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request which he preferred at length could hardly be classed
as, personal, though made for a "personal friend."
*
****
To President-elect James A. Garfield, in Washington:
HARTFORD, Jany. 12, '81.
GEN. GARFIELD
DEAR SIR,--Several times since your election persons wanting office have
asked me "to use my influence" with you in their behalf.
To word it in that way was such a pleasant compliment to me that I
never complied. I could not without exposing the fact that I hadn't any
influence with you and that was a thing I had no mind to do.
It seems to me that it is better to have a good man's flattering
estimate of my influence--and to keep it--than to fool it away with
trying to get him an office. But when my brother--on my wife's side--Mr.
Charles J. Langdon--late of the Chicago Convention--desires me to speak
a word for Mr. Fred Douglass, I am not asked "to use my influence"
consequently I am not risking anything. So I am writing this as a simple
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