John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[173] Washington, have come into my possession, and while they are models of brevity and clearness, relating mostly to current business management, they do not possess sufficient general interest to justify publication in this narrative. They show the most watchful care over the business of the paper, the cost of telegraphing, the subjects on which information was required, and the necessity of not being beaten by rivals. They also show the high esteem in which he held Mr. Carter as a correspondent, as a desirable contributor to the Cyclopaedia, and as a personal friend for whose son he had secured an appointment to West Point, but they throw no light on public affairs.

The fact is that Dana was for the most part of his life far too busy a man to write many letters of mere friendship, or to dwell much upon personal or public matters in his business correspondence; or, as he expressed it later, “If I don't write letters, it is because my brain and hand are so used up with other writing and other work that I have no strength or time left.” During the war between the States he had at times more leisure than while he was connected with the Tribune, and wrote more freely to his family and personal friends. One of his most valued correspondents for a period of ten or twelve years was William Henry Huntington, a college friend and classmate, a gentleman of refined tastes in both art and literature, and long a correspondent of the Tribune in Paris. Their relations seem to have been most intimate and affectionate, and the letters now in my possession, written by Dana, show that the affection which he felt for Huntington was fully shared by every member of his family. With here and there a suggestion about business matters or an allusion to the restrictions imposed upon his freedom of action by the Tribune executive committee, these letters abound in friendly gossip about their common acquaintances, the hard times, and the bank suspensions of 1857. On November