University of Virginia Library

Lieut. —, U. S. A., San Diego, Cal.

Sir:—An effort having been made by me in connection
with others, to obtain an act of Congress during its present session,
by which army officers will receive the same allowances
whilst they served in California and Oregon, as were granted
to Navy officers, I beg to call your attention thereto, and
especially ask your approval of the contemplated attempt.

You are aware that Congress, at its last session, granted
in the Naval Appropriation bill, extra pay ($2 per diem), to
the officers, and double pay to sailors and others, serving in
the Pacific during the Mexican war, and up to the 28th of
September, 1850. This allowance was based upon the supposition
that the officers of the army serving in California
had received the same allowance, by previous acts of Congress,
when in fact this extra pay had only been granted
them from the 1st July, 1850. There are a large number
of army officers justly entitled to an additional allowance,

and for precisely the same reasons which has induced Congress
to grant it to the Navy, and especially those who
served there subsequent to the 1st January, 1848; when
they were compelled to pay the most exorbitant prices for
the necessaries of life, having no other alternative, and no
means of leaving the country like the officers of the Pacific
squadron, who could have left the coast of California and
gone to a cheaper station.

I have been requested by a number of officers stationed
in Texas, to solicit your co-operation in carrying out this
desirable object, by contributing, in the event of success, the
proportionable per centum, agreed upon by them, namely:
five or ten per cent. on the amount that may accrue, to you,
as a remuneration for services rendered. Your concurrence
is therefore requested, and it is understood that if there
should be a failure, which, however, is not anticipated, no
charge of any kind shall be made.

Soliciting your immediate attention, and early reply,

My dear Charles:—I have received your modest request
of the 4th of January, that I will give you five or ten per
cent. of any sum that Congress may hereafter, in its infinite

beneficence, appropriate to my relief; a request which you
state you make to me at the instance of “a number of officers
stationed in Texas.”

For the benefit of those gentlemen, as well as yourself, I
have asked Mr. Ames to print your letter, and my answer, in
the world-renowned San Diego Herald—the only method I
see of communicating with your advisers; as a letter directed
to “a number of officers stationed in Texas,” might possibly
never reach them, through the ordinary channels.

Upon mature reflection, of nearly five minutes, I have
come to the conclusion to decline acceding to your proposal.
This decision has resulted from several considerations.

In the first place, I don't know you, Charles. I never
heard of you before, in all my life. To be sure, I see by
your card, which you so kindly enclosed, and which my wife
has just stuck up in the corner of the cracked looking-glass
that adorns our humble chamber, that you are a General
Agent (which may be a new military rank for all I know
created with the Lieutenant-generalcy, and if it is, I beg
your pardon and touch my hat, for I have a great respect for
rank), and a Notary Public, and that you live on Seventh
street, opposite the Odd Fellows' Hall, (why not move across
the street?) But all this does not amount to friendship,
intimacy, or even common acquaintance; and I declare,
Charles, I do not even know now whether you may not be
some designing person, who, seeing that a bill is likely to
pass for the relief of certain distressed officers, seeks to levy
a little black mail, say five or even ten per cent., on the

scanty pittance, under the pretext of having influenced
Congress in its humane decision; a thing that I believe
all the General Agents, Notary Publics, U. S. Commissioners,
and Commissioners of Deeds, that ever lived opposite or
in Odd Fellows' Hall, would fail to accomplish, had not
Congress made up its benevolent mind to do it without consulting
them.

2dly. Why should I promise to give you ten per cent. of
that allowance? (Oh, don't you wish you might get it—I
hope I shall.) You say you have made an effort to get it for
us. Ah, Charles, I love and honor you for doing so, if you
have; but how, when, and where—tell me where, did you
make that effort. But if you did do so, what of it? Perhaps
you made an effort, too, to get me the pay I now receive.
Perhaps—startling thought!—you will be writing to me for
“five or ten per cent.” of that humble income! Don't try it,
Charles; you wouldn't get it, I assure you.

As to your making an effort, that's all nonsense. Every
body makes efforts now-a-days. Every body that ever I
read of, except Mrs. Dombey, made an effort; and if my
grandmother were to die and leave me a thousand dollars,
you might, with equal propriety, inform me that you made
an effort for that venerable person's decease, and claim “five
or ten per cent.” of that amount of property, as to humbug
me with your making efforts to influence Congress, who, as I
said before, I solemnly believe is independent of all the efforts
of all the Notary Publics in all Washington.

From these two considerations, I conclude that you have

no claim or shadow of a claim on me, but that your proposal
is merely a request for charity, to the amount of “five or
ten per cent.” on the small sum that you, living in Washington,
and watching the signs of the times, begin to believe
Congress is going to allow me. This charity I shall decline
bestowing, for three good and sufficient reasons:

1st. I am very poor myself.

2d. I have a family to support on $89 83 a month, which
isn't such a tremendous income, in a country where flour is
$30 per barrel.

3d. I'll see you — first, giving you full permission to
fill the blank with any kind aspiration for your future wellfare
and happiness, that may occur to you, and that you
may deem appropriate.

Farewell, Charles—remember me kindly to “a number
of officers stationed in Texas,” when you write. Invest
properly and judiciously, the “five or ten per cents” you get
from them—in your future efforts forget me, and remember
to