I know or believe, both are entirely innocent of any participation in these machinations. My hope and confidence remain firm that you will (as heretofore) defeat your enemies, both in front and in rear. All that I can do to give you that double victory you may rely upon. Candor requires that I should say while laboring under a sense of neglect on your part, I mentioned your silence, in a tone of complaint, to several common friends all your admirers,-Crittenden, Morehead, Archer, and Corwin. Since I heard of your liberality towards me, about the 7th instant, I have written to these distinguished senators to do you justice.

In haste, very truly your friend,

To General Z. TAYLOR.

WINFIELD SCOTT.

CHAPTER XX.

1846-1847.

Letters of Baillie Peyton and General Scott-Bill in Senate for increased Pay of Soldiers and Volunteers-Letter of General Worth from Saltillo-Letter of G. B. Kinkead, and Crittenden's Reply.

DE

(Hon. Baillie Peyton to J. J. Crittenden.)

MONTEREY, October 2, 1846.

EAR SIR,-This city capitulated on the 24th, after several days' hard fighting, and with the loss in killed and wounded on our side of five hundred men, among whom are some valuable officers, both regulars and volunteers. General Worth has immortalized himself in storming this city. He was detached with the second division of the regular army and Col. Hays's regiment of riflemen for the purpose of taking the city, occupying the Saltillo road and operating against the outworks and town from the west side. His success was complete; he performed a series of the most brilliant feats which will be classed with the brightest in our annals. Seven or eight battles won in the most splendid style, scaling heights, storming batteries, and forcing his way into the city, driving the enemy and his batteries before him in the streets. Worth's judicious conduct and noble and gallant bearing are the theme of universal applause. I had the honor of acting as one of his aids on the occasion, and no man could be near his person without becoming acquainted with the music of balls, with cannon, including grape, canister, and a whole orchestra of martial music. Now at some of the most emphatic of these notes my horse was a "leetle skittish ;" but understand distinctly that I speak of my horse, and no other member of the family. General Worth has been so kind as to notice me in the handsomest manner. To this distinction I assure you I have very little claim. He requests me to tender to you his warmest regards, and to say that you must and shall be the President of the United States; that he has not fully made up his mind as to whether he will accept the office of Secretary of War, which he considers as tendered to him in advance. This depends much on your improvement in one particular-that is, in dignity and distance; he means to sustain all the pomp and circumstance of office himself, and cannot think of serving under a chief who is not up to the mark.

"Take him all in all," he is the high-combed cock of the army, head and shoulders above the crowd.

I have written out, at some length, my views of the operations under General Worth and sent them to New Orleans for publication. I was not altogether in favor of letting the Mexicans off so lightly; but when the thing was done by such men as Generals Taylor and Worth, I felt bound to sustain it. Very truly your friend,

Hon. J. J. CRITTENDEN.

BAILLIE PEYTON.

(General Scott to J. J. Crittenden.)

WASHINGTON, October 19, 1846. DEAR CRITTENDEN,-I am afraid you will exclaim, What, is a recess to be no holiday to me? for this is my third or fourth letter. Notwithstanding the three glorious days at Monterey, the terms of the capitulation came very near causing Taylor to be recalled; his standing with the people alone saved him. Mr. Polk, Mr. Buchanan, and some others of influence out of the cabinet argued that Ampudia and his army were bagged; that they could not have held out a day, if three hours longer; that a surrender as prisoners of war would have led to an early peace; that we have now to beat the same enemy again at the mountain pass (very difficult) between Rinconada and Los Muertos, thirty miles beyond Monterey, with such reinforcements as may arrive in the mean time from the interior; that Taylor (ignorant of our new proposition to treat having been rejected by the new Mexican government) was cheated into the abandonment of his first terms by the adroitness of Ampudia (and contrary to the instructions) to grant the armistice, etc. But, as I have said, notwithstanding the ardent desire to put Butler or Patterson in command, the fear of Taylor's popularity prevailed, and the Union was instructed to praise him. Perhaps Butler's wound may have aided this result. I know that minute inquiries about that wound were made of the bearer of dispatches, by two of the cabinet and Ritchie, who replied that Butler might not be able to resume the saddle in many weeks. Taylor's detailed report has not been received, and, indeed, nothing from him since 25th September; he makes Worth the principal hero of the occasion, which gives a lively joy to everybody, yet I fear he I will not be breveted. I shall renew the application to that effect on the receipt of the detailed report. The armistice will be terminated by notice about the end of this month. No time will have been lost; for, under the impatience of the executive, the movement from the Rio Grande was premature. From the want of maturity in the arrangements, Taylor was forced to

leave the great body of volunteers behind, and a respectable portion of the regulars. The Kentucky and Tennessee mounted regiments could not have reached the Rio Grande before the 10th, perhaps the 15th. For the want of this important force, Taylor and Henderson had to prevail on the Texan horse to engage for a second term, notwithstanding the Secretary's orders to discharge all volunteers for a term less than a year. They thus obtained a mounted force of some fourteen hundred men, including three hundred and fifty regular cavalry. But the Texan horse had already, on the 25th, become impatient to return home. The two regiments from Kentucky and Tennessee will be in time to replace them before the recommencement of hostilities. The cavalry will be of but little use in storming the difficult pass just beyond Monterey; but, in the plains beyond, they will be indispensable to protect our volunteer foot against the clouds of Mexican horse. Notwithstanding Santa Anna's fierce and unexpected letter, declining the dictatorship, I think we shall have peace before next summer. Two more victories at the pass of Rinconada and at Saltillo, with an evident capacity to continue the triumphant advance, will make him sue for peace, and sufficiently impress the nation to enable him to dare to accede to our terms, the left bank of the Rio Grande and along the parallel of 36 from that river to the Pacific. I should be unwilling to claim an inch beyond these boundaries, but suppose the administration will be more extortionate in the case of continued successes. Friend Archer has written me two most abusive letters. He is angry with me (on old grounds) because I do not professedly and in fact think, speak, and act precisely as he directs. He crossed a t or dotted an i in your beautiful letter about the dissolution of the cabinet in 1841, and hence he always holds you up as a model of successful docility. If I would only put myself exclusively under his government, he would be the best friend in the world. As it is, he is a valuable one, for whom I have a very sincere affection. I inclose you a copy of my reply to his two letters, half jocose and half retaliatory. I deprecate his wrath, but I have also taken care to show him that he is not invulnerable. Show the copy to our friend Letcher, and please return it to me.

Hon. J. J. CRITTENDEN.

Yours sincerely,

WINFIELD SCOTT.

In October a resolution was offered in the Senate to increase the pay of the soldiers, especially the volunteers, engaged in the Mexican war, and also to grant a certificate of merit to every private soldier who distinguished himself. On this subject Mr. Crittenden made the following remarks:

Mr. President, I am not tenacious about the form of the resolution, but the substance is important. There were peculiar circumstances attending the service of our troops in Mexico, which, in my judgment, in the judgment of the people generally, render it proper that those troops should receive increased pay, especially the volunteers, who left their homes for the service with less experience of camp life and less ability to take care of themselves than the regular soldiers; they were entitled to receive an increased compensation. This resolution, however, was made to embrace the regular soldiers of the army as well as the volunteers. It is well understood that, owing to the character of the service, their expenses have been greatly increased. The resolution does not specify the amount by which it is proposed to increase their pay, and I think it just that this point should be left open to the judgment of the committee. I insist, however, on the propriety of some amount of increase.

The second branch of the resolution contains a provision which I am satisfied will meet with the cordial approbation of every one. Our officers who distinguish themselves receive an honorable reward for their services by brevet promotion; but the soldier may toil and dig and fight valiantly and perform the most heroic deeds without the possibility of signalizing his humble name. The resolution proposes that the committee shall provide a means by which this defect shall be remedied, by granting a certificate of merit to each private soldier who has distinguished himself, and that such certificate should not be a mere empty honor, but the holder should, in consequence of it, be entitled to some additional pay,-something to remind his companions that his country had taken notice of his services, humble as they were. I confess, however, that I have a decided preference for the form of the resolution. This is not a new subject to me. I think the prompt and unhesitating adoption of the resolution in its present form would be the most complimentary and honorable testimony which the Senate could bear to the army. I do not believe there is a nation in Europe which would not have honored with increased pay any army which had performed the same service. The British army in India had been very liberally rewarded for the services they rendered in achieving their recent victories over the Sikhs, and I believe a reward is usual in every victory won by the armies of the nations of Europe. Not only the privations to which the troops are exposed, not only the increased expenditure attending the soldier's life, but the meritorious and great services rendered justly claim an increase of compensation at the hands of the country. The resolution did not propose a permanent