Holograph, signed.

In this letter, Joseph Ricketson answers Deborah Weston's question: "What do you think of Dana?" Ricketson replies: "He belongs to the Seward Party---logic has dimmed his moral vision ...His is the 'laissez faire,' the time serving policy." For years, Joseph Ricketson has not voted "from conscientious scruples." Using various similes and anecdotes, Joseph Ricketson discloses that he voted the whole Republican ticket. He pays a poetic tribute to Massachusetts. Joseph Ricketson says: "McClellan is removed, the Window is open and the clear light & pure air already invigorates us. May [Ambrose Everett] Burnside be as 'loyal to humanity, and the instinct of our common nature,' & 'Disloyal to the Northern Pulpit & the Prejudice of Race, as when he unfurled the stars & stripes in sight of Roanoke, and took from that little canoe, the black man for his Pilot.'" Joseph Ricketson gives news of New Bedford people. Captain Thomas R. Rodman returned on a furlough and has been sick ever since he left Lynnfield. Joseph Ricketson reports: "The Brave Italian, Col. Maggi is at Warrenton with the Mass. 33'd ready for action any moment. I never saw a man so imbued with the spirit of Liberty as Maggi---he has the principles of Mazzini & the military qualifications of Garibald[i] combined. Should his life be spared, he will probably be promoted." [Moncure D.] Conway gave a lecture at the Lyceum that was "grand and electric---and universally liked."