To
Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett
6 February 1868 • Washington, D.C.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00190)
224 F street
Washington Feb. 6.
My Dear Mother & Sister—
For two months there have been some fifty applications before the government for the postmastership of San Francisco, which is the heaviest concentration of political power on the coast & consequently [ m ]is a post which is much coveted. When I found that a personal friend of mine, the Chief editor of the Alta was an applicant I said I didn’t want it—I would not take $10,000 a year out of a friend’s pocket.1 The two months have passed. I heard day before yesterday that a new & almost unknown candidate had suddenly turned up on the inside track, & was to be appointed at once. I didn’t like that—& when I heard that he had been recommended to make a friend of me & he said he didn’t stand in need of me, I went after his case in a fine passion. I hunted up all our Senators & representatives & found that his name [ wo was al actually ]to come from the President at noon yesterday. I got a dozen Senators pledged against him, & had Judge Field of the Supreme Bench get out of his sick bed & visit the President early in the morning. It was jolly. In just no time at all I knocked that complacent idiot’s kite so high that it never will come down.2 Then Judge Field said if I wanted the place he could Pledge me the President’s appointment—& Senator Conness said he would guarantee me the Senate’s confirmation. It was a great temptation, but it would render it impossible to fill my book contract, & I had to drop the idea. I have to spend August & September in Hartford—which isn’t San Francisco.3 Mr. Conness offers me my choice out of five influential California offices—now some day or other I shall want an office & then, just my luck, I can’t get it, I suppose. They want to send me abroad, as a Consul or a Minister.4 I said I didn’t want any of the pie. God knows I am mean enough & lazy enough, now, without being a foreign consul.
Some time in the course of the present century I think they will create a Commissioner of Patents,5 & then I hope to get a berth for Orion.
I published 6 or 7 letters in the Tribune while I was gone6—now I cannot get them. I suppose I must have them copied.
Love to all.
Yrs
Sam,
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Why, a year ago, in Washington, when Mr. Conness, one
of our Senators, counseled me to take the post of United States
Minister to China, when Mr. Burlingame resigned (the place was
chiefly in Mr. C.’s gift,) I said that even if I could
feel thoroughly fitted for the place, I had at last become able to
make a living at home & wished to settle
down—& that if I roamed more, it must be in
pursuit of my regular calling & to further my advancement
in my legitimate profession. (SLC to OLL, 24 Jan 69, CU-MARK, in LLMT, 60) Anson Burlingame had resigned as minister to China in
November 1867 when he accepted an appointment from the Chinese
government (see 19 Feb 68 to Burlingame [1st of
2], n. 2). The minister’s position went ultimately
to Clemens’s friend and fellow writer J. Ross Browne, who had
been nominated minister to China in late January 1868 and was confirmed
in March (Senate 1887, 16:156, 194; see 17 June 67 to
Fairbanks, n. 7).
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L2, 178–180; MTB, 1:359, excerpts; MTL, 1:148–49.
Provenance:see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 512–14.
Emendations and textual notes:
m • [partly formed, possibly ‘w’]
wo was al actually • woas alctually
