points on which the President desires your views; and it is deemed important that he should be favored with thein, at the earliest period, &c." Unfortunately, the bearer of this despatch was murdered on his way to you, and it fell into the hands of the enemy. A duplicate was also sent a few days after its date, by mail, and another in June, by a messenger; but there is reason to apprehend that it has not yet reached you. In the letters of General Taylor, of the 28th of May and 16th of June, (copies of which are herewith transmitted,) he precents his views as to operations on his line, and in the latter he advises, as you will perceive, that only a force sufficient to hold a defensive. fine should be retained with him, and all the remaining troops be thrown into your column. As it is quite uncertain when your views on the general conduct of the campaign, asked for in my letter of the 30th of April, will be received, and presuming that, on the point referred to by Gen. Taylor, your opinion will be coincident to his, the President determined to act in this matter without delay. On the 15th instant, he directed General Taylor to hold such a line as he had indicated, and, retaining only such a force as he may deem adequate to maintain it safely, to send the remainder to you. I herewith send you a copy of that communication. Until the department has heard from him, it cannot form an estimate of what augmentation of your forces will be received from this quarter. Though every effort was made to send to you, at the earliest period, the recruits, new levies, and the volunteers, destined for your column, there was more delay in their arrival at Vera Cruz than could have been reasonably anticipated. We have received reports of the arrival at Vera Cruz, since the 24th of May, of 4,603 regular troops, (new levies and reorganized companies,)300 marines, and two Pennsylvania companies of volunteers, 133 strong; which make an aggregate of over 5,000 men. The troops en route, (1,900,) but not reported, at the last dates from Vera Cruz, (June 25,) it is pres med, have nearly all arrived by this day. The difficulties to be encountered on the route into the interior, have rendered it necessary to detain the successive detachments at Vera Cruz, until concentrated in sufficient force to take up the line of march for your head-quarters. These unavoidable delays, it is feared, may have reduced, by sickness, the efficient strength of the reinforcements ordered to the main army under your command. The breaking up of the post at Jalapa appears to have greatly increased the difficulties of our communication with the interior of the country, and it is hoped that you may find your force so much increased as to make it proper to re-establish it, or, at least, to be held by some of the detachments, as they may arrive at that healthy city-the abandonment of which, indeed, would seem, from the tenor of your order, to be only temporary. I need not, I am sure, urge the advantages of having the line, from the coast to your column, kept open, and as free as possible from obstructions, for they must be quite obvious to you; and as to your means of keep ing it open you can form a much better opinion than any one here. Directions from here will be given for the detachments arriving at Vera Cruz to proceed to Jalapa, and there await your orders, if deemed safe to do so, unless they shall receive instructions from you of a character conflicting or incompatible with such direc tions. Efforts are making to raise several mounted companies of acelimated men, at New Orleans and in that region, principally for the purpose of having them employed at Vera Cruz to protect the public property at that place, and to defend it, and to clear the route into the interior of the guerillas who infest and obstruct it. As it does not appear that a duplicate of my letter, of the 14th ultimo, was transmitted to you, one is herewith enclosed. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major General WINFIELD SCOTT, Commanding U. S. army, Mexico. W. L. MARCY, Secretary of War. P. S. I also enclose herewith a duplicate of my letter of the 12th instant. WAR DEPARTMENT, SIR: I herewith send you a copy of a letter addressed, on the 31 instant, to the Secretary of the Treasury, by A. Belmont esq., the agent of N. M. Rothschild & Sons, London, proposing to furnish funds for the use of the army in Mexico. The terms have been accepted by the Secretary, and the arrangements made for the payment of it to Captain Irwin, assistant quartermaster, or such paymaster or other quartermaster as you may name for that purpose. I also send you a copy of my letter, of this date, to the Secretary of the Treasury, on the same subject. When the money is received, whether by a paymaster or an assistant quartermaster, it will not be for the exclusive use of the department to which the receiving officer may belong, but be applied as the exigencies of the service may require. It is understood that this arrangement will not interfere with the use of the drafts in the manner now in practice. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, Major General W. Scorr, &c., &c. W. L. MARCY, Secretary of War. WAR DEPARTMENT, September 1, 1847. SIR: In the temporary absence of the Secretary of War, caused by sickness, the President has requested me to take charge of this department. The last communication from you received here is dated at Puebla, on the 4th of June. No doubt is entertained that the difficulties of communication with Vera Cruz have produced this long interruption in your correspondence with the department. From information which has reached us, it is supposed that you commenced your forward movement on the city of Mexico on the 7th, and it is confidently believed that you are now in possession of the enemy's capital. The obstinate persistance of the Mexicans in refusing to treat, their utter disregard of the rules of civilized warfare, and the large expenditures which we are compelled to make, has impressed on the President the firm conviction that those rights of exacting contribution from the enemy, which are conferred on a belligerent by the acknowledged law of nations, should be exercised. Your remarks in your despatch, No. 28, dated at Jalapa, May 20th, 1847, have been carefully observed. Your circumstances are since materially changed; and if, as we doubt not, you have triumphantly entered the city of Mexico, the President directs me again to call your attention to the despatch to this department of the 3d of April last, a copy of which is here enclosed. The property holders of Mexico have no claim to find in the market afforded by sales to our army, an actual pecuniary benefit resulting from the war. They must be made to feel its evils, and it is earnestly hoped and expected that you will not find, in your present circumstances, a necessity to adhere to your opinion, expressed in your despatch referred to, that a resort to forced contributions will exasperate and ruin the inhabitants, and starve the army. Contributions may be exacted from cities, or States, or wealthy individuals, and payment made for provisions and other supplies brought to the camp, or collected in kind. It is not improbable that men of wealth and means may profess to belong, mainly, to the peace party; and it may be apprehended that they will be driven from their pacific position by coercive proceedings. But, however such an effect may be appreLended, it is more probable that their exertions to promote a termination of the war will be made more serious and efficient when they feel the oppressive evils of the state of war. Judging from the cruelties and atrocities which are reported, in different parts of Mexico, to have been inflicted by the Mexicans, whenever an opportunity presents itself, on a single soldier, or a weaker party, there is no hope of their reciprocating kind, generous, or humane exercise of the rights of war on our part; and, without retaliating such disgraceful atrocities in kind, every dictate of duty to ourselves requires that we shall not abstain from the exercise of our right of exaction from the enemy. The mode and extent of exercising this right is, and must be, left to your discretion; but it is 'earnestly hoped that you will put the system into operation, to the utmost practicable extent. The safety and subsistence of the troops under your command will, of course, not be placed in jeopardy by the desire to enforce this system, if you find that in its exercise such a result will follow. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Major General WINFIELD SCOTT, JOHN Y. MASON, Acting Secretary of War. Commanding U. S. army, Mexico. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, September 23, 1847. SIR: The Rev. L. S. Allen, who was appointed chaplain to one of the regiments of Louisiana that was disbanded, afterwards weat to the army under General Taylor, and remained there some time. He has testimonials of the highest character, from citizens, as we!! as the officers of General Taylor's army, including the general himself. He officiated as chaplain while with the army of occupation, and, as it appears, very much to the satisfaction of the offcers an i soldiers. He is desirous to be connected with the army in that capacity, and proposes to go to your head-quarters, in the hopes that he may be favored with an appointment of chaplain to some one of the brigades of the army, pursuant to the provisions of the 7th section of the act of the 15th of February last. I have no doubt of his befitting qualifications, and that his motives in desiring such a situation are entirely praiseworthy. I take the liberty to recommend him to your favorable notice. I an, with great respect, your obedient servant, Major General WINFIELD SCOTT, W. L. MARCY. General, &c. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, October 6, 1817. SIR: No official despatch has been received from you at this department of a later date than that of the 4th of June, though we are not without authentic information of your operations to the 20th of August, and of the signal victories obtained by you and the gallant army under your command, on that and the preceding day. Accounts upon which reliance is placed have recently reached us that the negotiations for peace have terminated unsuccessfully, and that hostilities recommenced on the 8th or 9th ultimo. We have also the gratifying intelligence that you have succeeded in capturing the city of Mexico; and are waiting with deep anxiety for the partienlars of your operations up to and including that important event. The terms insisted on by Mexico, on which only she will consent to conclude a peace, (which also have been received here,) are so extravagant and inadmissible that there is no alternative leit but to prosecute the war. It is quite evident that the authorities of Mexico would not present and insist upon, as a basis for peace, terms which could not be entertained for a moment by us without national dishonor, were they not encouraged to continue the war by that portion of the population, as well as others, upon which the burdens of the war ought to fall, and upon which, in the further prosecution of it, they must be made to fall, as the only means now left of bringing it to a close. We have hitherto been far more forbearing than is customary in exercising the extreme and even some of the ordinary rights of belligerents. It is now evident that our leniency has not been appreciated, nor reciprocated, but, on the contrary, has been repaid with bad faith and barbarity; and is only met by a blind obstinacy, and a reckless determination to prolong the . conflict. However unwilling we may be to modify our humane policy, a change now seems to be required even by the considerations of humanity. We must take the best We must take the best measures within the clearly admitted course of civilized warfare, to beget a position in the people of Mexico to come to an adjustment upon fair and honorable terms. It should be borne in mind that the people of Mexico, indulging, as it is evident they do, the most hostile feelings, are not less parties to the war than the Mexican army; and as a means of peace, they must be made to feel its evils. The guerilla system which has been resorted to is hardly recognized as a legitimate mode of warfare, and should be met with the utmost allowable severity. Not only those embodied for the purI pose of carrying out that system, but those who at any time have been engaged in it, or who have sustained, sheltered and protected them, are much less entitled to favorable consideration than the soldiers in the ranks of the regular Mexican army. They should be seized and held as prisoners of war, and sent to the United States if it is not convenient to hold them. Their haunts and places of rendezvous should be broken up and destroyed. Those implicated in the murder of non combatants, or in robbery and plunder, should be subjected to a severer treatment. Independent of restraints, &c., upon their persons, all their property and effects within our reach should be unhesitatingly seized and devoted to public use. In relation to other prisoners and officers, I reter you to my despatch of May 31. I herewith send you an extract from it relating to that› subject. Permit me to invite your attention to the despatch from this department of the 1st ultimo, (a copy of which is herewith sent,) and urge the suggestions therein contained upon your particular consideration. The burden of sustaining our forces in Mexico must be thrown, to the utmost extent, upon the people of that country-its |