Theodore Tilton forwards a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, and reports that he is studying Missouri "affairs" on the spot, having had "full conferences" in St. Louis with the "leading radicals of the State". Tilton relates that the plan outlined in the enclosed letter seems to him to be a "necessary precaution" in the effort towards "reordering the institutions of the Southern States". Tilton opines that the "ballot ought to be consitutionally denied" to illiterate persons in the Southern States, with suffrage (regardless of race) only granted upon the ability to read.