able to mitigate, if not altogether to
obviate, existing difficulties by providing places for one
or more of the competitors in other branches of the public
service to which they are adapted & with which they would be
as well satisfied.

It has afforded me unfeigned satisfaction to learn, as I do
from all quarters, that you keep your own secrets in regard
to appointments, & don't feed every body with promises or
what they construe into promises--a practice which so many
public men are apt to fall into, & by which they make
themselves more trouble & subject themselves to more
discredit than they dream of. Persevere in that course,
consider carefully every case & make the selection which
your own unbiassed judgment designates as the best, & above
all let the people see as clear as day that you do not yield
yourself to, or make battle against, any cliques or sections
of the party, but act in good faith and to the best of your
ability for the good of the whole, and you may be assured
that the personal discontents which you would to some extent
occasion, if you had the wisdom of Solomon & were pure as an
angel, will do you no harm & be exceedingly evanescent in
their duration. The Democratic is a reasonable & a just
party & more than half of the business is done when they are
satisfied that the man they have elected means to do right.
The difficulty with a new administration is in the
beginning. At the start little matters may create a distrust
which it will take a series of good acts to remove. But once
a favourable impression is made & the people become
satisfied that the right thing is intended, it takes great
errors, often repeated, to create a counter current. Will
you excuse me if, from a sincere desire for your success, I
go farther & touch upon matters not political, or at least
not wholly so? Your situation of course excites envy &
jealousy on the part of some. It is impossible from the
character of man that it should be otherwise, bear yourself
ever so meekly & you cannot avoid it. There will therefore
in Albany, as well as elsewhere, be people who will make ill
natured remarks & there will be still more who will make it
their business, in the hope of benefitting themselves, to
bring you exaggerated accounts of what is