Of course nothing will be published of a family or private nature which should not be, but only such matters as bear on the pioneer settlement of Ala. and the Southwest. Yesterday I mailed to you the Oration before Congress on the death of President Lincoln. It was delivered by the unanimous request of Congress, George Bancroft being requested to do so because he was universally conceded to be the greatest of American Historians. Mr. B. was a Democrat till 1861, he was Secretary of the Navy under President Polk and Minister to Germany under President Grant. They foresaw the unspeakable woes it would bring to their posterity.
Any idiot can see the necessity of a lock for the stable door after the horse has been stolen.
But Pendleton was one of the the few who foresaw the right from the beginning. Now everybody admits he was right. Senator Morgan of Ala. and Senator Butler of South Carolina, two Rebel Generals, have declared in favor of the Government expending hundreds of millions to send every negro back to the land of his fathers-Africa. Judge Pendleton was as pure and honest as he was intellectually great. P. was elected to the first Continental Congress and rode horse-back to Philadelphia to its meeting with Washington his intimate friend.