It was mighty pleasant news, & I am glad you told it me. Now I think Japan is going to have a chance—as good a one as we can give her through our representatives. And I think, too, that our trade, out there, is going to have a new impulse. Moreover, I am going to cherish the hope that that treaty will come forward again, & not meet, this time, with the humiliating fate it met at the hands of Mr. Evarts when it was presented before. Still, only God knows, as to that.

I think it is lovely, the way General Grant conceives an idea & then sails right in & carries it out, on the spot, instead of fooling around, as the average man would. And very lovely, too, is his courteous way of listening to all sorts of people’s projects & never once laying his hand on his shot-gun.

With the heartiest congratulations,