Doctor Horton.

To-night will decide whether the paper

appears on Monday morning."

The Anti-Masons still maintained a formidable organization in many of the States, and had to be reckoned with in all speculations about the succession to the presidency. They were mostly Whigs, and, one day, might hold the balance of power in the country. To divide them or to detach a sufficient number to neutralize their influence, at least in the State of New York, was regarded as indispensable to the success of Mr. Van Buren's candidature in 1837. Some light is thrown upon the methods discussed to that end, in a letter to his father dated New York, Feb. 14, 1835. In this letter he refers particularly to the suggestion of a Mr. W.:

"It is not thought necessary, or even desirable, that he should profess himself an Anti-Mason. It is considered sufficient that he should express in conversation a general disapproval of secret societies, a sentiment which Mr. Van Buren, in common with the mass of the community, is supposed to entertain.

Such is the attitude of Judge McLean, Mr. Calhoun, and Mr. Webster. The two latter, certainly, have written nothing, but are understood to entertain and express verbally a disapprobation of Masonry. Thus, while they avoid the hostility of any who may yet adhere to the fraternity, and the odium of courting Anti-Masonry, they are regarded by the Anti-Masons as fairly included among those from whom that party can consistently select their candidate."

"It is perhaps well to mention here that before the assembling of the Anti-Masonic National Convention in December next, the National Convention Committee will probably address a circular to each of the presidential candidates, soliciting their sentiments in regard to AntiMasonry.

"Mr. W. thinks that, against Mr. Calhoun, Judge White, Judge McLean (or any other man save perhaps

Mr. Webster), Mr. Van Buren would have a fair prospect of obtaining the Anti-Masonic nomination; at any rate, that an important diversion in his favor would be made.

"In this State, the class I have already described are well disposed towards Mr. Van Buren. It includes the principal Anti-Masons of this city-Ward, Cotheal, Townshend, I believe, etc. Albert H. Tracy also is understood to be friendly to Mr. Van Buren, although he will avoid separating from the party. I must confess, however, that I can see very little to hope from the Anti-Masons of this State as a party. Nearly all their leaders-all their presses are against us the whole machinery of party organization is in the hands of the opposition. Even those of them who were formerly Republican have so long acted with the opposition-have been so long under the influence of federal leaders, and have so long received their political information through channels artfully calculated to bias and gradually prepare them for a thorough amalgamation with their old opponents- - that they are alienated from their Democratic friends. Our only hope, it seems to me, is from their rank and file.

"Even if it were possible to procure the Anti-Masonic nomination, I should be afraid of it. Anything which could be tortured to bear the appearance of tampering or coalescing with them would be extremely hazardous. An informal support or a diversion from them would avoid this danger, and, in many possible contingencies, might be of the utmost importance. It is worthy of serious consideration whether something might not be done to promote so desirable an object.

"This view of the subject invests, in my mind, Mr. W.'s suggestions with an interest and a consequence which they might not possess in themselves. If by any means the Anti-Masons could be made to regard Mr. Van Buren as unobjectionable on the score of Anti-Masonry, it could not fail greatly to facilitate and increase accessions from their ranks, even though they should have a candidate in the field.

"If, in any case, anything else than a verbal expression of opinion should be thought best, it would probably be regarded as most eligible to give that expression the form of a reply to a circular of the Anti-Masonic Committee addressed to all the presidential candidates—a course which

would remove all appearances of collusion and give to the transaction the most favorable aspect.

"Mr. W. thinks there is a very slight probability of Judge McLean being a candidate. The judge feels with all its force the necessity of resigning his present station as a preliminary step- he regards it as indispensable, and expresses a determination not to do so, and consequently not to be a candidate unless the opposition will unite upon him. This was the cause of his declining the Anti-Masonic nomination in 1832 (which was made, I believe, through Mr. W.), and he yet adheres to the determination he then acted upon. I suppose he keeps steadily in view the old adage about A bird in the hand.' He is as crafty as he can be."

Of Tilden's residence at the university there is little to be said. His health was so uncertain that his connection as an undergraduate with that institution, as with Yale, was more nominal than real. He entered at the commencement of the year 1835, and in the spring of the following year we find him planning to leave the university and travel in quest of the health which he had sought in vain from empirics, apothecaries, and drugs.

His sister Henrietta's health was also at this time a subject of family solicitude. What little we do know of his university career must be gathered mainly from his letters. On the 11th of April, 1836, he writes:

"I have been thinking of a tour South, and still more of a voyage across the ocean - the former might do some good, but I am inclined to regard the latter as the really wise course, if we could all think so. I did not know but your own health would be benefited by a journey of a week or two. As to Moses' proposition to go to Washington if he can get away from home, very well. Under all the circumstances I suppose that doubtful. Though I should be pleased to see what is to be seen there, I am not very solicitous on that account. If I could accomplish what is more important to me, I would make almost any sacrifice to do it. My present impression is that it will not be best

for me to return home this spring-I may write the reasons."

Some five weeks later he recurs to the travel-cure:

"Under all the circumstances, considering especially that I have been so long absent from the university, and shall, if I return, remain there so short a time, I hesitate to resume my studies there this spring; and am strongly inclined to give them up altogether and put myself in immediate readiness to make a tour with you, if you can so arrange your business as to allow your absence. I cannot have the operation on my teeth completed, and my other arrangements made to leave, in less than one or two weeks. In one week from the receipt of your answer, or at any time after, which will suit your convenience, I would like to accompany you to Washington-spend a few days there go west as far as Mr. Madison's thence either across the Alleghanies or directly to Pittsburgh, and return by the Pennsylvania line of internal improvements. You have long desired to see Mr. Madison, and there is little probability that the power of doing so will long remain; for, tho' now in the vigor and fulness of his faculties, his life. must soon draw to a close.

"Congress, it is understood, will continue in session until the 20th of June or 1st of July. The last week but one of the session would perhaps be as good a time as can be selected to be there. Perhaps you might do something for Aaron in Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. If you prefer it, we could vary the route so as to return to Philadelphia and go thence to Pittsburgh, and home through our own State; tho' if it be not laying out too long and expensive journeys, I should like to make that a separate tour. A voyage to Nantucket does not strike me very favorably would it not be long enough to derange and disturb the functions of the system, without producing a decided and permanent change of its action? and should I not thus incur the evils of a sea voyage, without a reasonable prospect of reaping its benefits? I do not care to go to Monticello, or if I do, to remain there many days. Visiting is not in harmony with my feelings - I prefer to be among strangers or at home."

His correspondence furnishes no evidence that Mr. Tilden executed the plan of travel about which he wrote so much to his father in 1836. The fact that their most distinguished neighbor and friend was a candidate for the presidency, and was in the fall of that year elected to that dignity, establishes a strong presumption that he did not leave the State pending a contest of only less personal interest to the Tilden family than that in which he himself bore the same standard in 1876.

TILDEN TO HIS FATHER.

"MY DEAR FATHER:

"NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 1836. Monday, 2 P.M.

"I should have sent you the President's Message1 had I not supposed-what the result has shown to be true that you would receive it earlier by the Argus' than by any copy I could send. It excited rather less interest than the two last, both from the circumstances of the country which it had occasion to notice, and the disposition, now becoming prevalent, for quiet.

There are frequent and various reports relative to the health of the President, taking their character from the constant mutations of disease and the different channels through which they come. I am on the whole inclined to believe that his condition is very precarious and uncertain. His firmness and native vigor of constitution may sustain him some time longer, or he may sink rapidly. I should not be surprised at either result. There is a rumor that his hemorrhage has recurred, and it is contradicted. I scarcely know which to believe.

"Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi have all gone for Van Buren, giving him a majority of forty-three electoral votes. Considering the game that was played against him, the combination of discordant and powerful factions, the multiplicity of candidates, enlisting in their favor local and sectional interests, artfully calculated to divide and to prevent an election by the people, I must regard such a majority over the whole of them as a

1 President Jackson's last Annual Message.