On reaching New York, most of us had rough soldier’s clothing, but we soon got a new outfit, and I dined with General Scott’s family, Mrs. Scott being present, and also their son-in-law and daughter (Colonel and Mrs. H. L. Scott).  The general questioned me pretty closely in regard to things on the Pacific coast, especially the politics, and startled me with the assertion that “our country was on the eve of a terrible civil war.”  He interested me by anecdotes of my old army comrades in his recent battles around the city of Mexico, and I felt deeply the fact that our country had passed through a foreign war, that my comrades had fought great battles, and yet I had not heard a hostile shot.  Of course, I thought it the last and only chance in my day, and that my career as a soldier was at an end.  After some four or five days spent in New York, I was, by an order of General Scott, sent to Washington, to lay before the Secretary of War (Crawford, of Georgia) the dispatches which I had brought from California.  On reaching Washington, I found that Mr. Ewing was Secretary of the Interior, and I at once became a member of his family.  The family occupied the house of Mr. Blair, on Pennsylvania Avenue, directly in front of the War Department.  I immediately repaired to the War Department, and placed my dispatches in the hands of Mr. Crawford, who questioned me somewhat about California, but seemed little interested in the subject, except so far as it related to slavery and the routes through Texas.  I then went to call on the President at the White House.  I found Major Bliss, who had been my teacher in mathematics at West Point, and was then General Taylor’s son-in-law and private secretary.  He took me into the room, now used by the President’s private secretaries, where President Taylor was.  I had never seen him before, though I had served under him in Florida in 1840-’41, and was most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, and his pleasant, easy manners.  He received me with great kindness, told me that Colonel Mason had mentioned my name with praise, and that he would be pleased to do me any act of favor.  We were with him nearly an hour, talking about California generally, and of his personal friends, Persifer Smith, Riley, Canby, and others:  Although General Scott was generally regarded by the army as the most accomplished soldier of the Mexican War, yet General Taylor had that blunt, honest, and stern character, that endeared him to the masses of the people, and made him President.  Bliss, too, had gained a large fame by his marked skill and intelligence as an adjutant-general and military adviser.  His manner was very unmilitary, and in his talk he stammered and hesitated, so as to make an unfavorable impression on a stranger; but he was wonderfully accurate and skillful with his pen, and his orders and letters form a model of military precision and clearness.

CHAPTER IV.