The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1840-06-27
AMOS KENDALL, Esq,
Late Postmaster General.
WAsHINaroN. Nav

WASHINGTON, May 81, 1910.
SiR: have now TO acknowledge the receipt
/ OF your last communication bearing date 25th,
IN which you say, although on the point OF
retiring from the administration Of the Depart
ment, feel II not the less my duty to vindicate
It's character while in my charge, and bring to
punishment any faithless agent who may have
done any act 10 give just color to your charge.
! therefore most respectfully ask, as an act due
10 me and the country, that you will, without
further delay, put me in possession of the name
OF the member of Congress alluded to- and give
the other information requested in my letter Of
the 10th April"
brief explanation is necessary before pro-
coed to furnish the information desired
When received your first letter bearing date
April l6 was involved in some perplexity as
TO the propriety Of the course il became me to
pursue. 8at @Gf
In the first place, had strong doubts as to
your sincerity in calling on me for information
that supposed must have been of necessity
already IN your possession, as charges OF a SINH
lar character had been preferred from time to
lime without notice and without investigation
certainly without reformation, until at last, BY
common consent, il seemed TO be understood
throughout the country that such charges rather
operated as an additional Recommendation of the
| individual than TO excite the resentment and
condemnation of the Postmaster General; for
am free to confess that to this moment, am not
aware that the history of the country furnishes
a single instance Of removal from Office in that
Department since you were placed at its head,
for any other offence numerous as they are) but
want of fealty TO the party.
| shall be happy to find that |, in common
! with large majority Of the people Of this coun-
try, have done you injustice in this particular,
and none will be more ready TO make reparation
for that injustice than myself when the evidence
is furnished that have done you wrong.
| Moreover, if the history Of the times was TO be
| relied on, you had, on other occasions, held
yourself altogether above and totally rresponsi.
bic TO Congress and its committees, the Judicial
ry Of the country, and the laws OF the land, and
| | felt no disposition TO enter into charges and
| specifications unless some assurance was given
| that reformation would result from the produc
ton of irrefragable proof
| Another consideration that operated with some
| force on my mind was the confident assurance
that the time was too near AT hand when, by the
voice of the people, you would retire from the
post you occupied, to enable you TO investigate
the hundredth part of the charges that might be
specified against the Department nor was ]
unmindfu Of the doctrine that you had credit
for being al some pains to establish during the
g reign of terror" viz: that the officers Of the
Government were the officers Of the President
and that he alone was responsible TO the people
principal was alone responsible, had no dispo-
silion TO war with an irresponsible subaltern.
| These were the reflections, whether well or
i'll founded, that induced me to decline response
TO your first communication. A due regard to
candor, and justice to myself, alike require that
they should be communicated to you.
| On my return from Virginia, on the Both
| April, received your second communication
dated April 2ilh, again asking for information
requested in that Of the 10Th. The terms in
which the information was asked for were re-
spectful, and, from the repetition, APPARENTLY
SINCERE. AT all events, resolved so TO regard
il, for il was such letter as any honest and
faithful officer, disposed TO discharge his duty,
might with propriety have written; and de-
termned at once, as informed you on the same
day, TO seize the first leisure moment TO give you
the information desired; and about the time the
information and proof were prepared for your
eye, saw it announced in the public prints that,
| from i'll health and a broken down constitution
you had retired in poverty from the aborious
and lucrative situation of Postmaster General of
| the United States To assume the more humble
and rccrcative pursuit Of a political Editor of the
Extra Globe until the termination of the next
| Presidential election.
This took for granted put an end to the
correspondence in which was about TO embark,
as had no reason 10 suppose that any further
| discretion or control could be exercised by YOU
over the Department from which you had re-
| tired.
! 1t is true, that from an address published over
your signature few days after in the public
prints, soliciting subscribers, found, from the
| following extract, TO wit 81 will endeavor to
take care that all true-hearted men, who aid me
TO reach the minds of the people, shall not repent
their exertions," that you had reserved 10 your
self the power Of rewarding such individuals as
might contribute 10 your future support, by sub
scriptions to the Extra Globe. But it was not
until the receipt Of your last letter on yesterday
that was made acquainted with the fact that
you had also reserved to yourself the power
| of furnishing such offenders as are now osTENsI-
BLY, under the control Of another officer; nor
will profess now to understand how il is TO be
exercised, unless, indeed, il is to be understood
that the Hon. MIR. Niles is the mere locum fe-
nensn during the time you may find il convent
ent TO devote your services 10 the editorial chair
! have thus mnutey detailed the circumstan-
ces that operated TO prevent my compliance with
my promise contained in my letter of the 30th,
which appears necessary for my own justifca-
tion--for il cannot be supposed that | had either
time or inclination to furnish matter for news
paper controversy in the columns Of the Extra
Globe, to which supposed your undivided aten-
ton was to be given for the next six months.
/ ] take the liberty of suggesting, very respect
fully, that you might find your operations much
facilitated in the task you have undertaken even
at this late period, q mean of ferreting out and
Furnishing the offenders in the Post Office De-
partment) by asking for committee Of invest-
cation, through the agency of your political
friends in Congress, without whose aid such an
effort would be vain and Ruthless to bring before
the country the names Of the offenders, and the