The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1862-12-19
SCOTT VS.. BUCHANAN.
General SCOTS Final Letter In lIe-
ply aOsEx.PresideMS BucnaM nan.

| The following is General Seott's last let
ter in reply to ex President Buchanan:
ITO the Editors IF the National InteHisen-
IAN c:icial report of mine made to Presi-
dent Lincoln March 80. 1861. on our south
ern forts. was published on the 2lst of Oc-
tober last. To this ex-President Buchanan
replied at great length in the same month
A short r.joinder from me 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 controversy.
.Mr. buchanan has minated that
have been actuated by feeling Of personal
Ill will towards him. This is unjust l
had TO private resentment to crafty. On
the contrary, l have we'll remembered the
many official courtesies received from him
as we'll as from Mr.. Floyd, both as Cover
nor OF Virginia and Secretary of War; bu.
to vindicate justice and the truth of history
is paramount obligation.
81 had said that. with view TO the medi-
tated rebellion. Secretary Floyd had or
dered $4,000 extra stands of muskets
and rifles from northern repositories to
southern arsenals. To this MIR. Buchanan
now replies in substance. That the trans
fers were made under an order dated nearly
a year before Mr.. Lincoln's election to the
Presidency. True; but if Mr.. Buchanan has
persuaded himself that the revolt had not
long before been planned depend.
ent on the election OF any northern man.
it is not likely that he will ever make a
second convert to that opinion. 2. He only
gives 10000 as the number of arms trans
81 Il
says that the muskets (1O5. OOO) we're con
demned. and tina, purchasers could not be
found for many of them at 81 go EACH
Now, here is official statement made to
me eighteen months ago, Uust received from
my papers at Washington showing that
65. 1000 of those arms were percussion mus
kets,' probably entirely new, and 10000
others. termed 'muskets altered to percus
.ion,' with 10000 percussion rifes'-n not
one OF the 10000 were ever condemned
but all precisely like most OF the small arms
issued to our troops Irregular and volunteer
in 1861. L. Mr.. Buchanan further init.
mates that those arms were transferred to
equalize, in some degree, the deposits among
the different states, as if these had any state
pride in allowing storage to the property of
the United States within their limits II
SO. why establish storage places in the great
states Of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, within
which the United States has had no deposit
OF arms and 20 arsenal? s. Mr.. Buchanan
supposes ne to brand the transferred arms
with the epthet stolen In my rejoinder
to him nowhere use that term, because |
knew the transaction, though very quietly
conducted, was officially recorded and the
freigh t paid for by the United States, whose
property the arms continued to be in their
new repositories.
''Mr. Buchanan mixes up-perhaps l
ought rather 10 say seems to c0nfound-
quite q different class of arms distributed
among the several states under the annual
appropriations towards arming the whole
body OF the militia of the Union. Thus he |
say: The southern states received in 1860 |
less instead of more than the quotas of arms
to which they were entitled by law This i
is most strange, contrasted with information
given to me last year. aud with a telegram /
just received from Washington and a high |
of6cer-not of the Ordnance Bureau-in /
these words and figures:
"'Rhode Island, Delaware and Texas
had not drawn at the end of eighteen sixty
1861 their annual quotas of arms for that
year, and Massachusetts,, Tennessee, and |
kentucky only in part; Virginia, South
Carolina Georgia. Florida. Alabama. Loui-
siaua. Mississippi and Kansas we're, by the
order Of the Secretsry Of War, supplied /
with their quotas for eighteen sixty -one
(186l) 10 advance. and Pennsylvania and /
Mary land in part
This advance OF arms to eight southern
states Is a suuicieus commentary by itself on
the transfer, about the same time. of the
5000 muskets and rifles.
I'm respect to the heavy cannon ordered
from Pittsburg to the Gulf of Mexico, Mr..
Buchanan has shown me that was 10 error
In saying that their shipment was counter
handed in March instead of January, 1e6l
This was the only immaterial part of my
statement, for | was correct in the declrA-
lions that gave information to Mr.. Secre-
tary Holt that the shipment had CONNIE need,
and that he ordered the guns re landed. and +
stopped the robbery.
WINFIELD SCOTT.
New York, December 2, 1862 /