I don’t forget you & I ain’t ungrateful to you, neither; but I thought of a couple of things when I was casting about for a journal to jam that squib into. The main one, was, that as Mr. Marble was gone,2explanatory note I judged you had all been thrown out of the fifth story window after him. And the other was, that I being a Republican (if anything, politically—which I doubt), it would not be in good taste for me to slur this e miserable & entirely damnable administration through a Democratic paper.

I wrote a very elaborate squib for the World a month ago—& burned it, it not being satisfactory to me. That shows that I don’t forget you, dam you, & that I desire the prosperity of the paper, too, & am careful not to do things that might injure it. A man of less exquisite principle would have sentⒶemendation you the principle article.

And whenever, in coming months, I shall chance to write a squib, a passing squib, I shall either send it to you or burn it——the former if it be worthy, the latter if not. A body couldn’t say fairer than that, I know. With my kindest to Wheeler 3explanatory note & the rest of you—