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Washington Oct. 21, 1861
Rev Warren

You wonder why I stay so long._ The
fact is you cannot do any thing here in Washington very
fast, & there are many strings to pull, & some to unpull.
I have not even used my letters of introduction except to
Gen'l M^cClellan—as I want to get every thing fixed & in
a nutshell so that when applied to, Gov't will not hesitate to approve at
once & cordially endorse—The National Convention of
Young Men seems to hang fire—we do not know here what
is the reason. The central com, at Phil., are to call it but
we dont yet hear a word from them. Great bodies move
slow, & it may be that by some jealousies the thing will
be delayed until golden opportunities are past — perhaps
fail altogether. We hope not. If however this should be
the case, we must do the next best thing which is to
press our work right on in the same channels such as in some [form endeavour] I am
now opening for them. —The young men here stand ready to
cooperate with us (in that case) & the work has already
assumed so large a form that we can get a Commission
of most respectable character from the materials we
already have in hand.— I dont say this to discourage you from pushing
on the National Young Men (as previously advised) but to show
you how this thing must go any how. I am now just
shaping the mode of distribution here with my own agency in connection with Ballantyne
& the young men just as I think it will have to go if the
larger body take hold of it, ie Ballantyne keeping the Depot

[sideways starting on left]
P.S. Send on 2000 Hy. Bks. immediately
Send your old
almanacks—
they will
go
and more of
your un
cov^d narration
& memoir.
Have read your
letter to many
chaplains—they
will help.
Dennison will
give you a
scene at
Hatteras
for fron-
tispice, &
[illegible] a
[illegible]
breaking
scene—
your paper
will have
to be larger-
Hurry up
the German
tracts as
NYk folks will
have the ad
-vantage of us.

[see transcription of news clipping on next page]