I have been hoping during several weeks that it might be my good fortune to receive an invitation to be present on that great occasion in Chicago; but now that my desire is accomplished my business matters have so shaped themselves as to bar me from being so far from home in the first half of November. It is with supreme regret that I lose this chance, for I have not had a thorough stirring up for some years, & I judged that if I could be in the banqueting hall & see & hear the veterans of the Army of the Tennessee at the moment that their old commander entered the room or rose in his place to speak, my system would get the kind of upheaval it needs. General Grant’s progress across the continent is of the marvelous nature of the returning Napoleon’s progress from Grenoble to Paris; & as the crowning spectacle in the one case was the meeting with the Old Guard, so, likewise, the crowning spectacle in the other will be our great captain’s meeting with his Old Guard—& that is the very climax which I wanted to witness.

Besides, I wanted to see the General again, anyway, & and renew the acquaintance. He would remember me, because I was the person who did not ask him for an office. However, I consume your time, & also wander from the point—which is, to thank you for the courtesy of your invitation, & yield up my seat at table to some other guest who may possibly grace it better but will certainly not appreciate its privileges more than I should.