Mr. Davis’s opposition to conferring the brevet rank of lieutenant general upon General Scott was well known at the time.  In pursuance of this request by the Senate, the following officers were appointed on the board:  Generals Jesup, president, Wool, Gibson, Totten, Talcott, Hitchcock, and Colonel Crane.  The unanimous report was: 

“Under the first inquiry referred to it, the board is of opinion that it is expedient to create by law for the army the additional grade of lieutenant general, and that when, in the opinion of the President and Senate, it shall be deemed proper to acknowledge eminent services of officers of the army, and in the mode already provided for in subordinate grades, it is expedient and proper that the grade of lieutenant general may be conferred by brevet.”

Several efforts were subsequently made to pass joint resolutions similar in purport to those quoted and referred to, but it was not until 1852 that the joint resolution was passed creating the brevet rank of lieutenant general, and General Scott succeeded to that dignity in the army.  The law did not in terms carry with it the pay and emoluments of the brevet rank, and Mr. Davis, who had become Secretary of War under President Pierce, referred the question to the Attorney-General, Mr. Caleb Cushing; but before that officer rendered an opinion Congress inserted a declaratory provision in the military appropriation bill, which, becoming a law, gave the pay proper and all that went with it to a veteran who had by his services well earned it.  General Scott was thenceforward until he died the second officer of the American army (General Washington being the first) who held the office of lieutenant general.

After the inauguration of General Taylor as President, General Scott, between whom and the President there was no very good feeling, continued his headquarters in New York; but when President Fillmore succeeded, in 1850, he removed to Washington, and continued to reside in the latter city until the accession of President Pierce, when, by General Scott’s request, there was another change back to New York, where until 1861—­with the exception of ten months of hard duty—­he remained and maintained headquarters of the army.

In 1849 there were evidences of discontent which almost assumed the attitude of threats in the Canadas growing out of political agitation, and General Scott was interrogated on the question of the advisability of annexation by John C. Hamilton, Esq., of New York.  General Scott replied from West Point, June 29, 1849, in which he expressed the opinion that the news from the British Parliament would increase the discontent of the Canadas, and that those discontents might in a few years lead to a separation of the Canadas, New Brunswick, etc., from England.  He thought that, instead of those provinces forming themselves into an independent nation, they would seek a connection with our Union, and that thereby the interests of both