“Having, in the maintenance of what I deemed necessary discipline, drawn up charges and specifications against three officers then under my command, I transmitted the papers November 28, 1847, to the Secretary of War, with a request in each case that the President, under the act of May 29, 1830, would appoint a general court-martial for the trial of the same.  This court of inquiry is the result.  I am stricken down from high command; one of the arrested generals is pre-acquitted and rewarded, and of the other parties, the judge and his prisoners, the accuser and the accused, the innocent and the guilty, with that strange exception, all thrown before you to scramble for justice as we may.

“In the case of Major-General Pillow I preferred two charges:  the first with one specification, respecting a prohibited publication in the newspapers of the United States, and the second embracing a great number of specifications.

“Considering, Mr. President, that I asked for a general court-martial to try and definitely determine cases specifically defined and set out, and that this preliminary court has no power beyond the mere collection of facts and giving an inoperative opinion thereon; considering that, if we now proceed, the whole labor must be gone over again at least by the parties and witnesses; considering that the court will be obliged to adjourn to the United States in order to have the least hope of obtaining the testimony of these important witnesses, now retired to civil life, and therefore not compellable to attend a military court even at home, or to testify before a commission duly appointed by such courts, and the parties will not be able to leave this country for home without peril of life.  Considering that there is a near prospect of peace between the United States and Mexico, which may be consummated in time to enable this whole army to return home at once in safety; considering immediately, on such consummation, that Major-General Pillow would, by express terms of the law under which he holds his commission, be out of the army, and therefore no longer amenable for his acts to any military tribunal; considering that, in preferring the charges against that officer, I was moved solely by the desire to preserve the discipline and honor of the army, not having even had the slightest personal quarrel or difficulty with him, and that the time had probably gone by for benefiting the service by a conviction and punishment—­in view of these circumstances, I shall, Mr. President, decline prosecuting the charges and specifications against Major-General Pillow before this preliminary court, without its special orders, or further orders from the President of the United States.”

In total disregard of the charges preferred against General Worth by the commanding general, the President ordered him to be released from arrest and restored to his command.  General Worth, considering that the President had done him “full and ample justice,” withdrew his charges against General Scott; to which the latter said that he “felt strong in conscious rectitude, strong in all the means of defense, defied his accusers, and would not plead the letter withdrawing the accusations against him in bar of trial; that he challenged the writer of that letter to come forward and do his worst.”