Dear Sir: I accept, with great pleasure, the invitation of the Army of the Tennessee to be present at their re-union, & banquet in honor of our illustrious General Grant.

Would you mind doing me a favor? Col. Tuthill, Chairman of the Banquet Committee, has written & asked me to respond to the toast to “Woman.” I have replied, asking him to put another expert on that, & let me get up a toast to “The Babies.” If you should see him, I wish you would say to him that if my proposition disorders the programme too much, let it slide; but if it doesn’t, I think it is worth while to add the Babies to the show. Mainly, you see, it is new—the Babies have never yet had the slightest mention at a banquet, since Adam invented them. Plainly, this is not right. To neglect the Babies a while, is all right & proper—but enough of it is enough—let us draw the line at 6,000 years. I wish to holler for them—just this once. I like babies; I have had a baby myself—by proxy—indeed, two or three of them, & I am qualified to testify upon this great subject. Tell Tuthill to put this matter in my hands, & leave it there with the tranquil confidence which an enlightened man has in four aces,—he will say, himself, when I get through, “What bottomless deeps of learning this person has!”