Pressed as I am just now by several engagements, I snatch a few moments before the mail of to-day closes, to write a line or two of condolence upon the national disaster, & degradation of the 7th instant. Our disappointment, here, & hereabouts, & throughout Tennee., is great indeed; not greater, however, than it is throughout the thirty States. Gov. A. V. Brown’s most careful & searching calculations, were utterly set at naught. Knowing that a considerable & most respectable accession of old Whigs had voted for Cass, we were utterly confounded when we were told the vote of Knox county. The result here (which I suppose to be a type of the State) was a mystery to us, until the next day revealed to us the fact, that something more than two hundred of the hard-fisted democracy had been engaged on the 7th in being scared at home or appearing at the country polls for Taylor. The non-slaveholders, even in slave regions, have been reached by Taylorism & Northern Free Soilism, by a species of masonry which has distinguished this election from all I have ever heard of. Positively we find ourselves in this region unable to hear of any military enthusiasm as having been connected with the result. The Tennee. Whigs, you know, are conscientiously! opposed to partaking of the spoils! Yet, I already hear that the friends of Jno. Bell & Jas C Jones , respectively, speak of them for a place in Taylors Cabinet ! Jno’s official despatches, if without other merit, would at least be length-y. Jimmey’s, I suppose, with the aid of Old Zack himself, would be strength-y.

Now, you must pardon me for naming another subject. I refer to our friend Doct. J. G. M. Ramsey. I named the subject to him. He admitted his contingent desire upon the subject, but expressing, most candidly, his distrust of his qualifications, said, he would not, for ten thousand dollars, lower himself in your estimation, by naming a wish that might not be compatible with your duty or, with the public interest. He prides himself on your personal regard & would certainly interdict this communication if he knew I was making it. If the appropriation for the Board to adjudicate claims under the Mexican treaty, should be made, in time, the coming winter, I suppose you would appoint three Commissioners to sit at Washington. I believe it has been usual to constitute such Boards of at least one Lawyer, a practical commercial man, &, indifferently, a third man of some other profession. In the latter category, I thought of the Doct. I thought of him because I knew he desired, before long to have a History of Tennessee, he is about completing, printed in Phil or N.Y. & I thought a sojourn in Washington for a while, would enable him by frequent communications through the Telegraph, to superintend the work. I only make the suggestion. You know, far better than I can know, what would be your duty on such a subject. I see no man quite so sad about the result of the election as the Doct. In addition to his patriotism disappointed, he has been particularly annoyed & bedeviled by the course of his brother-in-law, Jno. H. Crozier.