The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete


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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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