It is due to this officer to state that at the period of the passage of the law of December, 1861, he was and still is absent on duty on a foreign station, and the certificate of his age required by the Navy Department was only received a few days since.
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I am considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper.
As a general rule I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.
If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
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