September 24 Thursday – Grover Cleveland replied to Sam’s Sept. 23:

My dear Sir: / Your letter is this moment received; and I am so pleased with it and so grateful for it, that I must put every thing else aside for a few minutes, and thank you for your kind, sensible, and hard-headed words.

      I want to do some good in the cause of reform and better government. I think my back is stiff enough to withstand palpable pressure and cursing; but I have every day to guard my temper lest in an explosion aimed at certain provoking hunters after mice, I should injure a good cause. If your boy (if you have one) should demolish your most expensive vase in an effort to whack a mosquito he found upon it, you’d find it pretty hard to work coolly reason on the subject. I think like the mosquito but I want to save the vase if I can, and the boys certainly ought to be careful—that’s surely mild talk, under the circumstances.

Thanking you again and all the good men in Hartford that feel as you do, I am / Yours sincerely… [MTP].