Colonel William Preston Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston : His Service in the Armies of the United States, the Republic of Texas, and the Confederate States.

[168] said that this is the best method to obtain information. It is the worst. It is the way in which mere partisans and demagogues receive their reward. I do not, therefore, wish my friends to ask General Taylor for any office for me. He knows me well; and if it should not occur to him to offer me a place, I shall only think that he has selected others whom he believed better capable of promoting the public interest. This consideration, I believe, will alone guide him; and God grant that it may be always the only rule of action!

We now have a man for President who will administer the Government according to the Constitution construed in a liberal and enlightened spirit, whether the principles educed by him have been approved or condemned by one party or the other. The extremes of neither party will find any footing with his Administration. He will be as averse from the fanaticism that imposes high and oppressive tariffs as from that which, standing upon “54° 40‘,” bullies our rivals in trade and threatens the peace of the world; or from that which, as a rabid propagandist, preaches “the extension of the area of freedom.” Attempt to conceal it as they may, a new and great party has arisen, which, like “the rod of Aaron, has swallowed up all the others.”

Dear General: Burnley informed me he had seen you; and showed me a letter the day he started for Washington, that he had just received from you, giving him the reasons why you could receive no office from General Taylor. I had some time before received one of a similar kind, and had followed your injunction “that no application should be made to General Taylor in your behalf.” I was one of a committee sent by the city and county to escort the general to Louisville, and, being several days with him, had frequent and confidential talks with him. He asked kindly after you. I told him you were struggling along in Texas. He remarked that it was no place for you, and observed, “I had not been informed of my election long before I determined to do something for Johnston.” I am convinced that it is not only his wish, but that it would give him great pleasure, to put you in a position that would be lucrative and honorable; and the only thing is to know what place would be most agreeable to you- Governor of Oregon, commissioner to run the Mexican boundary, Treasurer of the United States, charge to Sardinia or Naples, Superintendent of the Mint in California, Surveyor-General of California or Missouri, or paymaster in the army. I will guarantee you will have the offer from General Taylor of whatever he may know it would be agreeable to you to accept. . . .

You seem to have misapprehended me in relation to your applying for office. I agree with you fully that a gentleman ought not to ask for one, but in your case this never was asked of you. The President of his own accord expressed the determination to give you one, if you would take it, and your friends only wanted to learn from you what you preferred. However, the thing is now settled. Joe Taylor is now here, and tells me you will shortly be offered the place of paymaster in the army. . ...