“GENTLEMEN:  Early last month I accepted the invitation to a public dinner which you and other friends did me the honor to tender me.  In a few days the embarrassments of this great emporium became such that I begged the compliment might be indefinitely postponed.  You, however, were so kind as to hold me to my engagement, and to appoint a day for the meeting, which is now near at hand.  In the meantime the difficulties in the commercial world have gone on augmenting, and many of my friends, here and elsewhere, have been whelmed under the general calamity of the times.  Feeling deeply for the losses and anxieties of all, no public honor could now be enjoyed by me.  I must therefore, under the circumstances, positively but most respectfully withdraw my acceptance of your invitation.

  “I have the honor to remain, gentlemen, with the greatest esteem,
  your friend and servant,

“WINFIELD SCOTT.”

The subscribers to the dinner, on receipt of General Scott’s letter, called a meeting, Cornelius W. Lawrence in the chair, and unanimously adopted the resolutions which follow: 

“Resolved, That in the decision of General Scott to withdraw, for the reasons assigned, his acceptance of the public dinner designed to testify to him our high appreciation both of his private and public character, we find new evidence of his sympathy with all that regards the public welfare, and of his habitual oblivion of self where the feelings and interests of others are concerned.

“Resolved, That we rejoice with the joy of friends in the result, so honorable to General Scott, of the recent court of inquiry instituted to investigate his military conduct as commander in chief in Alabama and Florida, and that the President of the United States (Mr. Van Buren), in approving its proceedings, acted in gratifying unison with the general sentiments of the nation.”

General Scott also received invitations from Richmond, Va., and Elizabeth, N.J., both of which places had been his former homes.

The Florida War was brought to a close by the defeat of the Indians by Colonel Zachary Taylor, in the decisive battle of Okechobee, for which he received the brevet of Brigadier General, and in 1838 was appointed to the chief command in Florida.  Taylor was succeeded by Brigadier-General Armistead, and in 1842 General Worth succeeded to the command and made a treaty with Sam Jones and Billy Bowlegs, allowing them to remain and possess a large tract of land.

In the spring of 1836 General Scott was ordered to take charge of and superintend the removal of the Cherokee Indians to the reservation which had been set apart for them by treaty west of the Mississippi River.  Great opposition to removal was expected from the Indians, and much fear felt by the inhabitants contiguous to their settlements.  General Scott, however, by his kindness and generosity, won the confidence of the Indians, and was not compelled to resort to