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Indianapolis, Indy, February 4, 1885

My Dear Friend:

I often think of you, and always with pride and pleasure; and , yet I must confess, with regret. The real leaders of nations and races are never allowed to enter their promised lands; and, therefore, you are always coupled in my mind with regret. Moses could look at Canaan from the top of Pisgah, but might not enter with the people of God. He is the type of all true and truly great leaders. I once hoped tht the Republican pary would be great enough to honor itself, by placing at its head, in the day of its power, the real leader of its opinions; and the real exempler of its manhood. You combined more of both than any other man. Your opinions are never so ideal and so distant from factual life as not to be capable of union with it; and by bravely accepting the duty of writing them and it in all perilous times and places, your life brcame the extension