"MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--I cannot refrain from offering you my sincere congratulations on your nomination to the exalted office of the President of the United States. As a quiet observer of the political events of the nation, I know of no one in my day that has afforded me so much satisfaction, and sincerely hope and believe that the wisdom shown by the selection at St. Louis will be fully ratified by the great mass of our people in November next. We require reform in politics, religion, and morals, and I am convinced that we will receive them generously at your hands. The whole government of the nation has been corrupt--desperately corrupt--and the honor and glory of applying the antidote, I am convinced, will belong to you. If the fact of your nomination does not enhance the material values of the nation I am sure your election will do it. Already I seem to breathe a new atmosphere, as is the case with every well-wisher of the country. Sincerely yours, "J. HOOKER." CLARKSON N. POTTER TO TILDEN "61 WALL ST., N. Y., _June 29, '76_. "MY DEAR GOVERNOR,--Your letter was well received yesterday at Union College, and I am glad you sent it. "I got down last evening just in time to hear of your nomination in the street and take into your house the news. Heaven grant you may be elected. The country needs that, far more than you do or can desire it. "Faithfully yours, "CLARKSON N. POTTER." WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER TO TILDEN "NEW YORK, _June 29, 1876_. "MY DEAR GOVERNOR TILDEN,--I congratulate you most heartily. Whatever may be the fortunes or the fate of the coming struggle, there is nothing but satisfaction to your old friends in your well-earned victory at St. Louis, and you can well understand how specially gratifying it is to "Yours sincerely, "WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER." ROBERT B. MINTURN TO TILDEN "NEW BRIGHTON, STATEN ISLAND, _July 3, 1876_. "MY DEAR GOVERNOR TILDEN,--No one has been more delighted than I by your nomination; and you, knowing how much I have desired it, may have been surprised at not receiving any word of congratulation from me. "The truth is that, at a time when the mails and the wires have been burdened with messages of felicitation for you, it seemed that you would scarcely care to have any formal expression from those of whose regard and support you were already assured. I may have been wrong in this feeling, and perhaps I should at once have written to tell you how much I was rejoiced at your nomination, and how thoroughly I have admired your noble fight against the worst constituents of our politics--culminating in your victory, at the St. Louis convention, over all the jobbing elements of the party, which were strengthened by a most unprecedented and venomous opposition from your own State.