"My Dear Sir:--Yours of the 22nd is received. I appreciate the
embarrassments of your position and feel that the highest mark of
friendship is to let you alone, and have therefore refrained from
writing to or visiting you. Still I wish you to feel that I have
no hope or ambition higher than to see your administration a complete
success. The victory is a Republican victory and that I think is
a victory for the whole country. Any advice or aid I can give will
be freely rendered on call, but not tendered until needed. I notice
that every scribbler is making a cabinet for you, but your observation
must have led you to the conviction that this is a duty you only
can perform. Advice in this matter is an impertinence. Your
comfort and success will largely depend upon this, and if I were
to offer advice it would be to consult alone your own judgment,
taking care to choose those who above all will be faithful and
honorable to you and administer the patronage of the departments,
not in their own selfish interests, but for the good of the country.
The cabinet should be fairly distributed among the different
sections, but this is not the prime necessity, nor is it vital that
cliques or factions be represented, but only the general average
of Republican ideas and policy.

"As to the broader questions of public policy the rule of action
is very different than the one suggested as to cabinet officers.
The President should 'touch elbows' with Congress. He should have
no policy distinct from that of his party, and this is better
represented in Congress than in the Executive. Cleveland made his
cardinal mistake in dictating a tariff policy to Congress. Grant
also failed to cultivate friendly relations with Congress, and was
constantly thwarted by it. Lincoln had a happy faculty in dealing
with Members and Senators.

"As to visiting you, I will do so with pleasure if you think it
necessary, but I dread, on your account as well as my own, the
newspaper talk and gabble that will follow. It might embarrass
you with others. With the modern facility of dictating you can
converse with me without restraint, and all letters passing between
us can be returned to the writer. In conclusion permit me to say,
and perhaps I am justified in saying by what appears in the papers,
that you must not feel embarrassed or under the slightest restraint
by seeing my name in connection with office. I am not seeking or
expecting any position, nor