I wanted the place he could pledge me the
President's appointment--and Senator Conness said he would guarantee
me the Senate's confirmation. It was a great temptation, but it would
render it impossible to fill my book contract, and I had to drop the
idea.

I have to spend August and September in Hartford which isn't San
Francisco. Mr. Conness offers me any choice out of five influential
California offices. Now, some day or other I shall want an office and
then, just my luck, I can't get it, I suppose.

They want to send me abroad, as a Consul or a Minister. I said I didn't
want any of the pie. God knows I am mean enough and lazy enough, now,
without being a foreign consul.

Sometime in the course of the present century I think they will create a
Commissioner of Patents, and then I hope to get a berth for Orion.

I published 6 or 7 letters in the Tribune while I was gone, now I cannot
get them. I suppose I must have them copied.

Love to all

SAM.

Orion Clemens was once more a candidate for office: Nevada
had become a State; with regularly elected officials, and
Orion had somehow missed being chosen. His day of authority
had passed, and the law having failed to support him, he was
again back at his old occupation, setting type in St. Louis.
He was, as ever, full of dreams and inventions that would
some day lead to fortune. With the gift of the Sellers
imagination, inherited by all the family, he lacked the
driving power which means achievement. More and more as the
years went by he would lean upon his brother for moral and
physical support. The chances for him in Washington do not
appear to have been bright. The political situation under
Andrew Johnson was not a happy one.

*****

To Orion Clemens, in St. Louis:

224 F. STREET, WASH., Feb. 21. (1868)

MY DEAR BRO.,--I am glad you do not want the clerkship, for that Patent
Office is in such a muddle that there would be no security for the
permanency of a place in it. The same remark will apply to all
offices here, now, and no doubt will, till the close of the present
administration.

Any man who holds a place here, now, stands prepared at all times to
vacate it. You are doing, now, exactly what I wanted you to do a year
ago.

We chase phantoms half the days of our liv