Dec 12 '68 Dear Jack,
I send you a few lines, though there is nothing new or special with me. I am still working here in the same place, and expect to be here all winter—(yet there is such a thing as a man's slipping up in his calculations, you know.) My health keeps good, & work easy. I often think of you, my loving boy, and think whether you are all right & in good health, & working on 2d avenue yet.
I suppose you received the letter I sent you. I got yours November 15, & sent you a letter about the 20th or 21st I believe. I have not heard from you since.
Congress began here last Monday. I have been up to see them in session. The halls they meet in are magnificent. The light comes all from the roof. The new part of the Capitol is very fine indeed. It is a great curiosity to any one that likes fine workmanship both in wood & stone. But I hope you will come here & see me, as you talked of—Whether we are indeed to have the chance in future to be much together & enjoy each other's love & friendship—or whether worldly affairs are to separate us—I don't know. But somehow I feel (if I am not dreaming) that the good square love is in our hearts, for each other, while life lasts.
As I told you in my previous letter, this city is quite small potatoes after living in New York. The public buildings are large & grand. Most of them are made of white marble, & on a far grander scale than the N. Y. City Hall; but the oceans of life & people, such as in N. Y. & the shipping &c, are lacking here. Still a young man ought to see Washington once in his life, any how. Then I please myself with thinking it will be a pleasure to you to be with me. Jack, I want you to write to me often as you can.