P. S. The gentlemen above mentioned have a high social standing, as
well as a political one. Mr. Barstow, for instance, you may recollect
as Vice-President of the Salem Lyceum, where he was introduced to you.
SALEM, August 8, 1849.
MY DEAR SIR,--My case is so simple, and the necessary evidence comes
from so few sources, and is so direct in its application, that I think
I cannot mistake my way through it; nor do I see how it can be
prejudiced by my remaining quiet, for the present. I will sketch it to
you as briefly as possible.
Mr. U. accuses me of suspending one or more inspectors for refusing to
pay party subscriptions, and avers that I sent them a letter of
suspension by a messenger, whom he names, and that--I suppose after
the payment of the subscription--I withdrew the suspension.
I shall prove that a question was referred to me--as chief executive
officer of the Custom House--from the Collector's office, as to what
action should be taken on a letter from the Treasury Department,
requiring the dismissal of our temporary inspectors. We had two
officers in that position. They were Democrats, men with large
families and no resources, and irreproachable as officers; and for
these reasons I was unwilling that they should lose their situations.
In order, therefore, to comply with the spirit of the Treasury order,
without ruining these two men, I projected a plan of suspending them
from office during the inactive season of the year, but without
removing them, and in such a manner that they might return to duty
when the state of business should justify it.
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