Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-07-16
From the Telegraph of June 23.
RESIGNATION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL.
 Washington, l5th Jnne, 1881.

ton of the office of Attorney General of the United States. Two considerations restrain ed me from taking this step at the moment when your communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, announcing your determination to re-oIganize your cabinet first met my eye. lherewas nothing in the retirement of the Secrettries ot State and of War, or in the distind and personal considerations which they had assigned for this measure, which made 1t obligatory upon or even proper for | me to adopt a similar course. Such a step, with any reference to that occurrence, could only become so, on my part, as an act of con formity to your will. You had felt this, and had announced your wishes to the secretaries of the Treasury and of the Navy, respective ly. had right to expect a similar com munication of them, and conformed to the wishes and opinions of my fellow -citizcns of Georgia when determined to await it. An additional consideration was presented by the fact that had been charged, at the moment of my departure from this place, with the performance of certain public duties winch were yet unfinished, and my report concern ing which you did not expect to receive until my return. l was gratihed to learn from your self that you had taken the same view of this subject, having postponed the communication of your wishes to me until my arrival at this place, without expecting in the mean time any communication from me. It isdue to my self further to state, that from the moment when l saw the communication referred to, l have considered my official relation to you as terminated, or as subsisting only until my re- turn to the city should enable me to conform to your wishes by the formal surrender of my office, which it is the purpose of this note to make.
 retire, then, sir, with cheerfuness from the station to which your confidence had call ed me, because have the consciousness of having endeavored to discharge its duties with fidelity to yourself and to the country. Un- influenced by those considerations which have been avowed by that portion of my colleagues who have voluntarily separated themselves from you-totally ignorant of any want of harmony in your Cabinet, which either has, or ought to have impeded the operations of your Administration, l pcrfom this act sim ply in obedience to your will. l have not the slightest disposition to discuss the question of it's propriety. It is true, that in Govern | mcnt like ours, power is but a trust to be used for the benefit of those who have delegated it, and that circumstances might exist in which the necessity of self vindication would l. justify such an inquiry. The first considera- ton belongs to those to whom we are both and equally accountable. From the influence of the second you have relieved me, by your own explicit declaration that no complaint affect ing either my official or individual conduct, has at any time reached you. You have as sured me, that the confidence which induced you originally to confer the appointment upon me remains unshaken and undiminished, ,sand have been pleased to express the regret which you feel at the separation, which cir cum have in vOur view of the ci,h- ject, rendered unavoidable. You have kind ly added the assurance of your continued good wishes for my welfare. You will not, there fore, refuse to me the qualification of express ing my earnest hope, that, under the nflu- ence of better counsels, your own and the in- terests of our common country, may receive all the benefits which you have anticipated from the change of your confidential advisers. A very few days will suffice to enable me to put my office in condition for the reception of my successor, and 1 will advise you of the fact as soon as its arrangement is complete. lam, respectfully, Sir, your ob't servant JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN. To the President of the United States.
 Washington, June IS, 1881.
 SIR: I have received your letter resigning the office of Attorney General.
 In the conversation which held with you, the day before yesterday, upon this subject, it was my desire to present to you the con- alterations upon which acted in accepting the resignation of the other members of the cabinet, and to assure you, in regard to your self, as well as to them, that they imply no dissatisfaction with the manner in which the been H 1he # ads me gea es sure to find that you have not misconceived the character of those considerations, and that you do justice to the personal feelings with which they are unconnected.
 I will only add, that the determination to change my cabinet was dictated by an impe- rious sense of public duty, and thorough, tho painful conviction, that the stewardship of power, with which am clothed, called for it as measure of justice to those who had been alike invited to maintain near me the relation of confidential advisers. Perceiving that the harmony in feeling so necessary to an efficient administration had failed, in considerable degree, to mark the course of this; and hay ing assented, on this account, to the voluntary retirement of the Secretaries of State and War, no alternative was left me but to give this assent latitude co-extensive with the endorsements which it recognized, and the duty which I owed to each member of the cabinet.
 In accepting your resignation as Attorney General, take pleasure in expressing my appreciation of the zeal and efficiency with which it's duties have been performed, and in assuring you that you carry with you my best wishes for your prosperity and happiness:
 I am, very respectfully, your ob't serv't,
 ANDREW JACKSON.
 JOHN M. BERRIEN, Esq.
 P. s. You will please to continue to dis charge the duties of the office of Attorney General until you make all those arrange ments which you may deem necessary, which, when conn nleted and am notified thereof bv