to keep his temper when its acts make him ashamed of it. He is disgusted
and indignant to the last degree at seeing "Mr. Quelconque" chosen over
the illustrious statesman who was his favorite candidate. But all his
indignation cannot repress a sense of humor which was one of his marked
characteristics. After fatiguing his vocabulary with hard usage, after
his unsparing denunciation of "the very dirty politics" which be finds
mixed up with our popular institutions, he says,--it must be remembered
that this was an offhand letter to one nearly connected with him,--

"All these things must in short, to use the energetic language of
the Balm of Columbia advertisement, 'bring every generous thinking
youth to that heavy sinking gloom which not even the loss of
property can produce, but only the loss of hair, which brings on
premature decay, causing many to shrink from being uncovered, and
even to shun society, to avoid the jests and sneers of their
acquaintances. The remainder of their lives is consequently spent
in retirement.'"

He continues:--

"Before dropping the subject, and to show the perfect purity of my
motives, I will add that I am not at all anxious about the
legislation of the new government. I desired the election of Clay
as a moral triumph, and because the administration of the country,
at this moment of ten thousand times more importance than its
legislation, would have been placed in pure, strong, and determined
hands."

Then comes a dash of that satirical and somewhat cynical way of feeling
which he had not as yet outgrown. He had been speaking about the general