New York March 19^th, 1822
Dear Father —
So much time has elapsed since I heard
from any of the Family that I begin to feel
solicitous about the health of my Friends —
I have been busy today and have only time
now to communicate to you some proposals
of importance which I have lately received
from my worthy and substantial friend Ogden
Hoffman Esq In a letter received from
him on Monday last he tells me that Mr
Duer will resign to him on the first of May
next his office and his business — Benton has
offered to purchase One half of the business
and continue with Hoffman — but Hoffman
with a view to a partnership with me
says he will get the concern alone — The offer
which he makes me is as liberal as I could
wish — From the day I take my license
(next October) One half of the profits of all
the business of the establishment — excepting Chan-
cery practice of which I may have One third
till I get my license as Solicitor — After that an

equal division in that branch of the business
One Fourth of the Costs if he succeeds in
becoming Attorney for the Bank in that busi-
ness — And Counsel fees to be arranged hereafter
I have said that I thought this a
liberal offer — It is so because it is giving me
an equal share in all the business which
I could possibly have if I were alone in
business — And a handsome compensation
for my labor in such business as is more
peculiarly his own — To all this I have no
doubt my Father would readily yield his
approbation — But there is one question which
is a preliminary — Mr Hoffman very justly
thinks that if he extends to me so much friend-
ship he of course has a right to a recipro-
city — And therefore wishes that I should re-
turn to Goshen and commence the business
with him at once on Mr Duers leaving it
apparently as a Clerk but in fact as one who
has an interest in the business — The greatest
difficulty will be in setting off with the
concern — and it therefore is an act of justice

in me to lend my assistance to those labors
of which I wish to share the profits
I submit to your good judgement whether
the actual experience in my own business would
not be equal to my improvement here — espe-
cially as what I would lose in actual experience
I could make up in reading — And Mr H— of-
fers some small compensation for the
sacrifice which he supposes that I shall
make by leaving Mr Anthon’s Office — New
York I need not say is agreeable to me
but when my convenience
interferes with my per-
manent advantage I am willing to
act as prudence directs — I do not know
what deduction Mr Anthon would make
from my fee if I left him probably One
half — I shall wait your answer for a
few days before I answer Mr Hoffman’s let-
ter upon the subject — My Love to the fam-
ily and particularly to Mother
Your &c
Wm. Henry Seward

Saml. S. Seward Esq
Post Master Florida
Orange Co
NEW YORK
MAR 20
FREE
hW^m H. Seward
19 March 1822