PS Your extra copies are ready & will be forwarded.
New Haven Novr 1, 1844
My dear sir,
Yours of the 27th with the commn for the Journal is at hand and the paper will soon be in type & will be forwarded to you & I have given orders for the 20 extra copies. Before this letter goes I will also ascertain with respect to the extras of the late correspondence & trust that they have been reserved, & if not (which I should regret), we will forward to you our own reserved copies; we always have half a dozen struck for ourselves. I am very glad to have Mr Owen’s letter & your additional remarks. I supposed that the proof of Dr Deane’s last rejoinder was forwarded to you & him, agreeable to the orders given the printer, but I now suppose it was neglected until it was too late; for, fearing that in the winding up it might be neglected, I called at the office especially to see that they attended to it. Had I supposed you would not see it, I should have objected to those personal things. I cannot sufficiently regret that you did not at once express to me your dissatisfaction as to the manner in which I mentioned Dr Deane & you in the address at Boston. I intended merely historical and chronological justice & thought that the more ample terms in which you were spoken of in the same sentence covered your claims. It is obvious that I would not, when I knew you were to be present to hear, venture on anything that was not intended to be both true & fair. I know that I should be incapable of doing it under any circumstances, as I trust you also believe: but had you been frank with me, I would at once had [sic] put the matter right with the association and modified the language before publication so as to satisfy you, which would
In a letter to Edward Hitchcock, Benjamin Silliman regrets how he spoke of Hitchcock and James Deane during an address he gave in Boston and assures Hitchcock that he has always held him in the highest regard and has always backed Hitchcock's discovery claims. Silliman states that when Deane recently contacted him about some new discoveries, he suggested that Deane write to Hitchcock about them as an overture to restoring good relations between the two, and says he believes Hitchcock will be able to put the past incidents behind him and move forward. Silliman ends the letter with a brief description of his own past troubles with Charles Lyell and how they have been able to remain on good terms.