facts should be verified by oath when it could be done; and the whole ought to be published in a volume and put into the hands of every honest elector in the United States. This mass of information would be used by the Democratic papers as they might have occasion. "It is true, as you say, that the battle is not yet really begun; the true issues which divide the Democracy and the Federalists cannot be presented before the country except the latter are in power. They are then forced to come out with their measures and disclose their principles. "There will be a glorious fight for the next four years, the result of which, I confidently believe, will be highly auspicious to the Democratic cause and the preservation of our popular institutions. "I am, respectfully, "Y'r ob't ser't, "JOHN M. NILES." _"E. Tilden, Esqr., "New Lebanon, "New York."_