The President did however show his respect for his visitor, who happened to be an old personal friend, by escorting him down to the Department, and introducing him to the Post Master General. The Governor of the State was also in the case, the two United States Senators, and several of the members of Congress, as the files of the papers, pro and con, clearly demonstrated. Not that they felt any personal interest in the result of the controversy, but because their political relations with many of those who did, were such that they could not well resist their importunities to come up to their relief.
On patiently listening to the statements of the representative from the seat of war, and re-examining the documentary evidence, the Post Master General declined to reverse his former decision, but suggested sending one of the Department's Agents to investigate the whole matter. This course was adopted, and the responsibility thus transferred for the time being, to the shoulders of the to be author of "Ten Years."
For many days before he arrived upon the ground, the excitement both among the vanquished and the vanquishing, was at the highest pitch; information that such reference of the case had been made, having been conveyed to both parties on the return of the distinguished politician from the Capital.
Post master number one, however, could not await the slow process of that form of justice, so he dispatched a semi-official private note to me, nearly as follows, if my memory serves me:
Sir:
Will you please inform me if you have been instructed to visit this place in connection with our post-office controversy. If so, I would like to be informed of the time of your visit, as I wish to post you up as to certain parties here whose true position you ought to understand before their testimony in the case is heard.
Yours truly.
F. B. S——.
P. S.—If I knew when you are to arrive, I would be at the cars.
To this I simply replied that I could not fix upon the precise day, but would call upon him on my arrival.
One lovely afternoon of a lovely day in October, the "Agent" might have been seen alighting from the car at the rail road station at M., fully impressed, of course, with the difficulty of the task before him, but with a sincere desire to carry out, if possible, the intention of Government, and to mete out equal and exact justice to all parties.
A new and flourishing-looking store, the only one by the way in the neighborhood, with a small sign over the door, with the words "Post-Office" inscribed thereon, saved me the necessity of inquiring for post-office site number one. In a few moments I found myself in the presence of the merchant and post master, who proved to be a young man of prepossessing and business-like appearance.
A few questions on my part served to apprise him of the official character of the person by whom he was addressed, and also to cause his momentary neglect of a young customer for whom he was just then engaged in answering an order for a gallon of molasses. The little damsel who was there upon the saccharine errand, regarded me with open-eyed awe, having probably heard something of the Department in the course of the all-pervading Post-Office controversies of the last few months, and cast as many stolen glances at me as her modesty would allow, thus securing a mental daguerreotype, to be displayed for the benefit of her wondering parents, after her return home with the double load of news and molasses.