1 Clemens probably returned to Elmira from Washington on Saturday, 9 July, or the day following. He and Olivia presumably did not return to Buffalo until, at the earliest, 22 August, a day after the memorial service for Jervis Langdon (7 Aug 70 to Larned, n. 1). But since he was associated with Buffalo in the public mind, Clemens headed this letter accordingly.

2 See RI 1993, 678–79, and ET&S1, 262–66.

3 Clemens may have promised a “puff” when he saw Fitch in Washington on 6 July and encouraged him to lecture. The present letter was too late for inclusion in the Boston Lyceum Bureau’s promotional magazine for the 1870–71 season, published shortly before 13 July. Redpath used most of it (“I know him . . . statements.”), however, in newspaper advertisements for Fitch’s 29 November lecture in Boston (see the textual commentary). He surely also used it to advertise the other lectures Fitch delivered during a two-week tour that concluded before the third session of the Forty-first Congress convened on 5 December (3 Dec 70 to Redpath, n. 2). The entire letter appeared in the bureau’s promotional magazines for 1871–72, 1872–73, and 1873–74, when Fitch, having been defeated for re-election to Congress, lectured more extensively. Redpath’s successor, George H. Hathaway, reprised it in 1883–84 for Fitch’s return to the platform (“New Publications,” Boston Advertiser, 13 July 70, 2; BDUSC, 187, 1000; Redpath 1876; Pond, xxv; Lyceum: 1871, 27; 1872, 37; 1873, xii; 1883, 21).