ctics prepared by him.

General Scott was one of the pioneers in what is known as the
temperance reform, and preceded Dr. Lyman Beecher in his celebrated
discourses on this subject. In December, 1821, General Scott published
his "Scheme for restricting the use of ardent spirits in the United
States." It was first published in the National Gazette. He did not
take ground for total abstinence, but against the use ardent of
spirits, brandy, rum, and whisky. He was also a member of the society
formed in New York in 1821 "for the prevention of pauperism, vice, and
immorality."

General Scott, in 1823, took great interest in having the sons of
General Paez, of Colombia, South America, admitted as students at the
military academy at West Point, which drew from General Paez letters
of thanks to General Scott and President Monroe.

A very serious controversy arose in 1828 between General Scott and
General Edmund Pendleton Gaines on a question of rank. General Macomb
had been appointed by President Adams major general of the United
States army. There was at that time but one major general, and Scott
held the rank of brevet major general, with an older date than
Macomb's appointment, and he addressed a memorial to Congress claiming
his superiority in rank to Macomb. He argued that from the beginning
of the Revolutionary War down to the time of his appointment brevet
rank was uniformly held to give rank and command, except only in the
body of a regiment, etc.; that there existed in law or in fact no
higher title or grade in the army than that of major general, there
being no such thing as a commander in chief, except the President.
That he [Scott] held a commission as major general, July 25, 1814, of
older date than that of either Generals Macomb or Gaines. Congress did
not pass an act, however, sustaining his claim, and the result was a
construction by the authorities that a brevet appointment did not
confer additional rank.

General Scott, on this decision of Congress, tendered his resignation,
which was not accepted. When he was informed that the President and
others high in authority sustained the action of Congress, he
addressed a letter to Mr. Eaton, the Secretary of War, as follows:

"NEW YORK, _November 10, 1829_.

"SIR: I have seen the President's order of the 13th of
August last, which gives a construction of the sixty-first and
sixty-second articles of war relative to r