I enclose a copy of Gantt’s speech at the Cooper Institute, the other evening. I presume that you will get it in your files, but may not have your attention drawn to it. The occasion was a very interesting one. Dr Bellows spoke well and Mr Gantt was a fair representative I should conjecture of the better type of Southern or South western man. It was a curious coincidence that Gen Anderson should come onto the stage at the time he did. Together they represented the Alpha and the Omega of the Rebellion and the audience seemed to understand this for he was most warmly and heartily received.

I do not suppose that you find “the New Path” among your newspapers. I intend to ask Mrs Olmsted to take out the back numbers for your edification. It is an art paper of the Naturalistic or Pre Raphaelite school and Mr Cook and others write for it. I am anathema maranatha but kiss the rod and am really glad that a thoughtful little paper has been started, with the idea of giving architecture its true place among the arts and of basing all study for Painting, Architecture or Sculpture on earnest naturalistic drawing. I should like to know how the tone of the paper strikes you, perhaps you may think it worth while to pen down a sketch of the Mariposa scenery at some time, for its pages.

It has struck me at times that it might be well before too long a time has elapsed, to present a sort of report to the public about the C.P. I mean for you to describe as it were how far the thing had been carried and what remained to be done, so that there should be as little confusion of ideas in the public mind as possible on this subject. I do not think that the Commrs need be very much considered. We are not bound to them in any way now and have a right to present the idea as a whole. Of course it would attract attention and might keep the powers that be from doing as much harm as they otherwise will be likely in time to do if unrestrained. [183] Pilat tells me that the extension is being carried out pretty much in accordance with the plan. He was not in favor of the central road himself when his opinion was asked, preferring to leave the scenery intact, but before resigning and indeed afterwards I pressed on Green the absolute necessity in our view of leaving and entering the park at this point with a favorable impression of its size and sufficiency, which no road creeping round its edges would do. If Pilat stays I think the leading outlines will be fairly preserved. He is working with me a little here and there now on other things. A survey is being made of the Newhaven district but nothing is at all settled. You will remember that when I left for England, Green deducted per diem for salary and I never could get any satisfaction. Lately I put the matter in the hands of Judge Monell as a matter of principle as I thought it a bad precedent and he I believe commenced a suit. He came to see me several times about it and at first told me that Green was very anxious that I should return to the C.P. and that he M. could not see why I should not. I did not argue the matter much with him but told him to go ahead and get a settlement. After a most tedious delay he succeeded in getting the money and when he gave me the cheque he seemed to have a realising sense that there might be very good reasons for not desiring to act in perpetual conjunction with the Treasurer & Comptroller.

In thinking over what I said in my last letters it seems that I should add a few words and then drop the subject for ever. When we commenced work it was quite evident to me that you were not pursuing this matter either for the love of Art, Fame or money, and I met you and rejoiced to meet you in the same spirit. I believed that this work was chiefly an example of the art of design, incidentally of the art of administration. You thought the administration all inclusive and the design secondary. When therefore I speak of my interests, I mean that the dignification of the art element in contradistinction to the administration element was a natural thing for me to work for and insist on and this I did not press, except a little now & then by way of counterpoise. If you look closely you will see that if you failed to carry out your full intentions it was not for want of anything I could do to sustain you—except as already admitted, in the matter of the A in C resignation.

In my first letter it was not ungenerous to compel you to forget, having a personal purpose to serve, confessedly, nor was it possible to get at the facts without leaving out all the love, all the heart, all the life for the time being. It would have been much better to have left the whole thing for time to settle, but this was not possible.

If I had gone to California & you had staid here, I should have dismissed the subject from my mind with entire confidence and the paragraphs I referred to would have made no particular impression. But the painful impression was that I must either sustain this view to some [184]extent or else appear to be not of one mind with you; perhaps if I had been entirely strong and well with the prospect of remaining so, I should have seen my way through this as through other things but I felt otherwise and I felt that your best interest as well as mine demanded that I should write to you in a plain business way. I thought it was a plain business way—but I see that it could not fail to be read by you, as you read it—and thus at one blow, the whole delicate structure of an affectionate personal relation, invaluable to me, was I am afraid, destroyed, but I cannot, I will not believe that this is really so. I feel that I have well deserved your affection and that I have returned it with earnestness. My letter was ill conceived, over-done and ungentle, but it is but a letter, and altho it gave you pain and uneasiness and led you to form altogether wrong impressions, I think that you will have penetration enough to understand now that it is impossible for me to have had any such thoughts as it led you to suppose I had. So I leave the subject, never to return to it.

I hope to see Mrs Olmsted on the 13th before leaving It seems a long tedious journey for her and the little ones but I hope she will rejoin you in good health and spirits. My wife is expecting daily to be confined and I am glad to say is pretty strong and cheery. I look forward to our all meeting again here at no very remote period. I used to tell you that you would be wanted for the public service even in the old romantic days, but you would not listen. Perhaps you will not now but I think you will allow me to be