Woodrow Wilson to Mary Allen Hulbert Peck

The first week here has come to a close; the first novelty and excitement has worn off; we are beginning to look about us and take our bearings like those who have accepted the situation and come to stay; and at last, with the comparative quiet of Sunday, has come the opportunity, for which I have waited with such impatience, to write to my dear, dear friend of whom I have thought so often the days through,—and for whose happiness I pray every night of my life with a depth of earnestness and anxiety which I am sure even she cannot realize. How real the dear friendship seems that has grown up between us, and how your pain and travail of spirit has seemed to deepen and intensify it! As events and distractions thicken about me, that seems to grow more distinct, more permanent, more real, like a verdant isle in the midst of shifting seas,—a place to rest up, and from which to look forth with reassurance, with freshened spirits, with a heart made stout and calm again! If only it could seem the same to you and give you rest and peace! It will, I am sure. You have not got your bearings yet, since the dear lady, upon whom you used, I think unconsciously, to lean, was taken away. How self–confident and unconquerably strong you used to seem as you fought the days through when I first met you! It was all so complex, and you were so surrounded with tasks and difficulties. And now it is all so simple, all reduced to a single situation, with Allen at the centre, and the problem for you is only watchfulness and endurance,— an understanding heart, sympathy, patience (oh so much patience!) and no action (for you, who are so used to action and so fitted for it) until an occasion came which you cannot anticipate or prepare for! Courage, dear lady, courage of the new kind, in quietness and waiting! We are with you in thoughts and in prayer—comprehending always.
All goes well with us. What I have done, and the men I have chosen are approved with most unusual cordiality and accord. God give me a clear head, good counsellors, and a pure heart; and bless all the dear people who, like yourself, hearten and support and dignify me with your confidence and affection.