Another clerk has been appointed; a sedate one, by the name of
Shepherd, and a former pupil of the colonel's.
I received several hints that the Chief of the Bureau was
not at all a favorite with the Secretary, who considered him utterly unfit for
the position; and that it could hardly be good policy for me to be on
terms of such intimacy with him. Policy! A word I never appreciated, a thing I
never knew. All I know is that Col. Bledsoe has been appointed by the President
to fill an important position; and the same power appoints the secretaries, and
can unmake them. Under these circumstances I find him permitted to sit for
hours and days in the department with no one to inform him of the condition of the
business or to facilitate him in the performance of his official duties. Not
for any partiality in his behalf, or prejudice against the Secretary, I step
forward and endeavor to discharge my own duty. I strive to serve the cause,
whatsoever may be the consequences to my personal interests.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 52
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