If my recollection serves me correctly, Mr. Stanton, whose memory is now cherished by the great mass of the Republican party, at the dates you speak of and refer to was regarded as a Bourbon of the strictest sect. Up to the time of the capture of the "Trent," with Mason and Slidell aboard, on the 8th of November, 1861, if Mr. Stanton had conceived any "change of heart" and cessation of hostility to the Administration, it never was publicly manifested. It was something over a month after this capture that he was consulted by Mr. Lincoln, at the suggestion of Secretary Chase, as an international lawyer concerning the legality of the capture and arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, which was the first interview that was had between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton since the commencement of the Administration. This interview led to Mr. Stanton's appointment as Secretary of War. Mr. Lincoln had occasion for regret about the "Trent" capture, but never for the capture of Mr. Stanton. The immortal Shakespeare, like yourself and others, sometimes got his dates confused; for instance, in his "Coriolanus," he says of C. Marcius, "Thou wast a soldier even to Cato's will," when in fact Marcius Coriolanus was banished from Rome and died over two hundred years before Cato was born. Again, his reference in the same play, of Marcius sitting in state like Alexander: the latter was not born for a hundred and fifty years after Coriolanus's death. He also says in "Julius Cæsar," "The clock strikes three," when in truth and in fact there were no striking clocks until more than eight hundred years after the death of Cæsar. Another inaccuracy is to be found in "King Lear" in regard to spectacles. Spectacles were not worn until the thirteenth century. And still another in this immortal writer's statements in his play of "Macbeth," where he speaks of cannon: cannon were not invented until 1346, and Macbeth was killed in 1054. You will pardon me these citations, for they are made in a spirit of playful illustration, to show how great minds often become confused about dates. "What you have said I have considered; what you have to say I will with patience wait to hear." I read your "Recollections of Lincoln" with great interest, as I do everything I see written about that most wonderful, interesting, and unique of all of our public men. I sincerely hope you will receive this in the same kindly spirit that it is written, prompted as it is by a curiosity to know how this variance about Mr. Stanton's official status during the first year of Mr. Lincoln's Administration can be reconciled. I will regard it as an esteemed favor if you will drop me a line explaining it.