"HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE SOUTH,

"NASHVILLE, _September 17, 1817_.

"SIR: With that candor due the character you have sustained
as a soldier and a man of honor, and with the fairness of the
latter, I address you. Inclosed is a copy of an anonymous letter
postmarked New York, August 14, 1817, together with a publication
taken from the Columbian, which accompanied the letter. I have not
permitted myself for a moment to believe that the conduct ascribed
to you is correct. Candor, however, induces me to lay them before
you, that you may have it in your power to say how far they be
incorrectly stated. If my order has been the subject of your
animadversions, it is believed you will at once admit it, and the
extent to which you may have gone.

"I am, sir, respectfully,

"Your most obedient servant,

"ANDREW JACKSON.

"_General_ W. SCOTT, _U.S. Army_."

General Scott replied to this letter denying the authorship of the
article, and said: " ... I gave it as my opinion that that paper was,
as it respected the future, mutinous in its character and tendency,
and as it respected the past, a reprimand of the commander in chief,
the President of the United States; for although the latter be not
expressly named, it is a principle well understood that the War
Department, without at least his supposed sanction, can not give a
valid command to an ensign.... Even if I belonged to your division I
should not hesitate to repeat to you all that I have said at any time
on this subject if a proper occasion offered; and what is more, I
should expect your approbation, as in my humble judgment refutation is
impossible."

General Jackson replied to this in a very angry manner, and intimating
that General Scott might, if he chose, call him to the field. Scott
replied, and declined to write the challenge, "as his ambition was not
that of Erostratus," intimating that he ruined his only chance of
acquiring distinction by killing a defender of his country.

For years afterward Scott heard reports that General Jackson had made
threats of personal chastisement whenever they should meet. In 1823,
soon after General Jackson took his seat in the United States Senate,
Scott made frequent visits there, and was entitled to the floor.
Wearied at last with this state of things, he addressed General
Jackson as follows: