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 theSenate Committee on Conchology, and I have thrown up the position. Icould see the plainest disposition on the part of the other members of thegovernment to debar me from having any voice in the counsels of the na-tion, and so I could no longer hold office and retain my self-respect. If Iwere to detail all the outrages that were heaped upon me during the sixdays that I was connected with the government in an official capacity,the narrative would fill a volume. They appointed me clerk of that Com-mittee on Conchology and then allowed me no amanuensis to play bil-liards with. I would have borne that, lonesome as it was, if I had metwith that courtesy from the other members of the Cabinet which was mydue. But I did not. Whenever I observed that the head of a departmentwas pursuing a wrong course, I laid down everything and went and triedto set him right, as it was my duty to do; and I never was thanked for itin a single instance. I went, with the best intentions in the world, to theSecretary of the Navy, and said:
"Sir, I cannot see that Admiral Farragut is doing anything but skir-mishing around there in Europe, having a sort of picnic. Now, that maybe all very well, but it does not exhibit itself to me in that light. If thereis no fighting for him to do, let him come home. There is no use in aman 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 eco-nomical. Now, they might go down the Mississippi on a raft--"
You ought to have heard him storm! One would have supposed I hadcommitted a crime of some kind. But I didn't mind. I said it was cheap,and full of republican simplicity, and perfectly safe. I said that, for atranquil pleasure excursion, there was nothing equal to a raft.
Then the Secretary of the Navy asked me who I was ; and when I toldhim I was connected with the government, he wanted to know in whatcapacity. I said that, without remarking upon the singularity of such aquestion, coming, as it did, from a member of that same government, Iwould inform him that I was clerk of the Senate Committee on Concholo-gy. Then there was a fine storm! He finished by ordering me to leave thepremises, and giving my attention strictly to my own business in future.My first impulse was to get him removed. However, that would harmothers besides himself, and do me no real good, and so I let him stay.
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