.OTkw.NjM5MDc

is an exception. I shall not mention to him the proposition which you hint at in your letter. If when I return, I have the pleasure of seeing you, the appointment to which you allude be still vacant, I may possibly mention it to him. The family among all their foibles have a small unclear of vanity, and this foible I am unclear has descended to my young friend. Military appointments in time of peace appear to me to have scarcely any other influence, than to inflate the vanity of the giddy and the young. At the time I gave him the letters to you, I entertained considerable doubt as to the propriety of his holding such an appointment and practicing law-- but if no such difficulty had existed, Mr. Early ought to have been preferred. Mr. Early had suggested the idea of holding his then appt. and acting order and requested me to obtain the ideas of Judges Jack and Early on that possib. Judge Early promptly decided against it, and by that decision prevented me from pursuing the inquiry. I wish I always understood, both in the State, and Federal govt, when I recommended any man