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CH. XXII.] the appointment, but had declined it, upon the principle, as he told me, "that he could be more useful to his country at home." This observation, I must do him the justice to say, was elicited in answer to one which I quoted from his own writings, extolling "the abandonment of self for devotion to the public good," and insisting that he ought, therefore, to accept the appointment. He remained at home, and future historians will have to discriminate how far, by so doing, he has been useful to his country. I believe him to be sincerely devoted to its interests upon that principle of self abandonment on which he has acted, and have only to hope that, for the sake of the public good, he will not in future refuse any situation which may be offered him, even should it be the president's chair.