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[portion of San Francisco letter most likely written early February, 1866 recovered from the San Francisco Examiner February 10, 1866]
SAN FRANCISCO LETTER.
I have abused the department at large, because I could not find out who were the guilty parties and who were the innocent. I knew there were many honest, upright, reliable and excellent men on the police, but then, on account of the questionable surroundings it would have been a hard thing to prove it! Therefore I refrained from asserting the presence of this virtue--I had a delicacy about making a statement which it would be difficult to substantiate, and perhaps impossible. It was safe enough to say that n general they were rather a hard lot, because that didn't require any proof! Some of the policemen are very tender about their character--then why do they sit still and see their brethren bring them into disrepute?--why don't they root out the bad element from the force? If they chose to keep their mouths shut and not expose the shortcomings of their brethren, they must just accept of the natural consequence, and consent to be suspected themselves. Lord! So far from trying to purge their ranks of men who disgrace them, they are ready at a moment's notice to shield such men and hush up their malpractices, if common report be true.
