practice as that perpetrated in this instance, they cannot be conferred with in future.
You will, of course, see the propriety of my not noticing the matter, and thereby giving it importance beyond the contempt it inspires. I think you are well enough acquainted with me to judge in future the value of any such statement.
I notice the "Herald" telegraphic reporter announces that I had a second attack of illness on Friday and could not attend the department. I was in the department, or in cabinet, from 9 a.m. until 9 at night, and never enjoyed more perfect health than on that day and at present.
For your kind solicitude accept my thanks. I shall not needlessly impair my means of usefulness.
Edwin M. Stanton.
C. A. Dana, Esq.
P.S.—Was it not a funny sight to see a certain military hero in the telegraph office at Washington last Sunday organizing victory, and by sublime military combinations capturing Fort Donelson six hours after Grant and Smith had taken it sword in hand and had victorious possession! It would be a picture worthy of "Punch."
THURLOW WEED.
When Mr. Dana entered the War Department Mr. Weed was in Europe, trying to prevail on foreign governments to refrain from recognizing the Confederacy.
FIRST CONNECTION WITH THE WAR DEPARTMENT.
Thus when the newspapers announced my unexpected retirement from the "Tribune," I was not unknown to either the President or the Secretary of War.
To Mr. Stanton's letter asking me to go into the service of the War Department, I replied that I would take anything he wanted me to, and in May he wrote me that I was to be appointed on a commission to audit unsettled claims against the quartermaster's department at Cairo, Illinois. I was directed to be in Cairo on June 17th. My formal appointment, which I did not receive until after I reached Cairo, read:
War Department, Washington City, D. C.,
Sir:—By direction of the President, a commission has been appointed, consisting of Messrs. George S. Boutwell, Stephen T. Logan, and yourself, to examine and report upon all unsettled claims against the War Department, at Cairo, Illinois, that may have originated prior to the first day of April, 1862.
Messrs. Boutwell and Logan have been requested to meet with you at Cairo on the eighteenth day of June instant, in order that the commission may be organized on that day and enter immediately upon the discharge of its duties. You will be allowed a compensation of eight dollars per day and mileage.
Mr. Thomas Means, who has been appointed solicitor for the government, has been directed to meet you at Cairo on the 18th instant, and will act under the direction of the commission in the investigation of such claims as may be presented.
Secretary of War.
Hon. Charles A. Dana of New York,
Cairo, Illinois.
On reaching Cairo on the appointed day, I found my associates, Judge Logan of Springfield, Illinois, one of Mr. Lincoln's friends, and Mr. Boutwell of Massachusetts—afterward governor of that State, Secretary of the Treasury, and a senator—both present. We organized on the 18th, as directed. Two days after we met, Judge Logan was compelled by illness to resign from the commission, and Shelby M. Cullom, now United States Senator from Illinois, was appointed in his place.
The main Union armies had by now advanced far to the front, but Cairo was still an important military depot—almost an outpost—in command of General William K. Strong, whom I had known well in New
