"MY DEAR MR. TILDEN,--I do not doubt that you are overwhelmed with letters just now from your many friends; but I cannot refrain from adding one to the number, to express my intense disappointment that you are not to-day the '_de facto_,' as you truly are the '_de jure_' President of our country. I _did_ believe that the justices of the Supreme Court would, in a case of such vital interest, rise high above all party trammels, carefully ascertain the facts of the case, administer the law with equity and consistency, and hold to the doctrine that fraud must vitiate the acts it was employed to accomplish. I am deeply grieved to find that these justices can, after all, be mere politicians--no better than the least patriotic of the tribe. I regret sincerely that your labor of the last four months has met with such a result, but my confidence in your patriotism is such that I am very sure that, so far as personal considerations are concerned, you will feel the disappointment far less than your friends do for you. "You will not consider it a liberty if I congratulate you--or rather the party--upon the dignified and high-toned course you have pursued in the midst of the difficulties surrounding you. "I am sure that we agree in the belief that the worst feature of this memorable business is that open fraud should be triumphant, and that through such means the control of a corrupt party should again be fastened upon our country. I do not know that I am capable of judging dispassionately of the future, but it now appears to me that that future is black indeed, when another than yourself--the honestly elected--holds to-day the name and powers of President. "Under you I thought the future of my country would be bright and happy: now, I do not care to look beyond the evils of the day--for they are sufficient. "With sentiments of the highest respect, "I am, sincerely, your friend, "GEO. B. MCCLELLAN." HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS TO TILDEN (THE STAMP OF FRAUD FIRST TRIUMPHANT IN AMERICAN HISTORY) "BOSTON, _5th March, 1877_. "MY DEAR SIR,--On this day when you _ought_ to have been the President of these United States, I seize the opportunity to bear my testimony to the calm and dignified manner in which you have passed through this great trial. "It is many years since I ceased to be a party man. Hence I have endeavored to judge of public affairs and men rather by their merits than by the names they take. It is a source of gratification to me to think that I made the right choice in the late election. I could never have been reconciled to the elevation by the smallest aid of mine of a person, however respectable in private life, who must forever carry upon his brow the stamp of fraud first triumphant in American history. "No subsequent action, however meritorious, can wash away the letters of that record. "Very respectfully yours, "CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS." HON. ABRAM S. HEWITT TO THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE