MR. DICKINSON TO MISS KNAPP. THE ORCHARD, September 2, 1860. MY DEAR ELIZA-This is a bright and lovely day, so far as golden sunshine and a refreshing, elastic atmosphere are concerned, but cool enough to suggest the price of flannels and the best place to procure them. I wish you could look in upon the Orchard to-day, both within doors and without, to see the inmates and the grounds and trees and surroundings. We have made many improvements since you left here-three years ago this month-which you could only appreciate by seeing them in contrast with the place as you then saw it. Even Melissa cannot tell you how much it has improved. The "dwarfs " are laden with an abundance of delicious pears, and the venerable apple-trees, as well as the rising generation, are propped up to prevent their breaking with their weight of fruit. If I had nothing to do now, I could realize Goldsmith's idea, and 66 crown life's labor with an age of ease; "but, to cite him again, I am compelled to say that the "blest retirement never must be mine," and so I will fulfil my destiny, and, like the woman in the "song of the shirt," "Work, work, work! In the dull December light, And work, work, work! When the weather is warm and bright." With love to your mother, Melissa, and Charley, I remain Your affectionate uncle, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MRS. COURTNEY. THE ORCHARD, September 16, 1860. MY DEAR CHILD-Your letter, written in remembrance of my birthday, with its sweet tones of affection, was thrice welcome, and will be dearly cherished with many kindred tokens of a beloved daughter's devotion to her father. In all the chequered history of domestic life, I have never known nor heard of a child so desirous of conforming to the parental wish. in every particular as you have been from your infancy; and could all children make it their pleasure, as you have done, surely the poetic conceptions of the ancients would be realized in the circle around the home-hearth. Amidst all the stormy passions and fierce tumults of life, this reflection has been my consolation; and now, when age begins to draw around the curtain, it will be an abiding companion, and cheer and beguile hours which otherwise would be solitary, vacant, and weari some. In a life replete with incident and vicissitude, chequered with trial, and crowned with civic honors, I have received no blessing so rich in its exhaustless treasures as a daughter's love. I would that I were a patriarch, that I might confer on you a blessing of health, happiness, and peace; that peace which is unknown to those who flit over life's ocean in quest of exciteinent, to slaughter time and indulge sense, but which elevates the desires and rectifies the heart, and fits us here for a glorious fruition hereafter. "The autumn days have surely come, and soon vegetation will lie pale and sere in death. And autumn winds are already moaning like an over-burdened heart, which "wafts the sigh, and leaves the pang behind," in giving vent to its half-suppressed emotions. But, apt emblem of human life and its immortal spirit, the perished flowers shall live again in all their primeval beauty when "spring visits their mouldering urn," and "day dawns" for them on the "night of the grave." Age brings to me no sadness, no regrets, but consoles me with the reflection that when I have fought the "good fight," and have "finished my course," if I have "kept the faith," I shall live again in the land of flowers and spring, life clothed with eternal joy and perpetual youth; not here, but in some "happier island in the watery waste." All the family send love to you, and unite with me in affectionate remembrance to our St. Lawrence friends. Your affectionate father, D. S. DICKINSON. MR. DICKINSON TO MR. ROGERS. THE ORCHARD, October 15, 1860. MY DEAR ROGERS-The object of my writing is important, though it will not be apparent until you get through, and perhaps not then. I highly approve of our present political position, for we have now gained a place secure from sale, where no one will purchase, and I am not a little gratified to believe that after the 4th of March next, under the defeat which awaits us, we shall be no longer responsible for any future mismanage ment or corruption that may occur in the administration. We are all about as usual. Mrs. D. has been very nervous and sleepless for some weeks, and as Mr. and Mrs. Courtney are about removing to New York, Mrs. D. has gone down to the city with Lydia, and they are for a few days at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where I learn Mrs. D., notwithstanding the "noise and confusion," is doing very well. I desired her to go, fearing I might not see the Prince myself, and I was anxious, if I could not, to see some person who had seen him. Besides, I thought it might perhaps please the Prince and the "Juke" of Newcastle to see some one who had seen me, if they could not see me!!! I called on Mrs. Westcott (Lucy K.) last evening, and now comes the important part of my letter. After inquiring whether I had recently heard from "Harry Rogers," and saying you punished her at school, by cutting her nails, and practising some kindred cruelties, said, "when you write him, give him my love, and tell him he has sent his likeness to several who do not care half as much about him as I do." I told her I would write to-day, and I have. The country is in a sad condition. Both sections are to blame, for either might have averted the calamity by making a good nomination at Charleston. But the political Micawbers were so anxious to have something "turn up," that there was not justice, generosity, sense nor patriotism enough left to turn to account. We are now upon a volcano, and God only knows how soon or how terrible may be the bursting flame. I saw all this long since, and now fear the worst. It will break up and recast political parties horizontally, if indeed there is enough left to support organizations. MR. DICKINSON TO MR. MASON AND MR. HUNTER. BINGHAMTON, January 4, 1861. GENTLEMEN-The friendly relations which have characterized our long acquaintance, embracing many years of public service together; the high regard I entertain for you personally; the confidence I repose in your patriotism, and the admiration with which I have viewed the State you represent in the Senate of the confederacy, induce me to address you upon the disturbed and imperilled condition of the country. Although I entertain a lively sense of the primary causes which produced the disease, I waive all consideration of them for the present, except so far as may be necessary to understand and reach and remedy the irritation, looking only to the past for instruction and to the present and future for deliver ance. These States were united to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to those who formed the Union, and their posterity. The beneficent mission thus founded is still in its infancy; and yet, with all its delinquencies and short-comings, it has done more to advance the cause of rational liberty, to assert the principles of true freedom and vindicate the rights of man, than all governments which have preceded it. But though it has already accom plished much, it has by no means fulfilled its allotted destiny; for new fields are spread out for it to subdue and civilize, and further triumphs await it in the cause of human regeneration. And now when it is rejoicing in the pride of youthful development, and abounding in every moral and material element of greatness, when an envious, yet admiring, world have acknowledged the success of the great experiment, and its name is respected and honored throughout the globe, if it shall fall a prey to its own depravity, and be conquered by sectional disturbances and intestine broils, the whole people of the earth, civilized and savage, will cry out shame! It is the natural dictate of the heart to censure the causes of sectional estrangement; it is the noblest impulse of patriotism to restore, by its timely intervention, peaceful and kindly relations between contending States. Although the causes of disturbance between the North and the South have been of long duration, and are replete with bitter recollections, there is nothing in the questions at issue, nothing in the complications or hostile attitudes of parties, and nothing in the temper of the masses of the people of either section, which forbids a speedy and final adjustment, just and satisfactory to all. But, as is usual in such and kindred controversies, those who criminate and those who recriminate, those who attack and those who repel, whether because smarting under a sense of wrong or indulging a stubborn pride, will not negotiate with each other for adjustment; but if they treat, it must be through agencies which enjoy the friendship and command the confidence and respect of both. For all the purposes of the present unhappy controversy, the federal government, the several State governments, and also the Northern and Southern divisions may be regarded and treated as responsible and independent States; and being such, the angry feuds and hostile relations between them or any of them, which disturb the harmony of the Union, and threaten the sanguinary horrors of a civil war, become the proper, nay, the necessary subjects of mediation by a friendly power, upon every principle of natural and conventional justice, of State comity, and by the spirit of international law; and of mediation too, to which all parties must listen with respectful deference. Let, then, Virginia-the Old Dominion-the mother of States and statesmen, put forth her potential voice as a media |