The telegraph being down, Mariposa remains nearly in statu quo. At the last accounts the men had attempted or been about to attempt to take possession of one of the mines & hold it for themselves, but had been prevailed upon to wait to see if I would not consent to lend it to them amicably, which with the consent of the creditors I have agreed to do. There has been no violence—no work this month.

I have been quietly feeling my way toward a San Francisco newspaper—of which I may have something to say by & by. I confess that the San Franciscans grow upon me. There is much the difference between New York & S.F that there is between London & New York, but with the important difference that the line between honest and dishonest men in business seems to be more sharply drawn here than in New York & the town being small everybody is known for one or the other. The honest men reign here. They do so apparently even in the city government a good deal.

I have just read your note in the Post on class representation. The Times article have not seen. I don’t agree with you as to the probable working of the plan, but if I did, I should say it was no more practicable to have it adopted than to carry the city sewage up hill by gravity. I am sorry to see the proposition or suggestion, for it will only help to prevent effort in the right direction. It is what all the rich rascals [319]in New York are always saying & excusing themselves by saying. Improvement has got to come slowly through a general improvement of society. As the rich men become somewhat wearied from excessive business excitements & more general in their interests, more comprehensive in their intelligence & more unselfishly patriotic, and as the poor become more stable, become more frequently house-owners or lease holders & less frequently tenement lodgers, as rents are reduced & they live in a more civilized way, as the schools are improved substantially and the proportion of foreign born-population is reduced &c &c—as the Herald is overcome and a respectable press caters to the real literary wants of the working class, your government will improve. Thus & essentially no other wise, in my judgment, & the more the rich & educated sort speculate on improvements of structure by constitutional provisions—especially by provisions recognizing classes—the lazier & more traitorous to American Society will they be, & the slower & more expensive will be the progress of improvement. I can’t tell you how such a proposition offends my instincts. I hate to listen to it more than a Christian hates to listen to the proposition of annihilation of the human soul. I will listen to it of course—& I won’t (for argument’s sake) deny that it may be reasonable—but the mere fact that it so offends me at the first blush is a prima facie indication of its impracticableness & hence of its mischievousness.

All the time I think you greatly overestimate the comparative badness of the New York government. I have not the least faith that a government by the Central Park Commission, or the Sanitary Commission or the Mariposa Company Trustees or by Trinity Church or the Union or Century Club would on the whole accomplish as much of the proper purposes of government at as little cost of money and with as little demoralization of the people.