452 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN 



XIII. 



To the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War. 



SIR, 



One of the raost gifted minds of the present day has said, with 

 how much truth n'importe, that " the world knows little of its 

 greatest men." If to contribute, therefore, in the slightest degree, 

 in making you better known to your countrymen though there 

 are many, and the number is rapidly increasing, who think they 

 know you well enough at present were to detract from your 

 chances of being rated even moderately among the distinguished 

 men of our time, I think I should desist from my present task. 

 That task would not have been entered upon if the matter for 

 which I have taken you in hand were not of a public and official 

 character, in which I am not at liberty to consult my private feel- 

 ings. You must submit, therefore, to be better known, even at the 

 imminent peril of your greatness ; for you have done something, 

 sir, besides " hanging out the banner," for which you ought to be 

 remembered and shall be. I do not allude to the military genius 

 you have evinced in the direction of the Seminole War, and still 

 less to the nice points of honour, as yet undetermined, between 

 you and the shade of Osceola. These, with some other matters, 

 belong to the impartial historian, who, in compassion to the living, 

 may be induced to defer his labours till you are dead. 



When the late secretary of the navy had succeeded in commit- 

 ting a felony upon his own reputation, by his extraordinary efforts 

 to destroy the Exploring Expedition; when a consecutive series 

 of defeats had attended his puny but vindictive efforts to accom- 

 plish that object ; when public opinion, with a unanimity that dis- 

 regarded all party lines, had fixed the imperishable seal of its 

 condemnation upon him ; when the House of Representatives con- 

 tained within its walls no individual so destitute of self-respect as 

 to raise his voice to palliate, much less to attempt to justify, the of- 

 fccial conduct of this cabinet minister, whose continuance in office 

 one day after the retirement of the late executive (to say nothing 

 of his appointment in the first place) was inexplicable to politicians 

 of both parties, as well as an enigma to the nation at large ; when, 



