I have been frequently tempted to address you since I came to the City, but really I have had neither spirits or temper to render the employment a pleasant one. The conduct of certain men, in a certain place, has teased me more than I can easily describe to you, and the alternate hopes and fears which the accounts we have sometimes recd of the probable course which would be pursued there, have kept me in a state of excitement not the most pleasant in the world. In this frame of mind, I determined not to write to you ‘till something should leak out which might warrant me in the indulgence of hope.

     I do not say that this is precisely the present state of things, but I do say, that I feel less despondence, from a few hints given to me yesterday, than heretofore. Brother Story, (who, with our good chief, are little less anxious on the subject than myself) wished me not to go even as far as I have done, in the above intimation, until our information should be less equivocal than it is. But my disposition is naturally sanguine, and hoping that, on this occasion, it is not more so than circumstances Justify, I could no longer withhold the expression of my wishes and of the sincere regard & affection with which I am truly my dear Sir yr friend