Gen. Scott's Last Letter

Ají official report cf mine made to President Lincoln March 30, 1861, on our Boutbern fort, ras published on the BJ8t of Uotober last. To this ex-President Bu;hanau replied at grent leugth in Hie same inonth. A short rejoiuder froiii me followed early in November, and liere is amnher paper from Mr. Buchiioan Uuted the 17th of tho same montli, and ou llie same subject. A brief noties of j tuis paper siiull termínate niy part iu this i eoutroversy. I Mr. Buchanan has intiiuated that I have been aetuated by ;i spirit of personal , ill v.'ü! toward him. This is uojust, I liad uo private resentment togratify. Oa i the eoutrary, I have woll remembered the raany official eourtesiea recoivod frota him as well as frora Mr. Floyd, botli as Governor of Virginia and Secretnry of , Vï; bui; to vindícate juatieo and the truth of hiatory i a parauiount obligaíiol). T had said that, with a view to the medita ted rcboiÜon, Seei'etary Floyd had rdercd 115,000 extra stands of muskets fiiid rifles from Northern depesitories to , Southern arsenal. To this Mr. B. now replies iu substanco : 1. That the fers were made under an order dated ■ nearly a year before Mr. Lincolu's elee tioo to the Presidency. True; but if , Mr H. has persuaded himself that tho , revolt had nol long bcforo boen plauned, {dependent on the elecüon of axy uorthern mun,) it is not likely th-at he vvill , ever uiuke a seeond convert to that opinión. '1. He ouly gives 105,000 as the mimber of arms traiwferred, oü.itting the 10,000 rifles. 3. He says that the mukets (105 000) were condemned, and th:it purehasers could not be found for i muny of tlieni at ,50 each. Now, hcjre , is an official statement, made to me , eightcen montlis ago, (just reoeived from , my papers at Washington,) showing that 05,000 of those arms were " percussioa ( muskots," probably cntirely ucw, and 40,000 others, termeü " muskets altered 1 perciission," with 10,000 " percussion rifles" - not ofto of the 115,000 was ever ' coudemned." but all preoisëly like most, of the smal! arms issued to our trooj (regular and viiluntcer) in 1861. 4. Mr. Buchanan further intimares that those arms were transu-rred to eijuulia in some iiigree the depc -its among the different ■stute?, as if these had any state pride iu allowing storage to the property of the Uiited States within their particular Jimits. Jf so, why not establish starage places ia the greut states of Oii-io, Iudiana. nnd Illinois, within vviiich the ' United States bas had no deposit of arms : and no arsenal ? 5. Mr. B supposes mo : ' ta brand the transferred nritis with the ' p'itiiet " stfelen." In my rejoiuder to : hiin I nowhore use tkat term, becauso I ' kuew the transaution, though vcry lieiiy j CTiidueted, 'as oScially recorded, and , the freight paid by the United States, whose property the arias eoutiuued to be in their qew depositori?8 4tr. Buohaoao oiixea up - pcrliaps I raglit ra tht to say seems o confound - juite a different class of arms with the toregöing, vis: the juotas of arms distributed arüong th-e se v eral States iindor the annuil anpropr.iation towai'd arming the wh.ilo body Í the miiitia of the Union. ïhu.3 ie' says: " The Southern States recsived :n 1860 less instead of inore tlian the cjuotas of arms to wlmh they were oiutitled by luw." This is most strangc, ecntrasled with information given tO sue laet year, and with a telegram jTtt received frouj Washington and a high officer - üot of tho Ordiiance Burea - in these words ;md figures: " Llhodo Islaud, Delaware, and Texas ld not draWfl at the end of eightconisty (18()0) their animal quotas of arms êtt that year, and Massachusetts, Teuuessec, and Kentucky only in part; Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida. Alabama, LouisiaDS, Mississppi, and Kansas were, by the order of the Secrtary of War, süpplied with their quota lor eighteen sixt;, one (1'ü) in advance, " and Póünsylvania and Mar} land in part." This adettnee of arma to eight Southern Otates ia a putlioieut commenta.y by itsalf on the transfer, about the saine time, t.f thfl 115,000 nusküS aud rifles. ín respect to the heavy oannon ortïorod from Pittsburgli to tho Gu!f of üittxico, Mr. Buchanan bas shown me that I wus iü error iu saying that their shii)me:it was coantermaflded in March instead of Jamtai-y, 1861. This was the ouly í mm at erial part of niy statement, for I was erreet iu the dtioluratioua that I gave iuformation to Mr. Secretary Holt that the shipment bad commenced, ahd that he orJered the guns to be rolauded, aud stopped tha robbery. WiNFIELD SCOTT. New York, Dee. 2, 1862. Over and above tiio previous and usual dciKjsit iu the Southern arsenals.