on opposite sides; a circumstance which, though it would have been necessarily fatal to ordinary friendship, has, in our case, only served to draw more tightly the cords of sympathy, and to afford you an opportunity of proving in a thousand ways, as you have done, how possible it is for a truly magnanimous spirit to do justice, and to exercise the most generous kindness, too, toward those around whose character and motives of action untoward circumstances may have for a time cast clouds of unmerited suspicion, and which the undimmed eye of a true and resolute friendship could alone have been able to penetrate.
Allow me the honor of giving you some additional assurance of my esteem, as well as of my gratitude for past kindnesses, by dedicating to you the following volume; which, though the imperfect product of a few weeks' labor, and written under circumstances not very propitious to the display of mere literary ability, yet will, as I hope, serve to yield you more or less of entertainment in such moments of relaxation as may be occasionally allowed you when temporarily withdrawn from the arduous duties of the very responsible official position which you now so deservedly occupy and so signally adorn. II. S. FOOTE.
NEW YORK, December, 1865.