not seem to have supplied, despite urgent requests from the war dept. (e.g. Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 87, 88, 90, 91, 92), any adequate ideas about conducting a campaign in that quarter or even to have formed any for himself. Marcy, May 28, 1846 (ibid., 282), said, "I wish to be favored with your views as to what should be the future operations of the army on the Rio Grande." In submitting such views the General would have hed to present information regarding topographical and other conditions, about which he seems to have left the government in the dark.
29. One should not be in haste to condemn the administration and the Democratic politicians, for ours is a party system and Scott was in politics. He should have realized that, standing at the head of the army, he was bound to serve the country as a whole, and should have refrained from seeking party honors that evidently might (as they now did) interfere with the fulfilment of that prime duty.
30. The question of general-in-chief. (It is believed that later events render a somewhat full treatment of this topic desirable.) 191Fairfield to wife, Apr. 14. Stanwood, Presidency, 195. (Politics) 13Pakenham, no. 74, June 13. 253Peters to McLean, June 26. Gaines, Sept. 10, 1845 in Sen. 378; 29, 1, p. 38. So. Advocate, Apr. 3 (Sanderson). Gaines, June 7 in Sen. 402; 29, 1. (Scott's personality) Scott, Mems., passim; F. Lee, Lee, 49; 354Welles papers; 252Mackall, Dec. 29, 1847; Mag. of Amer. Hist., xiv, 562 (Scammon, one of Scott's aides, here says that he never knew a man of the world less given to vanity than Scott); Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceeds., 1st ser., ix, 234-9; Sedgwick, Corresp., i, 182; Corwin to Follett, Mar. 13, 1845, in Ohio Hist. and Phil. Soc. Publics., July-Sept., 1914; Semmes, Service, 280-1; Grant, Mems., i, 41, 139; Grone, Briefe, 80; Keyes, Fifty Years, 1-82; 335Trist on Scott. Sen. 378; 29, 1, pp. 2-4. Richardson, Messages, iv, 448. Wash. Union, May 18. Scott-Marcy correspondence in Sen. 378; 29, 1, pp. 4-18; and in 256. 60Scott, memoranda for gen. staff. Coleman, Crittenden, i, 243-4. Polk, Diary, Mar. 28; May 13, 14, 19, 21-3, 25-6, 1846; Apr. 1, 1847. Niles, June 6, 1846, p. 214. Nat. Intelligencer, Aug. 29. Grant, Mems., i, 119. N. Orl. Commerc. Bulletin, June 18. Watson, Taylor, 121. Boston Atlas, June 12. N. Y. Herald, June 13. Welles papers. N. Orl. Picayune, June 17. 253Reed to McLean, Oct. 26. Boston Courier, June 15. 139W. B. Campbell to D. C., July 3, 1846. 256Marcy to Wetmore, April 22, 1847.
La Bruyère said, "There is in some men a certain mediocrity of mind that helps to make them wise." This was not at all true of Scott. It was characteristic of him that he blamed Marcy for only a want of candor and nerve, regarding him as merely the instrument of the party (Coleman, Crittenden, i, 244-6).
Rives (U.S. and Mexico, ii, 204) remarks that the private note of Scott (addressed to Senator Archer) "was enough to rouse the meekest of Presidents." But (1) the note charged only what was charged commonly — that the administration was making its appointments in a partisan, political way; (2) it was private; and (3) Scott had a legitimate reason for writing it — to explain why he did not intend to recommend men for commissions, as Archer probably expected him to do. In taking cognizance of a private note Polk acted as an eavesdropper, and he should have recalled the saying, "Eavesdroppers never hear anything good of themselves." Rives says also (ii, 413) that "for more than fourteen months before war was actually declared it was evident to every observer that war was highly