As soon as Crockett was through, they were dismissed, and Johnson began to prepare a written answer.

This was scratched, altered, and amended, to suit the notions of his counselors, and at last was copied and sent.

This answer amounted to little or nothing.
Seeing that we were powerless for good, and that violent counsels would prevail under the influence of Terry and others, I sat down at the table, and wrote my resignation, which Johnson accepted in a complimentary note on the spot, and at the same time he appointed to my place General Volney E.Howard, then present, a lawyer who had once been a member of Congress from Texas, and who was expected to drive the d---d pork-merchants into the bay at short notice.

I went soon after to General Wool's room, where I found Crockett and the rest of his party; told them that I was out of the fight, having resigned my commission; that I had neglected business that had been intrusted to me by my St.Louis partners; and that I would thenceforward mind my own business, and leave public affairs severely alone.

We all returned to San Francisco that night by the Stockton boat, and I never after-ward had any thing to do with politics in California, perfectly satisfied with that short experience.