January 15 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Washington to Charles Webb, acknowledging receipt of the books he had asked for on Jan. 10; he passed on the reaction by Cornelius Stagg (b.1827?) to Sam’s questions about a scandal Stagg was involved in. Evidently Stagg was accused of extorting bribes from whiskey dealers in New York State, using a tax as a cover [MTL 2: 158-9].
By this date Sam had a new address after his split with Senator Stewart: 356 C Street [Powers, MT A Life 233].
Sam’s “Mark Twain in Washington” subtitled “The Hawaiian Treaty” dated Dec. 10, 1867 ran in the San Francisco Alta California.
The Twainian, July-Aug., 1948, page 1 article gives this date as Sam’s meeting of Ulysses S. Grant at a Washington reception, some eleven months prior to Grant’s election as president. (See entry end, 1867.) However, another article in the same journal for May-June of that year claims that Sam saw Grant but did not actually meet him [p.3]. The reception was reported in his letter to the Alta California dated Jan. 16, 1868.
Only the envelope survives, with Sam’s to Pamela Moffett, hand-frank of Senator William M. Stewart [MTP].