Your recent letter received, and I intended to reply at once, but unremitting pressure of other duties made it impossible for me to do so.

After you wrote me the letter, to which I replied from Hendersonville and in which you said you did not propose to make any more war speeches, I deemed the incident closed, and did not consider that the situation would demand any further attention at my hands.

But your recent letter seems to treat my appointment of you as a delegate ti the National Farmers’ Congress as some sort of an endorsement of your attitude. This view of your appointment seems to be entertained by some of your friends and some of your enemies. Your letter, and the contention of the friends and enemies above mentioned, make it proper for me to state to you the exact facts. The rule in the office is, that when delegates are to be appointed to conventions of this kind the head of the department of the State government that is chiefly interested in the subjects that will come before the convention suggests a list of delegates to be sent, and this list is rubber-stamped in the office of the Secretary to the Governor without being brought to his personal attention. This is precisely what occurred with respect to the list of delegates recently appointed to the National Farmers’ Congress. I was out of the City and did not see the list until the names appeard in the papers.

In view of your own construction of this appointment, which, as above stated, seems to be shared by both your friends and your enemies, candor compels me to say to you that I have never dreamed of endorsing your attitude toward the government under which you live in this supreme crisis. On the other hand I think, and have not hesitated to say, that you are fundamentally, and, it appears hopelessly, wrong. Your views on economic questions are as unsound and, in my opinion, almost as hurtful as your views upon the war. Instead of devoting your splendid energies to constructive policies, tending to improve living conditions among our population, the net result of your speeches is to create bitterness and strife instead of a spirit of mutual sympathy and helpfulness between the farmers and other citizens of the State. Indeed, you seem to have fallen completely under the influence of those two arch fanatics, Tom Watson and LaFollette, and in this way have destroyed your power to effectively help the people whose interest you have at heart.

I do not for one moment question the sincerity of your convictions, and I am sure that you will not question mine, but the fact remains, as sad as it is certain, that you have simply thrown away a great opportunity to be a constructive leader in the public thought and life of the State.

This letter is not confidential, and you are at liberty to make such use of it as you may deem proper.