tter as they understand
it. Don't neglect or delay in the matter. I understand information of an
indictment having been found against him about three years ago, for gaming
or keeping a gaming house, has been sent to the department. I shall try
to take care of it at the department till your action can be had and
forwarded on.

Yours as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

SPRINGFIELD ILLINOIS. May 10, 1849.

HON. SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

DEAR SIR:--I regret troubling you so often in relation to the land-offices
here, but I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and excuse me. On
the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Turner R. King for register, and
Walter Davis for receiver. Subsequently I wrote you that, for a private
reason, I had concluded to transpose them. That private reason was the
request of an old personal friend who himself desired to be receiver,
but whom I felt it my duty to refuse a recommendation. He said if I would
transpose King and Davis he would be satisfied. I thought it a whim, but,
anxious to oblige him, I consented. Immediately he commenced an assault
upon King's character, intending, as I suppose, to defeat his appointment,
and thereby secure another chance for himself. This double offence of bad
faith to me and slander upon a good man is so totally outrageous that I
now ask to have King and Davis placed as I originally recommended,--that
is, King for register and Davis for receiver.

An effort is being made now to have Mr. Barret, the present register,
retained. I have already said he has done the duties of the office well,
and I now add he is a gentleman in the true sense. Still, he submits to be
the instrument of his party to injure us. His high character enables him
to do it more effectually. Last year he presided at the convention which
nominated the Democratic candidate for Congress in this district, and
afterward ran for the State Senate himself, not desiring the seat, but
avowedly to aid and strengthen his party. He made speech after speech with
a degree of fierceness and coarseness against General Taylor not quite
consistent with his habitually gentlemanly deportment. At least one (and
I think more) of those who are now trying to have him retained was himself
an applicant for this very office, and, failing to get my recommendation,
now takes this turn.

In writing you a third time in relation to these offices, I stated that I
supposed charges h