General Winfield Scott and Abraham Lincoln

VOL. V.—No. 255.]

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1861.

[ SINGLE COPIES SIX CENTS.

$2 50 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.

THE RETIREMENT OF GENERAL SCOTT.

WE publish on this page a picture of the last interview between GENERAL SCOTT and the CABINET on the day of his retirement. On 31st October the following letter from him was received by the President:

HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE ARMY, WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 1861.

The Hon. SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of WAR:

SIR,—For more than three years I have been unable, from a hurt, to mount a horse or to walk more than a few paces at a time, and that with much pain. Other and new infirmities—dropsy and vertigo—admonish me that repose of mind and body, with the appliances of surgery and medicine, are necessary to add a little more to a life already protracted much beyond the usual span of man.

It is under such circumstances, made doubly painful by the unnatural and unjust rebellion now raging in the Southern States of our so lately prosperous and happy Union, that I am compelled to request that my name be placed on the list of army officers retired from active service. As this request is founded on an absolute right, granted by a recent act of Congress, I am entirely at liberty to say it is with deep regret that I withdraw myself, in these momentous times, from the orders of a President who has treated

me with much distinguished kindness and courtesy, whom I know, upon much personal intercourse, to be patriotic, without sectional partialities or prejudices, to be highly conscientious in the performance of every duty, and of unrivaled activity and perseverance. I remain, Sir, with high respect, your obedient servant,   WINFIELD SCOTT.

It was decided that General Scott's request, under the circumstances of his advanced age and (Next Page)

Lincoln.

Smith.

Chase.

Blair.

Cameron.

Seward.

Scott.

Welles.

Bates.

THE LAST MEETING BETWEEN GENERAL SCOTT AND THE (Abraham Lincoln's) CABINET .