18.
Albany Tuesday evening
January 11th 1831.
Weed is very much with me and I
enjoy his warmth of feeling-a politician
skillful in design and persevering in
execution-whose exciting principle is
personal friendship or opposition and
not self interest; that is just Thurlow Weed.
How much more I like him than I
should if he was selfish and avaricious
you know me well enough to form an
opinion. He is I believe warm in his
attachments to me. He gives for charity's
sake, is generous to a fault, kind beyond
description, sincere beyond most mens
sincerity, open hearted, but he and I
differ in this that my thoughts wander
from all our commiserating homeward.
What a contrast to one of my legislative neighbors
who lives here. ^who He^ is
morbidly ambitious, he came here expecting
to make a figure in the house, he fears
to thrust himself into the arena and yet
is unhappy because he is not a victor
without having courage to enter the lists.
His conversation is always upon his own
disappointments. He has a wife at A
and talks much about her.
Maynard is a giant in intellect inde-
fatigably industrious, methodical, original
and persevering. He makes no protestations