“Dear General,—I am happy to know that you have taken possession of your new establishment, and presume you will be eminently successful and happy in it, together with your good and family. You are no doubt already aware that I have had a most interesting visit from your most excellent and worthy friend President , with whom I have had a glorious frolic in the clear blue ocean; for most assuredly a frolick it was, without a moment’s reflection or consideration. Nothing of this kind would in the least attach me to your person or cause. I am capable of being a most undeviating friend, without being governed by the smallest religious influence.

As you have proved yourself to be a philosophical divine, you will excuse me when I say that we must leave their influence to the mass. The boldness of your plans and measures, together with their unparallelled success, so far, are calculated to throw a charm over your whole being, and to point you out as the most extraordinary man of the present age. But my mind is of so mathematical and philosophical a cast, [p. 371]