) THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 269 



HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. 



NUMBER ONE. 



The time is not remote when the agricultural history of this country will command quite as 

 much attention as its political or military history ; and it is the duty of such as possess 

 evidence not known to the public, showing the progress of agriculture, the difficulties 

 encountered, or surmounted, to contribute the same as a part of the rural literature of 

 the age. History will concern itself with facts and principles, and with little beyond. 

 It has suited the-- purposes of the New York Tribune, Albany Eoening Journal, 

 Rochester Democrat, aud other journals that sympathise with them at the North, as 

 well as several ultra sectional papers at the South, to attack the proprietor of the Genesee 

 Farmer, and represent him as the active partizan of the late Administration, and the 

 particular favorite of Mr. Fillmore. Similar charges are substantially preferred by the 

 Boston Journal of Agriculture of May last, in the following words : 



" Our Caleb Quotem, who is at once an M. D., editor of two agricultural papers, publisher of one 

 or two political sheets, and political stump-speaker, Agricultural Clerk in the Patent Office, and 

 seed-raiser in general to the same." 



Allowing the above statement to be all true, which it is not, it would appear that 

 this " M. D." is an industrious man, which is more than can be said of some of his 

 assailants. As to the assertion that we raised seeds for the Patent Office, it is wholly 

 untrue. We were never employed to grow seeds of any kind for gorernment, and 

 never was paid a dollar for such service. " Mr. Soule, chairman of the committee on 

 Agriculture in the Senate, introduced, by unanimous consent, a joint resolution to pro- 

 vide for the production of seeds required for distribution at the Patent Office. The 

 resolution appropriated one thousand dollars to produce such improved seeds of gi'ain, 

 grass, and vegetables, as may be wanted at the Patent Office ; the same to be expended 

 under the direction of Daniel Lee, Clerk of the Agricultural department of said office." 



So soon as this resolution appeared in the proceedings of the Senate, it was appended 

 to a note from the Secretary of the Interior, of which the following is a copy : 



"Makch, 27, '52. 

 " Sir : I beg leave to ask whether the above resolution was submitted at your instance. 



" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

 "Dr. Daniel Lee. "Alx. H. H. STUART." 



The letter of Mr. Stuart received the following reply : 



Agricultural Rooiis, Patent Office, March 29, '52. 

 Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 28th inst., in which you 

 ask if a resulutfon therein mentioned, and offered by Mr. Soule in the Senate, "was submitted at 

 ray instance." I answer, that it was not. I have the honor to be, 



Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

 Hon. Alex II. 11. Stuart, Sec'y of the Interior. DANIEL T^l^ , 



Had the Secretary been friendly to the Agricultural Clerk, or had the latter beea a 

 partizan of the President, as has been a thousand times falsely asserted, a member of 

 the Cabinet would not have opposed the resolution of the chairman of the Agritultural 

 committee, and attempted to hold a subordinate clerk in the Patent Office responsible 

 for the official action of a United States Senator. As a personal favor to the Agricul- 

 tural Clerk, Mr. Soule did not press his resolution to its final passage, which he 

 introduced at his own instance, because two-thirds of the seeds distributed he knew to 

 be dead and worthless. 



The fact was known to many Senators and members of the House, that we did every 

 thing in our power to prevent the sending out, under the patronage of the government, 

 so many very common and valueless seeds ; but we were constantly oyer-ruled by one 

 whose character is drawn to life by Dr. Stansbury in the following letter : 



