"MY DEAR SIR,--At Washington last week I took a tentative look at the business you wot of. The Attorney-General was made to understand the whole affair. He is anxious to be amiable, and, I think, would stop this dirty persecution at once but for Blatchford's decision, which I cannot help but admit is an embarrassing fact, though seen to be perfectly lawless. He proposes that a memorial or formal application be made which he will refer to the local authorities for their report, and he promises to do whatever he can to accomplish the object. He is, of course, not fool enough to believe that the proceeding against you is justified by law. He thinks you had better give a final judgment for any amount that the District Attorney wants, coupled with a protest, and trust to a writ of error. "The thing looks badly. An appeal to the magnanimity of these people will be so humiliating that I don't see how you can go through it. It will have to be discussed officially and unofficially by the inside and the outside of the administration--in public and in private, and I do not know when it will be ended. Speeding to-day, it may be put back to-morrow, and be lost at last. On the other hand, if you give a _pro forma_ judgment, your chances of reversal will be in inverse proportion to the amount of it for certain reasons which I need not now give. "I think Blaine would have manhood enough to do right, disregarding all other considerations, and sense enough to see that he would make more politically than he would lose, if the responsibility rested entirely upon him, but he is not in a situation to force his advice upon the others. "The President is not at all equal to such an occasion. He will probably think it a kind of duty to repeat wrongs upon a man whom he has already injured. "Please to think over all this at your leisure, and decide whether it is not best to defy these devils to their worst. "I am, yours truly, "J. S. BLACK." TILDEN TO DAVID DOWS "_Personal and confidential._ "NO. 15 GRAMERCY PARK, NEW YORK, _April 22, 1881_. "DEAR MR. DOWS,--I recollect that some time ago you casually mentioned that you were a considerable holder of N. Y. Elevated R. R. bonds, and I replied that I held all I ever had; whereupon you reminded me that you knew how many I collected interest on in January. "It seems to me appropriate to the cordial friendship existing between us that I should tell you that my situation in respect to that investment has changed. I desired before I should go into the country, and especially if I should decide to go abroad, to revise my knowledge in respect to that investment; and before I had completed my investigation it seemed prudent to reduce my interest or dispose of it altogether. I have substantially done the latter. "I called at your home last evening, but not finding you, and not liking to leave word asking you to call upon me this morning, I send you this note. "Very truly yours, "S. J. TILDEN."