"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I write a line to acknowledge receipt of your letter to the Saratoga convention in which, for the second time, you decline to be nominated for the Presidency by the Democratic party. The manuscript of that letter will, of course, always have very high value to me. It will be the most prized of the few heirlooms that I possess. "Mrs. Manning and I are very glad that you consented to a visit to us, during the New Year week, from Miss Ruby and Miss Susie. Everything and everybody promises to be gay here, and I think they will find pleasure in the visit. "Faithfully yours, "DANIEL MANNING. "_Hon. Sam. J. Tilden, Greystone._" S. J. TILDEN TO DANIEL MANNING "GREYSTONE, YONKERS, N. Y., _Dec. 19, 1885_. "DEAR MR. MANNING,--I read over your report when I first received it, and laid it aside intending to give it a second and more thorough perusal, and waited about acknowledging it until I should do so; but I have been less well than common, and have found so many things pressing upon me that I have not had a chance to execute my good intentions. "The impression your report made on me was very favorable. I think it does you great credit, and congratulate you on the manner in which it has been received by the public. "Very truly yours, "S. J. TILDEN." TILDEN TO HON. GEORGE BANCROFT "GREYSTONE, _Feb. 12, 1886_. "DEAR MR. BANCROFT,--I have received a copy of your _Plea for the Constitution of the United States_, which the publishers sent to me at your request. "I note your strong impression of your sense of the importance of the theme, when you say you 'have thought it right to bestow upon it many of the few hours that may remain to you for labor.' "To the eyes of your countrymen, those hours grow more valuable as they become fewer. "As an argument your _Plea_ is overwhelming. "Indeed, until new lights recently dawned upon the court, and upon some others, in all our national history it had been universally considered as axiomatic that Congress had no constitutional power to make anything but gold and silver a legal-tender. That conclusion was always assumed when the subject was incidentally alluded to. Forty years ago, in a speech in the constitutional convention of the State of New York on the subject of Currency and Banking (Tilden's _Public Writings and Speeches_, Vol. I., p. 222), I recognized the disability of any government in this country, State or Federal, to make a legal-tender of anything but gold and silver. "In all the literature of political economy, of currency and banking, this postulate was taken for granted. "It is a long time since I have had the pleasure of seeing you or Mrs. Bancroft. I was gratified at the account of you, which I received from my nieces who recently visited Washington. I hear that you have lit up your household by the sunshine of a young lady of your kindred.