nt who knew of my alleged bad conduct. The Secretary
of War would not even see me until I was at last presented to him
by an officer of the army. Then he offered me his forefinger to
shake, but he could give me no encouragement whatever. This was
after I had been in Washington several weeks. My congressman, Mr.
Campbell, who had succeeded Mr. Turner, and several others received
me kindly, read my letters, and promised to see the Secretary of
War, which no doubt they did, though without any apparent effect.
The only result was the impossible suggestion that if I would give
the names of my guilty classmates I might be let off. I had made
an early call upon the "Little Giant," Senator Douglas, to whom I
had no letter, and whom I had never met; had introduced myself as
a "citizen of Illinois" in trouble; and had told my story. He said
he was not on good terms with that administration, and preferred
not to go near the War Department if it could be avoided, but if
it proved necessary to let him know. Hence, after all else failed,
including my personal appeal, which I had waited so long to make,
I told Mr. Douglas all that had occurred, and suggested that there
was nothing left but to "put in the reserve," as the tacticians
call it. He replied: "Come up in the morning, and we will go to
see about it." On our way to the War Department the next morning,
the senator said, "I don't know that I can do anything with this
---- Whig administration"; but he assured me all should be made
right in the next. That seemed to me the kind of man I had looked
for in vain up to that time. I waited in the anteroom only a few
minutes, when the great senator came out with a genial smile on
his face, shook me warmly by the hand, and bade by good-by, saying:
"It is all right. You can go back to West Point. The Secretary
has given me his promise." I need not go into the details of the
long and tedious formalities through which the Secretary's promise
was finally fulfilled. It was enough to me that my powerful friend
had secured the promise that, upon proof of the facts as I had
stated them, I should be fully exonerated and restored to the
academy. I returned to West Point, and went through the long forms
of a court of inquiry, a court martial, and the waiting for the
final action of the War Department, all occupying some five or six
months, diligently attending to my military and academic duties,
and trying hard to obey all the regul