[
268]
from the
West.
Thus there was entailed on
Mr. Stearns an immense expense which he had no funds to meet, and he was obliged to make a private loan of ten thousand dollars without knowing in the least how or where he was to be reimbursed.
Finally, on May 8,
Mr. Stearns made a remonstrance against this abuse to
Governor Andrew in a letter in which he also gave this account of himself:
I have worked every day, Sunday included, for more than two months and from fourteen to sixteen hours a day; I have filled the West with my agents; I have compelled the railroads to accept lower terms of transportation than the Government rates; I have filled a letter-book of five hundred pages, most of it closely written.
This letter is now in the archives of the
State House at
Boston, and on the back of it
Governor Andrew has written:
This letter is respy.
referred to
Surgeon-General Dole with the request that he would confer with
Surgeon Stone and
Lieutenant-Colonel Hallowell.
It is surprising, and not fair nor fit, that a man trying as
Mr. Stearns is, to serve the country at a risk, should suffer thus by such disagreement of opinion.
Shortly after this
Mr. Stearns returned to
Boston for a brief visit, and was met in the street by a philanthropic lady,
Mrs. E. D.
