May 1.
Dear Daggett—
I want to go to Washington, but it ain’t any use, business-wise, for Congress won’t bother with anything but President-making. My publisher got me to send a letter of his to Blaine a month or two ago, in which our grievance was fully set forth. I didn’t believe Blaine would interest himself in the matter, & I was right. You [MS page 2] just get that letter from Blaine, & cast your eye over it, & try to arrive at a realizing sense of what a silly & son-of-‸a-‸bitch of a law the present law against book-piracy is. I believe it was framed by an goddamd idiot, & passed by a Congress of goddamd muttonheads.
Now you come up here—that is the thing to do. [I,] also have Scotch whisky, certain lemons, & hot water, & struggle with the same every night.
Ys Ever
Mark.
[MS page 3] If you want to see how thoroughly foolish section 4964 is, just read it & substitute the words “U. S. treasury note” for the w “copy of such “counterfeit U. S. treasury note” for the words “copy of such book.”
My books sell at $3.50 a copy, their Canadian counterfeit at 25 & 50 cents. If I could [sieze] all the Canadian counterfeits I could no more use them to my advantage than the Government could use bogus notes to its advantage. The only desirable & useful thing, in both cases, [MS page 4] is the utter suppression of the counterfeits. The government treats its counterfeiters as criminals, but mine as erring gentlemen. What I want is that [mine] shall be treated as criminals too.
S L C
[MS page 5] Hon. R. M. Daggett, M. C. | Washington | D C [postmarked:] hartford conn. may 1 6pm
