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that I thought when he was called upon, he"would give yon a statement which would remove the hallucination under which you seem to labor. I was entitled as a Mason to a hearfcg ; but your haste indicates rather an over-zealous desire to open a correspondence with the Honorable Secretary of War, than conform to obligations and preserve your honor and character from a foul blot. I take it for granted that the Secretary of War will refer your letter ty Major Whiting, and I trust will allow me to be heard in the case. I feel safer in his hands than, I am sorry to say, I would in yours, and the day will come, I trust, when I can have this matter investigated by the Masonic Lodge in York, and your conduct sifted and stamped as it deserves.
In your letter of Feb. 20th, you write, "I shall not dwell upon personal allusions as the matter has, in my opinion, taken an official character." This'may be your opinion, but the society in which I have been schooled for the last twenty-three years does not allow an officer or gentleman to accept the hospitalities of another as a friend and then go off and comment on what he has seen or heard to that friend's prejudice : much less can he cover himself with his official character when he is not there in his official capacity. But aside from the violations of hospitality and courtesy, there is a question of veracity in your statements.
I have heretofore abstained from commenting on your conduct and your lectures to me, in your letters, from motives of delicacy. I had no wish to lend myself in any way to produce an open rupture of our social relations. You mus#do me the justice to admit in your heart, that you have thrust this issue upon me. You have repeatedly thrust at me your charges of disloyalty, after I told you that I would not ask you to take my own statements, but agreed to leave it to one who saw all, heard all, and knew all that took place. You will yet learn that your statement to the Honorable Secretary of War is false.
It is now my turn to lecture you a little and hold up to your gaze a few reflections of your own, for I hold that the old truism "Actions speak louder than words,'' is a self-evident fact, and by this test I am prepared to compare our Patriotism.
You saw me in Fredericksburg hasten to the wounded man and aiding there. You know that I volunteered, (when my duties excused me from service which might expose my person to danger,) to furnish one hundred men of my command and stay with them to fix the E. E. Bridge, because two hundred men had that day fled from that duty. You know too that I am in the field and that Generals Bubnside and Hookeb have retained me in my old position under Gen. McClellan, and they at least are satisfied with my loyalty and the discharge of my duties.
How is it with you ? Your patriotism stands mostly on paper. In your letter of January 10th you write : " that I [you] had been away a year." [Nowthink of it, you were "away a year !" Why, thousands of volunteers left their homes, with business unsettled, and have been away two years /] and for the sake of my [your] family [think, too, you have said yon are ready "to sacrifice your son," yet your family prevents you doing your duty, for you say] I [you] would prefer going to sea in these exciting tiiyifis, although my naval friends tell rn§ that I hq,ve done