Details
SCOTT, WINFIELD, Lieutenant General. Autograph letter signed ("W. Scott") to an unidentified officer ("My Dear Major"), Richmond, Virginia, 7 February 1819. 4 pages, 4to, remnants of hinge mount.
SCOTT'S PUBLIC QUARREL WITH GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON
In 1817, General Jackson, enraged by an order from the Secretary of War which assigned to his command an engineer he did not want, issued a division order which forbade any of his officers to obey War Department orders unless approved by himself. "The order, a staggering declaration, jolted the country. Several critical newspaper articles appeared, one of which called Jackson's action 'mutinous.' An anonymous writer sent a copy of this article to the General with the information that the writer...was Brigadier General Winfield Scott....." (Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1977, p.342). When Jackson peremptorily demanded an explanation, Scott denied writing the piece, but stated unequivocally that he wholly agreed with it and felt that Jackson warranted a Presidential reprimand. Jackson reacted with fury, and wrote Scott in insulting terms, rich with invective, hinting at a duel, which Scott decorously deflected. Here, Scott complains that Jackson "has been busy putting around the correspondence," although it is now a year old, "I know not for what purpose, unless it be that of misrepresentations; for surely he cannot imagine that his part of it can do him any honour either as an officer or as a gentleman. I have seen, also, a letter in the Aurora, purporting to have been written at Nashville...I shall, however, remain under those provocations, as I have remained under many other senseless & unjust attacks -- silent & indifferent...." He is quite willing, Scott asserts to have Jackson and friends attempt to prove "that I was not in the late [Mexican-American] war," or "that I am wanting in personal courage. I am myself, equally at my ease, on both those points. The discussion of the Seminole war excites the most lively interest in all...." Scott reiterates that he was not the author of the offending articles, but admits to knowing the actual writer, a Mr. Leigh, then confesses, "entre nous...that I wrote an article for the Evening Post in August last, touching the executions [of Seminoles], & desired the Editor to give my name to General J. if he should apply for the author, either in person, or by letter. Should he do so, & come back on me for satisfaction, I shall be free to act as a sense of resentment on the one hand, or of justice on the other, may dictate at the moment...."
Sold with a copy of The Salem Gazette, 4 May 1819, 4 pages, folio, edges untrimmed, stains and repairs, reprinting the remarkable correspondence on the incident between Jackson and Scott, occupying 3 1/2 columns.
SCOTT'S PUBLIC QUARREL WITH GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON
In 1817, General Jackson, enraged by an order from the Secretary of War which assigned to his command an engineer he did not want, issued a division order which forbade any of his officers to obey War Department orders unless approved by himself. "The order, a staggering declaration, jolted the country. Several critical newspaper articles appeared, one of which called Jackson's action 'mutinous.' An anonymous writer sent a copy of this article to the General with the information that the writer...was Brigadier General Winfield Scott....." (Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1977, p.342). When Jackson peremptorily demanded an explanation, Scott denied writing the piece, but stated unequivocally that he wholly agreed with it and felt that Jackson warranted a Presidential reprimand. Jackson reacted with fury, and wrote Scott in insulting terms, rich with invective, hinting at a duel, which Scott decorously deflected. Here, Scott complains that Jackson "has been busy putting around the correspondence," although it is now a year old, "I know not for what purpose, unless it be that of misrepresentations; for surely he cannot imagine that his part of it can do him any honour either as an officer or as a gentleman. I have seen, also, a letter in the Aurora, purporting to have been written at Nashville...I shall, however, remain under those provocations, as I have remained under many other senseless & unjust attacks -- silent & indifferent...." He is quite willing, Scott asserts to have Jackson and friends attempt to prove "that I was not in the late [Mexican-American] war," or "that I am wanting in personal courage. I am myself, equally at my ease, on both those points. The discussion of the Seminole war excites the most lively interest in all...." Scott reiterates that he was not the author of the offending articles, but admits to knowing the actual writer, a Mr. Leigh, then confesses, "entre nous...that I wrote an article for the Evening Post in August last, touching the executions [of Seminoles], & desired the Editor to give my name to General J. if he should apply for the author, either in person, or by letter. Should he do so, & come back on me for satisfaction, I shall be free to act as a sense of resentment on the one hand, or of justice on the other, may dictate at the moment...."
Sold with a copy of The Salem Gazette, 4 May 1819, 4 pages, folio, edges untrimmed, stains and repairs, reprinting the remarkable correspondence on the incident between Jackson and Scott, occupying 3 1/2 columns.