April 13, [1864]
MY DEAR HALPINE:
I thank you for your kind and most unjust letter. I did call
at your house on Bleecker Street, and you were not at home—nor was M. la
Generale. I am too old a soldier to pass through your camp without reporting.
I thank you for offering to set me right with the pensive
public. But the game is not worth so bright a candle. The original lie in the Herald
was dirty enough, and the subsequent commentaries were more than usually
nasty. But the Tycoon never minded it in the least, and, as for me, at my age
the more abuse I get in the newspapers, the better for me. I shall run for
constable some day on the strength of my gory exploits in Florida.
I am stationed here for the present. I fear I shall not get
away soon again. I have a great deal to do. It is the best work that I can do
if I must stay here.
I am yours,
[JOHN HAY.]
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 182. Michael Burlingame, Editor, At Lincoln’s Side: John Hay’s Civil War
Correspondence and Selected Writings, p. 80; Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and
Letters of John Hay, p. 171.
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