It was a source of grief to him just at this time that his brother Richard had changed his political faith, and had announced his intention of voting for the reelection of President Lincoln.  In a long letter of September 24, 1864, gently chiding him for thus going over to the Abolitionists, the elder brother again states his reasons for remaining firm in his faith:—­

“I supposed, dear brother, that on that subject you were on the same platform with Sidney and myself.  Have there been any new lights, any new aspects of it, which have rendered it less odious, less the ’child of Satan’ than when you and Sidney edited the New York Observer before Lincoln was President?  I have seen no reason to change my views respecting abolition.  You well know I have ever considered it the logical progeny of Unitarianism and Infidelity.  It is characterized by subtlety, hypocrisy and pharisaism, and one of the most melancholy marks of its speciousness is its influence in benumbing the gracious sensibilities of many Christian hearts, and blinding their eyes to their sad defection from the truths of the Bible.

“I know, indeed, the influences by which you are surrounded, but they are neither stronger nor more artful than those which our brave father manfully withstood in combating the monster in the cradle.  I hope there is enough of father’s firmness and courage in battling with error, however specious, to keep you, through God’s grace, from falling into the embrace of the body-and-soul-destroying heresy of Abolitionism.”

In another long letter to his brother Richard, of November 5, he firmly but gently upholds his view that the Constitution has been violated by Lincoln’s action, and that the manner of amending the Constitution was provided for in that instrument itself, and that:  “If that change is made in accordance with its provisions, no one will complain”; and then he adds:—­

“But it is too late to give you the reasons of the political faith that I hold.  When the excitement of the election is over, let it result as it may, I may be able to show you that my opinions are formed from deep study and observation.  Now I can only announce them comparatively unsustained by the reasons for forming them.

“I am interrupted by a call from the committee requesting me to conduct General McClellan to the balcony of the Fifth Avenue Hotel this evening, to review the McClellan Legion and the procession.  After my return I will continue my letter.

“12 o’clock, midnight. I have just returned, and never have I witnessed in any gathering of the people, either in Europe or in this country, such a magnificent and enthusiastic display.  I conducted the General to the front of the balcony and presented him to the assemblage (a dense mass of heads as far as the eye could reach in every direction), and such a shout, which continued for many minutes, I never heard before, except it may have been at the reception in London of Bluecher and Platoff after the battle of Waterloo.  I leave the papers to give you the details.  The procession was passing from nine o’clock to a quarter to twelve midnight, and such was the denseness of the crowd within the hotel, every entry and passageway jammed with people, that we were near being crushed.  Three policemen before me could scarcely open a way for the General, who held my arm, to pass only a few yards to our room.