ALS, one page both sides, 8 x 10, March 25, 1851. Handwritten letter to noted publisher Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, penned shortly after the difficult election in which Fish was selected to his first term as a U.S. Senator, in full: “I send herewith two copies of the State Register of 13th inst. & also of 17th inst. One copy of each number was sent to me (as a subscriber, I hope I may be forgiven, but I take it upon the principle of writing to know what mischief the Devil is about) the other copy of each I procured from Albany. I have marked the copies sent to me. You will perceive that in each of those sent me is omitted an article published in the other—that omitted in my copy of the 17th related directly to myself—why the other article would have been omitted I know not.
I do not know enough of the craft of newspaper writing to judge whether these omissions were unavoidable, or accidental, or intentional, but I remember that we were greatly scandalized some years since by the discovery of the fact that the Democrats were circulating documents altered to suit different latitudes.
For reasons which you will appreciate, I do not desire any publicity given to my name as calling attention to this strange coincidence, and yet if you think proper to make any allusion to it, & it became necessary to refer to me, I should not object to your doing so. I should have called in person but am only now recovering from a severe illness which has left me very feeble & I move about with much difficulty & with considerable pain. I desire to preserve these copies of this beautiful paper for future reference & use. Please therefore after making such use as you may deem proper of them return them under cover to me.” In fine condition.
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