Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1862-12-18
Another Letter from Lieutenant
General Scott.

Another Letter from Lieutenant
General Scott.
To the Editors ofthc National Intelligenc,r:
An official report of mine made to Pres.
ident Lincoln, March 80. 1861, on our
Southern forts. was published on the 31st
of October last. To this ex President
Buchanan replied at great length in the
same month. A short rejoinder from mo
followed early in November. and here is
another paper from Mr.. Buchanan. dated
the 18th of the same month, and on the
same subject. A brief notice Of this paper
shall terminate my part in this contro-
versy.
Mr.. Buchanan has intimatcd that have
been actuated by feeling of personal i'll
will towards him. This is unjust. Iha1
no private resentment to crafty. On the
contrary have we'll remem bered the many
official conreses received from him as well
as from Mr.. Floyd. both as Governor of
Virginia and Secretary ofwar; but to vim.
dicate justice and the truth of history is a
paramount obligation.
had said that. with view 70 the med
tated rebellion. Secretary Floyd had or
dered lis 900 extras stands of muskets
and rifles from Northern repositories to
Southern arsenals. To this Mr.. Buchanan
now replies in substance:-1. That the
transfers were made under an order dated
nearly year before Mr.. Lincoln's election
to the Presidency. True; but if AR. Bu-
chanan has persuaded himself that the re-
volt had not long before been planned (de
pendent on the election of any Northern
man) it is not likely that he will ever
make a second convert to that opinion
.. He only gives 105. 900 as the number
of arms transferred, omitting the 10. 600
rifles. 3. He says that the muskety { l05,
000) were condemned, and that purchaser.
could not be found for many of them at
$3.50 each. Now. here is an official
| statement, made to me eighteen months
ago (just received from my papers at
Washington. (showing $4,000 of those
arms were percussion muskets." probs.
bly, entirely new, and $4,000 others.
termed ''muskets altered to percussion ri
aes" one of the 1l5,000was ever
condemned" but ell precisely like most
of the small arms issued to our troops
Irregular and volunteer in 1861. 4. Mr..
Buchanan further intimates that those arms
were transferred to equalize in some de-
gree, the deposits among the different
States, as If ther, had ben any State pride
in allowing storage to the property of the
United States within their particular lin
its. II so. why not establish storage pla.
ccs in the great States Of Ohio, Indiana
and llliaois, within which the United
States has had no deposit of arms and no
deposit of arms and no arsenal? 5. Mr..
Buchanan supposes me to brand the trans
ferred arms with the epithet "stolen." In
my rejoinder to him | nowhere used the
term. because l knew the transaction,
though quietly conducted. was officially
recorded. and the freight paid for by the
United States. whose property the arms
continued to be in their new repositories i.
Mr.. Buchanan mixes up--perhaps /
ought rather to say seems TO confound -
quite different class of arms with the fore.
going, viz: the quotas of arms distributed
among the several States under the annual
appropriations towards arming the whole
body OF the militia of the Union. Thus he
says. "The Southern States received in
1860 less instead Of more than the quotas
OF arms to which they were entitled by
law" This is most strange. contrasted
with information given to me last year,
and telegram just received from
Washington and from high officer--not
of the Ordinance Bureau-in these words
and figures:
Rhode Island. Delaware. and Texas
had not drawn at the end Of eighteen sixty
{ (1S6O) their annual quotas of arms for
that tyear, and Massachusetts. Tennessee and
Kentucky only in part: Virginia. South
Carolina. Georgia. Florida. Alabama,
Louisiana. Mississippi and Kansas were,
by the order of the Secretary of War. sup
piled with their quotas for eighteen sixty
one { 1861 in advance. and Pennsylvania
and Maryland in pait."
This advan-e Of arms to eight Southern
States is a sufficient commentary by itself
on the transfer, about the same time, of
the lis. 600 muskcts and rifles.
In respect 10 the heavy cannon ordered
from Pittsburg to the gulf of Mexico. MIR.
Bt'chanan has shown me that was in err
ror in saying that their shipment was coun-
termand in March instead of January,
1861. This was the only immaterial part
of my statement, for was correct in the
declarations that gave information to
Mr.. Secretary Holt that the shipment had
commenced. and that he ordered the guns
to be re-landed. and stopped the robbery.
.f WINFIELD ScoTr.
New York. Dec. 8. 1852.