As a private citizen, I shall take the liberty of recommending to you by letter, at the proper time, those whom I consider the best qualified candidates for different offices within our State, and you will pay such attention to my recommendations as you may think they deserve. I would not, if I could, exclude the honest friends of General Cass from a fair participation.... They are and always have been good Democrats, and are now my warm friends. But I shall ever protest against the appointment of any of the disorganizers who, professing Democracy, defeated Judge ——, and not content with advocating General Cass in preference to myself, which they had a perfect right to do, have spent their time and their money in abusing my personal character most foully and falsely. Even ——, the editor of the ——, whose paper was almost exclusively devoted to the propagation of these slanders, to be circulated under the frank of Senator —— throughout the South, for they had no influence at home, is a hopeful candidate for office, as they profess, under your administration. I have now, from a sense of duty, written you by far the longest letter I ever wrote in my life, and have unburdened my mind of a ponderous load. I have nothing more to add, except a request that you would present me kindly to Mrs. Pierce, and believe me to be always, most respectfully, Your friend, JAMES BUCHANAN. [GENERAL PIERCE TO MR. BUCHANAN.] CONCORD, N. H., December 14, 1852. MY DEAR SIR:— Language fails me to express the sincere gratitude I feel for your kind and noble letter of the 11th inst. I cannot now reply as I ought, but lose no time in expressing my deep sense of obligation. I ought, in justice to the citizens of Pennsylvania who have visited Concord during the summer and autumn, to say that I do not recollect a single individual who has ventured to make a suggestion in relation to yourself, calculated in the slightest degree to weaken my personal regard. It is far from my purpose to hasten to any conclusion in relation to my cabinet. It is hardly possible that I can be more deeply impressed than I now am as to the importance of the manner in which it shall be cast, both for the interests of the country and my own comfort. I cannot, however, view the advantages of my presence at Washington in the same light with yourself, though having no object but the best interests of our party and the country; personal inclination and convenience will, if I know it, have no weight upon my course in any particular. I must leave for a future time many things I desire to say. Do you still anticipate passing a portion of the winter at the South?