Duncan:

"The reason given for withdrawing the first charge was, that the
President seemed indisposed to enforce the revised paragraph 650,
which he had ordered to be published, and enjoined all to obey and
enforce.

"In regard to the second charge and specification, relating to
matters of fact set forth in the 'Tampico letter,' and which Colonel
Duncan had acknowledged over his own signature he had written, General
Scott, believing that Colonel Duncan had fallen undesignedly into
erroneous statements of fact in the letter, sent an officer to ask him
if he was not ignorant, at the time of writing the letter,

"1. That before the army left Pueblo for the valley his [Scott's] bias
and expectation were that the army would be obliged to reach the
enemy's capital by the left or south around Lakes Chalco and
Xochimilco.

"2. That after his headquarters were established at Ayotla, August
11th, he [Scott] had shown equal solicitude to get additional
information of that route, as well as that of Penon or Mexicalcingo.

"3. That besides sending from Ayotla, August 12th, oral instructions
to Brevet Major-General Worth to push further inquiries from Chalco as
to the character of the southernmost route around the two lakes, he
[Scott] had sent written instructions to General Worth to the same
effect from his quarters at Ayotla.[C]

[Footnote C: General Worth wrote to Colonel Duncan from Tacubaya,
March 31, 1848: "General Scott evinced a disposition to gather
information as respected this route (Chalco) on the 12th.... As I have
said, General Scott directed me to send and examine the Chalco route,"
etc.]

"4. That while at Ayotla, from the 11th to the 15th of August, he
[Scott] sent a Mexican from Ayotla, independent of General Worth, all
around the village of Xochimilco to report to him [Scott] whether
there had been any recent change in the route, either in the matter
of fortifications or from overflowing of the lakes.

"5. That in the evening of the 13th he [Scott] had ordered Captain
Mason, of the engineers, to report to General Worth the next morning,
to be employed in reconnoitering that same southern route, in which
service he had already been anticipated by the reconnoitering party
under himself--Colonel Duncan."

The officer was authorized to say that if Colonel Duncan would state
that he was ignorant of these facts, he would withdraw and abandon,
upon his word, the second charge and specification.

To this