Brownson has for some time been expecting to receive the papers from Henry which will enable the latter to sell the horses and he hopes it is not too late. He is disappointed that his son did not come home. The senate has returned the brevets to the Secretary of war to be submitted to a Board for examination but Henry should have no apprehension because of his distinguished and meritorious services in the field. Brownson is displeased over the turn of events in Washington. Both parties seem to him about equally wrong and he has lost all sympathy with Charles Sumner . To give Congress the power to determine the question of suffrage would change radically the Constitution and make the government one of the people consolidated, not one of the people as States. The soveroignty rests in the states not in the people outside of State organizations and in the states collectively not severally as John C. Calhoun contended. The leading radicals in Congress if successful would entirely eliminate the federation element and make the government a centralized democracy. Andrew Johnson is violent, hotheaded and arbitrery but is right in defending States' rights although his defense is not placed on correct grounds. He committed a fatal error in repudiating the agreement between Sherman and Johnston. The governments which he organized in the seceding states are not legitimate and neither his nor Congress' recognition can make them legitimate however and Congress would have to admit their representatives, provided they took an oath to uphold the Constitution. In Brownson's opinion that President has already too much power and it will be increased in the present conflict with Congress, since the socialistic democracy can no more triumph than the egoistical. Brownson is interested in finding out Henry's reaction to his book. He is writing another called The Problem of the Age, designed to show the principle which reconciles Faith and Reason, Revelation and Science, Theology and Philosophy, Authority and Liberty, the Church and Society, Stability and Progress. He wishes to do for his age what St. Augustine did in De Civitate Dei and St. Thomas in his Contra Gentiles. Brownson considers his ambition greater than his ability but claims that all he has written and published in the last twenty-five years had a bearing on this ambition. Henry is asked to help in whatever way he can and to come and see his father as soon as he can. He is reminded to take the regrets crosses and disappointments of life with a light heart and cheerful confidence in God. :: III-3-a A.L.S. 4pp. 12mo.