Nathan Sargent from Salmon P. Chase, Oct. 24, 1870

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Narragansett, R.I.  Oct. 24, 1870

Thank you for your sympathy my old friend.
<br.I am far from thinking that, when men occupying particular positions in the public mind are taken away, the world suffers any great loss.  I am persuaded that they have done their work, and that other men are better fitted for the new circumstances of the world than they were.

For myself, I look upon the work which I had to do as nearly done.  It would have been a gratification to me to have finished the currency according to my own ideas; but very likely the ideas of others are better. I refer particularly to the restoration of specie payments and to the declaration as constitutional law that Congress has no power to make anything else than gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts.  Whether I shall live to see this or the reverse is for the Divine Wisdom to determine.  I shall not be at Washington during