forty-nine, or between one-third and one-fourth of the whole number. Such being the state of the facts, well might Mr. Stanton have observed, in making this report, much to his credit for candor and fairness, that 'there are a good deal of rumors and speculations and misapprehensions as to the true state of facts in regard to this matter.'"-Congressional Globe, 1860-61, p. 294.

The report of the committee and the opinion expressed by its chairman before the House, it might have been supposed, would satisfy General Scott that none of these muskets or rifles had been purloined by Secretary Floyd. But not so. The ex-President had stated in his letter to the National Intelligencer of November 7, 1862, that "the Southern States received in 1860 less instead of more than the quota of arms to which they were entitled by law." This statement was founded on the report of the committee, which had now been brought fully to his notice. He, notwithstanding, still persisted in his error, and in his letter to the National Intelligencer of the 2d of December, 1862, he says: "This is most strange contrasted with information given to me last year, and a telegram just received from Washington and a high officer now of the Ordnance Department, in these words and figures: Rhode Island, Delaware, and Texas had not drawn at the end of 1860 their annual quotas of arms for that year, and Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Kentucky only in part. Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kansas were, by the order of the Secretary of War, supplied with their quotas for 1861 in advance, and Pennsylvania and Maryland in part.'

"It is in vain that the general attempts to set up an anonymous telegram against the report of the committee. . . There is a mysterious vagueness about this telegram, calculated, if not intended, to deceive the casual reader into the belief that a great number of these arms had been distributed among the enumerated States, embracing their quotas not only of 1860, but for 1861. From it no person

could imagine that these eight States in the aggregate had received fewer muskets and rifles than would be required to arm two full regiments.

"The next subject investigated by the committee was, had Secretary Floyd sent any cannon to the Southern States? This was a most important inquiry. Our columbiads and 32-pounders were, at the time, considered equal, if not superior, to any cannon in the world. It was easy to ascertain whether he had, treacherously or otherwise, sent any of these formidable weapons to the South. Had he done this it would have been impossible to conceal the fact and escape detection. The size and ponderous weight of these cannon rendered it impracticable to remove them from the North to the South without the knowledge of many outside persons in addition to those connected with the Ordnance Bureau. The committee reported on this subject on the 18th of February, 1861. There was no evidence before them that any of these cannon had actually been transmitted to the South. Indeed, this was not even pretended. From their report, however, it does appear that Secretary Floyd had attempted to do this on one occasion a very short time before he left the Department, but that he had failed in this attempt in consequence of a countermand of his order issued by Mr. Holt, his successor in the War Department.

"It requires but a few words to explain the whole transaction. Secretary Floyd, on the 20th of December, 1860, without the knowledge of the President, ordered Captain (now Colonel) Maynadier, of the Ordnance Bureau, to cause the guns necessary for the armament of the forts on Ship Island and Galveston to be sent to those places. This order was given verbally, and not in the usual form. It was not recorded, and the forts were far from being prepared to receive their armaments. The whole number of guns required for both forts, according to the statement of the Engineer Department to Captain Maynadier, was one hun

dred and thirteen columbiads and eleven 32-pounders. When, late in December, 1860, these were about to be shipped at Pittsburg for their destination on the steamer Silver Wave, a committee of gentlemen from that city first brought the facts to the notice of President Buchanan. The consequence was that, in the language of the report of the committee, Before the order of the late Secretary (Floyd) had been fully executed, by the actual shipment of said guns from Pittsburg, it was countermanded by the present Secretary.' This prompt proceeding elicited a vote of thanks on the 4th of January, 1861, from the Select and Common Councils of that city, 'to the President, the Attorney-General (Black), and the acting Secretary of War (Holt).' . . .

"The committee then, in the third place, extended back their inquiry into the circumstances under which Secretary Floyd had a year before, in December, 1859, ordered the removal of one-fifth of the old flint-lock muskets from the Springfield armory, where they had accumulated in inconvenient numbers, to five Southern arsenals. The committee, after examining Colonel Craig, Captain Maynadier, and other witnesses, merely reported to the House the testimony they had taken, without in the slghtest degree implicating the conduct of Secretary Floyd.

...

"The United States had on hand four hundred and ninety-nine thousand five hundred and fifty four-say five hundred thousand-of these muskets. They were in every respect inferior to the new rifle muskets, with which the army had for some years been supplied. They were of the old caliber, .69 of an inch, which had been changed in 1855 to that of .58 in the new rifle muskets. It was one hundred and five thousand of these arms that Secretary Floyd ordered to be sent to the five Southern arsenals; 'sixty-five thousand of them were percussion muskets of the caliber of .69, and forty thousand of this caliber altered to percussion.' By the same order ten thousand of the old per

cussion rifles of the caliber of .54 were removed to these arsenals. These constitute the one hundred and fifteen thousand extra muskets and rifles, with all their implements and ammunition, which, according to General Scott's allegation, nearly three years thereafter, had been sent to the South to furnish arms to the future insurgents. We might suppose from this descripton-embracing' ammunition,' powder, and ball, though nowhere to be found except in his own imagination-that the secessionists were just ready to commence the civil war. His sagacity, long after the fact, puts to shame the dulness of the Military Committee. While obliged to admit that the whole proceeding was officially recorded, he covers it with an air of suspicion by asserting that the transaction was very quietly conducted.' And yet it was openly conducted according to the prescribed forms, and must have been known at the time to a large number of persons, including the general himself, outside either of the War Department, the Springfield armory, or the Southern arsenals. In truth, there was not then the least motive for concealment, even had this been possible."

The general pronounces these muskets and rifles to have been of an "extra" quality. It may, therefore, be proper to state from the testimony what was their true character.

In 1857 proceedings had been instituted by the War Department under the act of 3d March, 1825, “to authorize the sale of unserviceable ordnance, arms, and military stores." The inspecting officers under the act condemned one hundred and ninety thousand of the old muskets "as unsuitable for the public service," and recommended that they be sold. In the spring of 1859 fifty thousand of them were offered at public sale. "The bids received," says Colonel Craig, "were very unsatisfactory, ranging from 10 cents to $2, except one bid for a small lot for $3.50. In submitting them to the Secretary I recommended that none of them be accepted at less than $2.

An effort was then made to dispose of them at private sale for the fixed price of $2.50. So low was the estimate in which they were held that this price could not be obtained, except for thirty-one thousand six hundred and ten of them in parcels. It is a curious fact that, although the State of Louisiana had purchased five thousand of them at $2.50, she refused to take more than two thousand five hundred. On the 5th of July, 1859, Mr. H. G. Fant purchased a large lot of them at $2.50 each, payable in ninety days, but in the mean time he thought better of it, and, like the State of Louisiana, failed to comply with his contract; and Mr. Belknap, whose bid at $2.15 for one hundred thousand of them, intended for the Sardinian government, had been accepted by the Secretary, under the impression that it was $2.50, refused to take them at this price after the mistake had been corrected. Colonel Craig, in speaking of these muskets generally, both those which had and those which had not been condemned, testified that "It is certainly advisable to get rid of that kind of arms whenever we have a sufficient number of others to supply their places, and to have all our small-arms of one caliber. The new gun is rifled. A great many of those guns (flintlocks), altered to percussion, are not strong enough to rifle, and, therefore, they are an inferior gun. They are of a different caliber from those now manufactured by the Government."

"Had the cotton States at the time determined upon rebellion what an opportunity they lost of supplying themselves with these condemned 'extra muskets and rifles,' of General Scott!"

Before dismissing this subject, the space devoted to which, I trust, will not be deemed unreasonable, since there has been so much doubt about it in the public mind, it may not be out of place to say that I took occasion, about three years ago, to examine the records in the Ordnance Office, particularly as to the quantity of arms, accoutrements, etc.,