THE FACTS CONCERNING THE RECENT RESIGNATION. 



Washington, Dec. 2, 1867. 



I HAVE resigned. The Government appears to go on much the same, but there 

 is a spoke out of its wheel, nevertheless. I was clerk of ihe Senate Committee 

 on Conchology, and I have thrown up the position. I could see the plainest 

 disposition on the part of the other members of the Government to. debar me 

 from having any voice in the counsels of the nation, and so I could no longer 

 hold office and retain my self-respect. If I were to detail all the outrages that 

 were heaped upon me during the six days that I was connected with the Govern- 

 ment in an official capacity, the narrative would fill a volume. They appointed me 

 clerk of that Committee on Conchology, and then allowed me no amanuensis to play 

 billiards with. I would have borne that, lonesome as it was, if I had met with that 

 courtesy from the other members of the Cabinet which was my due. But I did not. 

 Whenever I observed that the head of a department was pursuing a wrong course, 

 I laid down everything and went and tried to set him right, as it was my duty to 

 do ; and I never was thanked for it in a single instance. I went, with the best 

 intentions in the world, to the Secretary of the Navy, and said — 



" Sir, I cannot see that Admiral Farragut is doing anything but skirmishing around' 

 there in Europe, having a sort of pic-nic. Now, that may be all very well, but it 

 does not exhibit itself to me in that light. If there is no fighting for him to do, let 

 him come home. There is no use in a man having a whole fleet for a pleasure 

 excursion. It is too expensive. Mind, I do not object to pleasure excursions for 

 the naval officers — pleasure excursions that are in reason — pleasure excursions that 



are economical. Now, they might go down the Mississippi on a raft " 



You ought to have heard him storm ! One would have supposed I had commit- 

 ted a crime of some kind. But I didn't mind. I said it was cheap, and full of 



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