To the Five Just Men, Salutations and Blessings!
Allow me to thank you, my esteemed friend, for your faithful zeal! . . .
I should like to learn something of the general condition of our affairs. I am building away here in Bayreuth without knowing but that in the end we shall be left in the lurch. In May all of you must make up your minds to establish the general treasury in Bayreuth, with my excellent friend, the banker Feustel. I now see that I must begin to have a word to say, in order to give the undertaking a focussing point.
I believe the “just men” will support me! . . . As for the rest, I place all sorts of pleasant anticipation in the German national spirit, upon which I am so dependent! . . .
That which gives me pleasure is a man of your sort, valued friend; you know what—and why?
A thousand thanks for all the friendly tokens of your kindness and love; I have taken cognisance of them with great emotion!
Again cordial greetings from
Yours faithfully,
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 15