The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1846-06-10
GENERAL SCOTT.


GENERAL SCOTT.
The following note, received this morning from
General Scott, we lay before readers without
delay;
Coffee, June 10, 1886.
"GEsrLEMEE What little character your edto-
rails, in the Union Of the 9th and 9th instant,
might have lef me, has been pretty well annihilated
by the manner in which my letters in the correspond
enee with the Secretary Of War have been publish
ed by you.
"Pirsl, By seeidsni, you omitted altogether, from
the paper Of lhs 6th, tho first Of my two letters
which bear date May 25 Why did not the acct
dent beial one Of the secretarys letters, or your
own editorial Of that day. Thai would have been
disinterestedi
the second editoriaD my omitted letter-so changed,
IN the most material part, as to make regret that
the blunder Of omission had not been perpetual.
"ln the last paragraph had written MAY $50
Il think my preliminary and necessary occupations
may be ended here in (say) three days more, when,
promising that after the great and brilliant victories
Of the gallant Taylor, (of which we have recently
heard should be ashamed to supersede him be-
fore the arrival of competent reinforcements to pen
citrate the interior, and TO conquer peace, shall be
ready for any instructions orders with which the
President may honor me-
by changing the word ended into needed, as the
Union does, and by half as great blundsr on the
part Of your readers, all Of you may make me de-
clare myself necessary fixture in this offce-not
to be sent away on any distant service, however i'm
porant
80 again, by placing period g. instead of
dash & at the word peace am again made by
you to write nonsense.
al find no such blunders in the printing Of your
editorials against me, in the secretsrys part Of the
same correspondence. AS far as | can Judge, the
classic press Of Oxford is not freer from sraia than
The Union is in those productions.
There many other errors in my letters as
printed in the same two numbers of the Union
have time to notice but one:
"ln my letter of May 81, isecond paragraph,) '
said to the secretary-'As you do not say that you
mad shown my explanatory note to you Of the pre-
Vous night, May 25, (printed in the Union Of June
81 to the President, may beg you to lay the far
cnpy (herewth) before himl In this copy havr
inserted in brackets material word friends a.
crdenally omitted in the hurry Of writing, and also
development Of my meaning in another place, in
red ink and in brackets
THAT fair copy was thus made, by me, official,
and on inquiry, learn from the chief clerk Of the
War Department that it was sent in to the Senate
TO which honorable body you are, gentlemen, the
Official printers.
The Insertions in brackets do not appear IN my
leter as printed in the Union Of the 9th instant.
81 remain, gentlemen,
"Your most obedient servant
WINFIELD SCOTT
"Messrs. Richie & HESS, &c, &c, &C."
We regretted quite as much as General Scott
could have done the oversight by which his letter of
the 25th May omitted, when the rest Of the cor
respondence appeared in our columns. To repair
this OMISSION published the letter at length the
merit day in a conspicuous position on our editorial
and mil I'D;
The errata in that letter referred to by General
Scott, appear only in daily sheet. The superin-
tendent of our office discovered them at the moment
when considerable portion Of our tri-weeky edi-
ton was printed We stopped Ii, press at once, can
eelled all The papers already struck off, and printed the
letter correctly in our entire r-weeky edition. Un-
sxpectedly large daily edition has become,
our tri-weekly circulation outnumbers the daily
more than four to one. We mention our whole
proceeding in this matter, to show how entirely era
tutous and unjust is the nsinuation which we fear
we cannot msapprehend in General Scott's letter,
that we were not unwilling to do him the injustice
of garbling his correspondence and printing his let
ters incorrectly. Apparently to corroborae his in
timation, General Scott that no errata appear
III Jul cuitoin WHiCH TIC 10 piedSeu 10 say
are written "against him." This is an unfortunate
statement. In the editorial of the 9th nst-the very
article upon which he was penning his note--there
correction Of an important erratum in the edito-
rial Of the day before. Though Gen Scott does not
know the fact, we can assure him that no article
which ever appeared from our pen in the columns Of
the "Union" ever gave us more annoyance in the
mar IF rubIico.inp th,ov al;
But we avoid further specifications. We can have
controversy with General Scott as to our intention
in such matter this We would say simply to
the Commanding General of the army of the United
States, that we incapable of intentionally gar
bling or msprinting any gentemans official cores
pondence to his disadvantage, as is the distn-
gushed officer who, in moment Of excitement has
permitted himself to make such an insinuaton.
As to the corrections inserted in red lines by
General Scott in his letter of May 25th, and omitted
our publication of that letter, we have to state
that knowing the public interest in the correspond
ence, we anxious to lay it before our readers
without delay, and fearing that we could not obtain
the copy sent to the Senate in time for our publ
cation of that evening, we applied at the War
Department for duplicate copy. This was
obgingly furnished TO US, and it appears that i,
furnished in the shape in which it was originally
written by General Scott When we received it a:
our Office, we know nothing of any subsequent
rections or interpretations in the correspondence in
red lines, or in any lines. But we were informed
that, in the hurry of the day at the War Department,
one of the letters had not been copied for u.s. Hear
ing this we left the most positive directions nj our
Office that the letters, when printed in the "Union,
should be identified complete in their series, by
comparison with the copies sent to US from the Sen.
ate. At ten o'clock at night we sent down to the
Office again the same direction, to make sure that
no letter should be omitted Still letter omitted
and we cannot * nlain nor acn1nnt for nor excnae