miles by land in a small stage, be three thousand miles from home, and remain three months without hearing one word? Will you take all my salary? If yes, then it's a bargain; but you must pay charges. One charge, to bring my carriage from Vera Cruz, two hundred and fifty dollars "right smack bang!" bringing horses, seventy-seven dollars,—that's cheap. I don't complain about bills; not at all, but give you a few items in case you wish to take the bargain. I wish I was a doctor, and could be called in to a few cases in this country; somebody would suffer. Don't ask me how I look, how I feel, or what I think. Take it for granted I look wise. I send you a small pitcher dug out of the ruins of this place; no doubt of its antiquity. I am determined to curtail every possible expense within my power. To come here and be miserable, and make nothing, would be a hard case. "No, sirree," you don't catch a weasel asleep. I am robbed a little bit every day; but they sha'n't rob me of all my salary. If my horses turn out well I expect to get eighteen hundred for them. If I can get away upon a leave of absence for four months, I guess I could save right smartly.

Ah! my dear fellow, I thank you-I thank you for your letter of the 24th of January, -the first tidings from home since my arrival in this distant region. Your letter was handed to me just as I was about to sit down to dinner; it was twilight. I sprang from the table and ran out to the door to get light enough to read it. Oh, you have no sort of conception of the excessive delight I experienced on reading it! I had made up my figures this morning that in nine days, if I heard nothing from home, I should be a maniac to a dead and everlasting certainty. Your letter and one from my wife, received at the same moment, have saved me from that terrible misfortune. And what a rascally letter it is, after all! I don't see how it had the impudence to travel in company with my wife's letter. Her letter told me of her gloom, melancholy, despondency, and misery in consequence of my absence. Yours tells me of her gayety, cheerfulness, happiness, and good looks by reason of the same thing. What a contrast!

But I won't quarrel with you, nohow, I was so rejoiced to hear once more from old Kentucky. No time to finish my letter; my boy Sam will be off in a few minutes.

Your friend,

R. P. LETCHER.

(J. J. Crittenden to Governor Thomas Metcalf.)

FRANKFORT, March 25, 1850.

MY DEAR SIR,-I have received and perused with great concern your letter of yesterday, and hasten to relieve your feelings and my own as far as I can by an immediate reply. You do me but justice in supposing me incapable of betraying or deceiving so old a friend as yourself. I am, indeed, incapable of deceiving any man intentionally, and my nature would revolt from the betrayal of one whose friendship I have valued and cherished so long as I have yours. For our friend Orlando Brown I would answer as for myself. It was during the last fall that, at your written request, I addressed a letter to the Secretary of War recommending your grandson, young Campbell, for appointment as one of the cadets at West Point. You were anxious for his appointment, and I felt a sincere pleasure in contributing all I could to your gratification. I accordingly recommended him zealously, and urged his appointment not only on account of his own qualifications but on account of his hereditary claims and the great consideration that was due to you, your wishes, and your public services. A prompt acknowledgment of that letter was received from the War Department, which I made known to you. I do not remember whether, when I wrote that letter, I was apprised that there was or was about to be a vacancy for a cadet from your district; nor do I recollect whether I recommended your grandson in general terms as a person that ought to be appointed, or specifically for a district appointment or one of the presidential appointments. In all this I was no doubt guided by your letter requesting my recommendation. I will write immediately for a copy of my letter, and will send it to you that you may see how earnestly I recommended your grandson. Some time after all this a friend stepped into my office (then generally thronged) and requested me to write a recommendation of a young Mr. Lashbrook for a cadet appointment. Upon his representation I did so, and without the least thought or apprehension that he and your grandson were seeking the same place or that there was any competition between them. Had such a thought ever crossed my mind, I should never have recommended young Lashbrook. No consideration would have induced me knowingly to recommend any one in opposition to your grandson; besides, I had no motive to do so disreputable a thing. I had no personal knowledge of young Lashbrook and was under no special obligation to his father. My letter in his son's behalf passed at once from my mind, and would probably never again have been remembered but for your late letter and the untoward circumstances that now recall it to my recollection.

The whole case, I suppose, is this: I have inadvertently given a letter in favor of young Lashbrook and produced an effect that I never contemplated. It is as though I had shot an arrow which, missing the mark it was aimed at, wounded a friend, an old and valued friend. I regret it most deeply; nor can that regret be altogether removed by my confidence that you will not attribute what has happened to any design or ill intention on my part. There will still remain the regret of having fallen into a blunder. I am not willing to make the painful addition to that regret of supposing that my letter in favor of Lashbrook was the cause of his being preferred to your grandson, for there was also my more earnest letter in favor of your grandson. But I will say no more on this most unpleasant subject, and can but hope that my explanation will be satisfactory to you. It will gratify me to receive a line from you as soon as your convenience will permit,-my feelings are much disturbed by this matter. Your friend, etc.,

Governor THOMAS METCALF.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1850.

Letter of Charles S. Morehead-R. Toombs to Crittenden-Letters of Crittenden

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to Letcher.

(C. S. Morehead to J. J. Crittenden.)

WASHINGTON, March 30, 1850.

Y DEAR SIR,-I received your letter of the 19th inst., for which I am very much obliged to you. All that is done here is so fully detailed in the daily papers that I need not attempt to give you an account of it. We are proceeding slowly with the debate on the absorbing topic growing out of our territorial acquisitions. I begin to believe that the whole question will be satisfactorily settled by admitting California as a State and making territorial governments for the residue of the country without the proviso. I regret, however, to state that we can hope for very little, if any, aid from the Whigs of the North in the House. I do not know one man that we can certainly count. There were eight or ten who promised to go with us, but I have reason to believe that the cabinet influence has drawn them off. Ewing and Meredith have evidently much feeling on the subject. Clayton, Crawford, Preston, and Johnson, I understand, will go for territorial bills. It is understood that General Taylor himself would be glad if such bills can be passed without the proviso, and would prefer such a settlement to the non-action policy. I cannot, however, speak from any personal knowledge on this subject. I have no doubt, however, as to the four members of the cabinet I have named. Indeed, it is indispensably necessary that it should be settled on this basis. There is not one single man from any slaveholding State who would agree to any other settlement, and I fear the very worst consequences from any attempt to force through the California bill without a full settlement. Fifty members, under our rules, can prevent the bill from being reported from the committee of the whole, where it now is, to the House. But I believe we have a decided majority for such a settlement as the South demands. There are twenty-nine Democrats from the North pledged to go with us. McClernand, from Illinois, has pre

pared a bill upon general but private consultation, embracing all the points of difference, and will offer it as a substitute, in a few days, to the California bill. If General Taylor would take open ground for a full settlement, we could get ten or twelve Whigs from the North. I believe he only wants a suitable occasion to do so. I never have in my life had so deep and abiding a conviction upon any subject as at this moment of the absolute necessity of a settlement of this whole question. I am pained to say that I fear that there are some Southern men who do not wish a settlement. We have certainly something to fear from this source, but they are so few that I think we can do without

them.

The cabinet, as you might well imagine from the present state of things, receives no support from any quarter. John Tyler had a corporal's guard who defended him manfully, but the cabinet has not one man that I can now name. Each member of the cabinet has a few friends, but I do not know one man who can be called the friend of the cabinet. I apprehend that they are not even friendly to each other. You may have noticed in the Union, if you ever read it, a charge against Ewing for having allowed a very large claim in which Crawford was interested personally to the extent of one hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. It turned out that Mr. Ewing had nothing to do with it; that Whittlesey reported that there was nothing due, and Meredith, in accordance with the opinion of the Attorney-General, allowed it. Now, Ewing, if I am not mistaken (but conjecture on my part, I acknowledge), through his friends is attacking Crawford for having a claim acted on in which he was interested while a member of the cabinet. Upon the whole, I am clearly of opinion that there is but one safe course for General Taylor to pursue, and that is to reconstruct his whole cabinet. I am perfectly satisfied that he cannot carry on the government with his present ministers. Your name and that of Winthrop and of Webster have been spoken of as Secretary of State in the event of a change; but if I had to make a full cabinet I could not do it satisfactorily to myself. I am inclined to think that Mr. Webster would like to be Secretary of State, not from anything I ever heard him say but from occasional remote intimations from his friends. Just at this time his appointment would be exceedingly popular in the South. I wish most sincerely that you were here. We are altogether in a sad, sad condition. There is no good feeling between Mr. Clay and General Taylor, and I am afraid that meddling and busybodies are daily widening the breach. keep entirely aloof, taking especial and particular pains to participate in no manner whatever in the feeling on the one side

I