The Western Democrat

Unexpected Elevation.—The vicissitudes of human life are very strange. In 1830, President Taylor, then a Colonel in the army, wrote a letter to Gen. McNeil, who had just been appointed surveyor of Boston, from which we make the following extract:

"I am fully aware that it is almost impossible for us to pursue any profession—particularly that of arms—for fifteen or twenty years without forming strong attachment to it in various ways, and of course, must abandon them with considerable reluctance, but there are circumstances which should reconcile us to doing so, and justify us not only in our eyes, but that of the community. Could I get a civil appointment as respectable, with half the emolument attached to it, as there is to the one you have received, and where I could be located, so as to superintend the education of my children, I would resign forthwith; for after serving twenty-two years and upwards in the army, all of which time on duty, with the exception of a few months, without being stationed two years at any one post, during that time; I begin to think that I need repose, but as I do not possess influence enough to procure a civil appointment of any grade, I consider my doom as fixed."

Here is a plain modest officer of the U. S. Army, who in 1830, expressed a sincere wish that he could retire from his labors upon some office with half the emolument that Gen. McNeil received and declared that he did not possess influence enough to procure a civil appointment; and yet this same man became a world renowned General and President of the United States in less than 20 years from that time.