“Since the peace with Great Britain the talents of General Scott have ever been at the command of his country.  His pen and his sword have alike been put in requisition to meet the varied exigencies of the service.  When the difficulties with the Western Indians swelled into importance, General Scott was dispatched to the scene of hostility.  There rose up before him then, in the ravages of a frightful pestilence, a form of danger infinitely more appalling than the perils of the field.  How he bore himself in this emergency, how faithfully he became the nurse and the physician of those from whom terror and loathing had driven all other aid, can not be forgotten by a just and grateful country....

“Mr. Chairman, I believe that a signal atonement to General Scott will one day be extorted from the justice of the House.  We owe it to him; but we owe it still more to the country.  What officer can feel secure in the face of that great example of triumphant injustice?  Who can place before himself the anticipation of establishing higher claims upon the gratitude of the country than General Scott?  Yet he was sacrificed.  His past services went for nothing.  Sir, you may raise new regiments and issue new commissions, but you can not without such atonement restore the high moral tone which befits the depositories of the national honor.  I fondly wish that the highest and lowest in the country’s service might be taught to regard this House as the jealous guardian of his rights, against caprice, or fanaticism, or outrage from whatever quarter.  I would have him know that in running up the national flag at the very moment our daily labors commence, we do not go through an idle form.  On whatever distant service he may be sent—­whether urging his way amid tumbling icebergs toward the pole, or fainting in the unwholesome heat of Florida—­I would enable him as he looks up to that flag to gather hope and strength.  It should impart to him a proud feeling of confidence and security.  He should know that the same emblem of majesty and justice floats over the council of the nation, and that in its untarnished luster we have all a common interest and a common sympathy.  Then, sir, and not before, will you have an army or a navy worthy to sustain and to perpetuate the glory of former days.”

Soon after the decision of the court of inquiry exonerating him from blame or censure General Scott was tendered a public dinner in New York from leading members of both political parties.  He accepted the invitation, but it was subsequently postponed until about the middle of May, and before that time it was altogether declined, for reasons expressed in a note of which a copy follows: