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Show io Early Western Travels [ Vol. a6 Louisville Journal, in the work of editing the Louisville Literary News Letter. Finding, however, that newspaper work overtaxed his health, Flagg next accepted an invitation to enter the law office of Sergeant S. Prentiss at Vicks-burg, Mississippi, where in addition to his legal duties he found time to edit the Vicksburg Whig. Having been wounded in a duel with James Hagan of the Sentinel in that city, Flagg returned to the less excitable North and undertook editorial duties upon the Gazette at Marietta, Ohio ( 1842- 43), and later ( 1844- 45) uP° n ^ e St. Louis Evening Gazette. He also served as official reporter of the Missouri state constitutional convention the following year, and published a volume of its debates; subsequently ( until 1849) acting as a court reporter in St. Louis. The three succeeding years were spent abroad; first as secretary to Edward A. Hannegan, United States minister to Berlin, and later as consul at Venice. In February, 1852, he returned to America, and during the presidential campaign of that year edited a Democratic journal at St. Louis, known as the Daily Times. Later, as a reward for political service, he was made superintendent of statistics in the department of state, at Washington - a bureau having special charge of commercial relations. Here he was especially concerned with the compilation of reports on immigration and the cotton and tobacco trade, and published a Report on Commercial Relations of the United States with all Foreign Nations ( 4 vols., Washington, 1858). Through these reports, particularly the last named, Flagg's name became familiar to merchants in both the United States and Europe. From 1857 to i860 he was Washington correspondent for several Western newspapers, and from 1861 to 1870 served as librarian of copyrights in the department of the interior. Having in 1862 married Kate Adeline, daughter of Sidney S. Gallaher, of Virginia, he moved to |