"SIR: It is due to official courtesy and propriety that I acknowledge your letter No. 2, in answer to mine of this date; and in doing so, and in closing this correspondence with the headquarters of the army, I beg permission to say, and with regret, that I have received no satisfactory answer to the just and rightful inquiries which I have addressed to the general in chief; but inasmuch as I know myself to be deeply aggrieved and wronged, it only remains to go by appeal, as I shall do through the prescribed channels, to the constitutional commander in chief. "The general in chief is pleased to say through you that he has nothing to do with the suspicion of others, and that he has no positive information as to authorship, etc., granted. But has not the manner in which the general in chief has been pleased to treat the case established--whether designedly or not remains to be seen--an equivocal public sentiment on the subject? There are always enough of that peculiar pestilential species who exist upon the breath of authority to catch up the whisperings of fancy and infect a whole military community. I do not design to be stifled under the miasma of such, nor stricken down in my advanced age, without an effort to convince my friends that I scorn to wear 'honor not earned.' Your obedient servant, "W.J. WORTH, _Brevet Major General_." Following this, General Worth prepared the following communication, and sent it to army headquarters: "HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION, _November 16, 1847_. "_To the Honorable Secretary of War, Washington_: