LS as president, one page both sides, 8 x 10, March 26, 1852. Letter to James Brooks, concerning George Talcott, formerly the Chief of Ordnance of the U.S. Army, who had been relieved of his duties and court-martialed following a dispute over the awarding of munitions contracts to a Southern contractor. In part: "I have your note, inclosing a letter from S. V. Talcott, asking that a nomination for a successor to his father, General Talcott, should be delayed, until the next session of Congress, which letter I herewith return. It is a letter by a son pleading for his father, and that alone prevents my noticing some imputations and insinuations which it contains. I may, however, remark, that, I had no agency in procuring the conviction of his father, and that the Solemn duty of passing upon the case, by approving the proceedings of the Court, was to me a very painful one. My social relations with him and his family had been of the most kindly and agreeable nature, and I have recently consented to the appointment of his brother to a very important and lucrative employment, to run the boundary line of Iowa. I cannot, of course, hope to escape censure from interested partisans or friends, but, it could be well that they should recollect that I was not the Judge of General Talcott; that he had a fair trial by his peers,—men either without political bias, or sympathising with him, at least, in the honor and welfare of the army, and that, after a patient hearing, there was an unanimous condemnation, with but one voice even for mercy. Why, then, should bad motives be imputed to me, merely because I have not seen fit to set aside, or disregard the decision of such a tribunal? But, it is due to myself, to say, that, from General Talcott and his friends, I took the trouble, amidst the labors and confusion of official toil, to read through the able argument in his favor, by Mr. Spencer, and regretted extremely that I did not feel justified in coming to the same conclusion that he had done." In fine condition, with a light crease to the lower right corner, and an old piece of tape to the lower left corner.
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