changes have awaited us-how many lights and shadows have flitted across our pathway-how many joys and sorrows have we experienced-how many pleasing seasons and painful bereavements have we been called to contemplate since you were given us as a cherished daughter! Through all, we have watched over you with a solicitude which none but a parent's heart can ever realize or appreciate; and now that you have reached the period of womanhood, we cannot but feel that our responsibilities are greater and more delicate than before. You are the only child left to us at home-and that at an age when all our hope is with the present-when we can look for no aftergrowth of joy.

We have all, my dear child, as a family, been too much in the whirl of social and public life; we have had too little opportunity for domestic quiet, domestic communion, or domestic love; we have been borne along upon a current of excitement, without that opportunity for reflection and repose so necessary to fit us for the practical realities of life. I hope we may, in the future, be permitted more of that domestic quiet which alone gives rational enjoyment, than the past has afforded us.

You, my daughter, are now about to enter upon a new sphere of existence-to become a responsible member of society, and that too where your position is more conspicuous than that of many of your associates. This brings many advantages, and many gratifications, which are by no means to be lightly prized; but it imposes responsibilities, too, which are under no circumstances to be disregarded. In proportion as circumstances have made you more conspicuous, you will be required in the world's judgment to exhibit prudence, wisdom, accomplishments, and all that makes up and adorns the female character.

Your parents have more anxiety now for you than all else. Your excellent sister is well and happily married, though her feeble health deprives not only her parents and husband, but all her friends of the society which they would so much enjoy. The little boys are objects of great affection, but they, if spared to manhood, can battle with the elements of life as men only can. The position of the daughter is one which parents know to be painfully and fearfully delicate, and hence they cannot but VOL. II.-32

feel that deep and abiding interest in her, and in all that concerns her, which is bestowed upon no other object. Parents live for their children, and could yours control your destiny, you would never experience bodily pain nor mental anxiety nor anguish ;—you would never know sickness nor sorrow, but the world would be to you a world of happiness and peace. But no such power has been vouchsafed us.

"Thy tears must flow, as mine have flowed."

This is a world of practical realities, and not a world of romance. You will be most happy now, and in after times, in seeking and following the advice and counsel of your parents and experienced friends;-by setting a proper estimate upon yourself, and by at all times preserving your freedom of action, and when your inclinations lead you to form an association for life, remember that it is a step from which there is no retreat, and therefore should not be taken without consulting the judg ment as well as the affections, and that it is better not to be taken than to be taken erroneously.

I have given this hurried note this advisory form, rather than to give way to the impulses of my heart in addressing you. There is nothing that I would not gladly do to shield and protect you. In a few years at most, your parents will be laid in the dust; but while they remain, you of all others can cheer their life's decline-can gild the evening of their days with the golden sunshine of their latest born's affection, and if they are longer spared, can be the companion of their lonely age, and the sweet beguiler of their solitary hours.

May He who upholds us all, preserve and bless you ;-may He give you wisdom from above, and may His spirit attend you through all the devious ways of life's chequered pilgrimage: and when it shall please Him to call you home, may your soul be as pure and spotless as when you were given to us as the most priceless treasure on earth, a daughter.

Your affectionate father,

D. S. DICKINSON.

MR. DICKINSON TO MR. ROGERS.

BINGHAMTON, December 25, 1856.

MY DEAR ROGERS-Myself and family send to you and to Mrs. Rogers the kindly salutations and wishes of the season, under a deep sense of friendly obligations: and we all join the little boys in transmitting their joyous acknowledgments for your kind remembrance and substantial present. Please drop a line, as early as convenient to you, when you will return, so that I may arrange to be at home.

I am glad you are going to Wheatland, for it is as well due to our friends and to our organization as to Mr. Buchanan himself, that he should be fully, frankly, and temperately posted in our affairs. So far as I have a right to be heard in the premises, it is my desire that the explanation be of a general character, and placed entirely on public grounds. I would under no circumstances have my name pressed upon Mr. Buchanan as one of his cabinet advisers. Nor would I consent to sit as one, unless it was given under circumstances where I was sought, rather than seeking the place, and where the public desired my services. For your own private information, I will assure you that I have no expectation of a cabinet appointment. I have no knowledge nor information on the subject, but intuition teaches me, as I wrote you some time since, and the views then expressed have received confirmation by subsequent reflection. I am by no means sure that it will not be better for those of our friends who desire places, if Mr. Buchanan should pass by the State rather than that he should give me a cabinet appointment. In case of my appointment, if he should deny any further appointment to our wing, it would leave me in an awkward and unpleasant position. But if I am not appointed, he may feel an inclination to look more carefully after my friends. I am proud to note, however, that so far as I have been mentioned, it has generally been for Secretary of State, and no one has placed me below Treasury. The leading papers in Maine, Iowa, &c., &c., have been out pretty strong, but there is much intrigue going on by the jobbers for the places, with a view to the Treasury spoils, and also to 1860.

I do not intend to be pharisaical in profession, but I am, as

years increase, more anxious to fill my present sphere of usefulness than to enlarge it :-to execute the mission before me, and train up the little boys that Providence has left to look to me for protection, and to cherish and console, so far as domestic care and quiet can accomplish it, one who is dearer to me still, and bound by more tender ties, and is yet as dependent upon me as a child. These, with others, are individual reasons why change is not desirable except for strong inducements.

Sincerely yours,

D. S. DICKINSON.

MR. DICKINSON TO MR. BROWN.

BINGHAMTON, January 24, 1857.

MY DEAR SIR-My best acknowledgments are tendered you for numerous favors conveyed with a generous partiality and friendly devotion. I can only assure you of a high, profound, and sincere appreciation.

I have full confidence in Mr. Buchanan's wisdom, and feel sure he will give us a judicious administration; what will be his "personnel," I have no means of knowing. He is urged, from both interested and factious sources, to go by this State, because of our divisions. It may be wise to pass the State or may not be; but no such question as divisions should control him.

We have some factious men, though since the main body went off, less than one would suppose for the encouragement they have received: but so far as our rank and file are concerned, whether upon men or measures, we have less division than has Virginia, New Hampshire, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, or Pennsylvania.

Repeating my thanks for your kind courtesy-I am,
Yours sincerely,

W. S. BROWN, Esq.

D. S. DICKINSON.

MR. DICKINSON TO JUDGE BOSWORTH.

BINGHAMTON, March 1, 1857.

MY DEAR JUDGE-Your favor of the 27th came duly to

hand, and, as the merchants say, "contents noted." I penned you my "incomprehensible" note while in the tedious attendance upon rather a beggarly circuit. It is said that when a pun or witticism needs explanation to give it point, it is a sorry manifestation, and I do not see why what our old and departed friend Judge S. was wont to call a "sarcasm" does not fall within the same category. However, at the hazard of coming within the rule, I will translate my Greek.

My eye, at the moment of writing, fell upon the movements of the Corruption Committee at Washington, and seeing that the Hon. —was to be expelled, reminded me of how much I had enjoyed, some twenty-three years ago, laughing at you for turning the same individual out of your law office for stealing a large pane of glass out of the door of E's newly fitted up house over the Chenango Bridge, to supply one that he had broken out of the door of your office; and to complete the joke he got a light too large by three inches one way and one the other. The fun I had at the time over it all came back to me, and hence my revival of it to you thus obscurely ;—not thinking that the brick and mortar, excitement and turmoil, and judicial care of the city, had shut you out from keeping track of individuals, as we do in the country.

Yes, my dear Judge, I might wear out life as you do. I have enjoyed some rather gratifying triumphs in my day, both political and professional; but never anything has so much drawn out my anxiety and solicitude in advance, has so much mortified and vexed me when adverse, nor afforded me the same satisfaction in success, as the matter to which you allude.

I still like professional pursuits better than official life. If I had money to spend profusely, I could enjoy myself in rural occupations; but eternal, like in-ternal improvement, is too expensive a luxury for a poor man.

I like excitement, and as I also want income, it would work well if we did not have so much mere litigation over subjects where the parties cannot pay very large fees, and, if able, no counsel could have the face to charge them. These cases, as you know, are fought out with a pertinacity almost unknown in the city, or if known, would command a thousand dollars to our one hundred. If you do not engage in them, others will, and