The summer and autumn of 1836 found Flagg travelling in Missouri and Illinois, and writing for the _Journal_ the letters which were later revised and enlarged to form _The Far West_, herein reprinted. Tarrying at St. Louis in the autumn of 1836, our author began the study of law, and the following year was admitted to the bar; but in 1838 he returned to newspaper life, taking charge for a time of the St. Louis _Commercial Bulletin_. During the winter of 1838-39 he assisted George D. Prentice, founder of the 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 Vicksburg, 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) upon the 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 1860 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 Highland View in that state (1870), and died there November 1, 1890.