Publisher's Synopsis
1894. With Portraits. Introduction: Soon after beginning the work of arranging my father's papers for publication, I found a series of letters which awoke my deepest interest. They covered a period extending from 1837 to 1891, and proved to be the complete correspondence between my father and his brother John during those more than fifty years. These letters, exchanged by two brothers of such eminence, and many of them written during the most stirring events of our country's history, seem to me unique. They form a collection, complete in itself; they are of great historical value, and the expressions of opinion which they obtain are so freely given as to furnish an excellent idea of the relations that existed between my father and his brother. Realizing all this, I have decided to publish the correspondence by itself; and in so doing, my chief desire has been to let the letters speak for themselves, and to put them such form that they may be easily understood.
