I have learnt with great pleasure that you have wisely resolved henceforward to Identify yourself with the Republicans of the State and union. As this act is purely spontaneous and wholly uninfluenced by sinister considerations, It is a step which I am persuaded you will never have occasion to regret. You may for a season be somewhat annoyed by the aspersions of old & the Jealousies of new friends, but these are of short duration, a man of sense knows they are circumstances which will always exist, he treats them as such & is soon relieved from them.

You & such of your friends as act with you need entertain no apprehension on the score of future differences in opinion from us on abstract points, there are no men on earth more willing to protect the freedom of opinion than those with whom I have the honor of acting. There has no doubt in former times been much intolerance exercised towards the members of the Republican Party by ^some of^ its leading men, but of that we can have no more. The fires of persecution have been extinguished & the faggots thrown away since we have been deserted by those who made it their buisness to light them.