fact and of business, and said never a word of my sincere gratitude to
you for all your generous support, or of my hope that it might be
continued. Forgive me, and forget my manners!

Faithfully, yours,
WOODROW WILSON.

To which letter Colonel Harvey sent the following reply:

(Personal)

Franklin Square
New York, January 4, 1912.

MY DEAR WILSON:

Replying to your note from the University Club, I think it should get
without saying that no purely personal issue could arise between you
and me. Whatever anybody else may surmise, you surely must know that
in trying to arouse and further your political aspirations during the
past few years I have been actuated solely by the belief that I was
rendering a distinct public service.

The real point at the time of our interview was, as you aptly put it,
one simply "of fact and of business," and when you stated the fact to
be that my support was hurting your candidacy, and that you were
experiencing difficulty in finding a way to counteract its harmful
effect, the only thing possible for me to do, in simple fairness to
you, no less than in consideration of my own self-respect, was to
relieve you of your embarrassment so far as it lay within my power to