The very general error that existed throughout the country, at the time of this transaction, arose from a misapprehension of the facts. There had been much said in regard to these blood-hounds before they were actually obtained. When the report of the War Department, under the resolution of the House of Representatives of the twenty-eighth of January, 1839, was published, containing the letter of General Jessup addressed to Colonel Harney, which we have quoted, many members of Congress appeared indignant at what they regarded as a stain upon our national honor in obtaining and employing blood-hounds to act in concert with our troops and our Indian allies in this war. Party feelings ran high, and southern members of Congress, who were acting with the Whig party, were willing to seize upon any circumstance that would reflect discreditably upon the then existing Administration. On the twenty-seventh day of December, 1839, the Hon. Henry A. Wise, a member of the House of Representatives from Virginia, addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, inquiring as to facts relating to the employment of blood-hounds in aid of our troops.[125] To this letter Mr. Poinsett, the Secretary of War, replied on the thirtieth of December, as follows: "WAR DEPARTMENT, December 20, 1839. "SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the twenty-seventh instant, inquiring into the truth of the assertion made by the public papers, that the Government had determined to use blood-hounds in the war against the Florida Indians; and beg to assure you it will give me great pleasure to give you all the information on this subject in possession of the Department. "From the time I first entered upon the duties of the War Department, I continued to receive letters from officers commanding in Florida, as well as from the most enlightened citizens in that Territory, urging the employment of blood-hounds as the most efficient means of terminating the atrocities daily perpetrated by the Indians on the settlers in that Territory. To these proposals no answer was given, until in the month of August, 1838, while at the Virginia Springs, there was referred to me, from the Department, a letter, addressed to the Adjutant General by the officer commanding the forces in Florida (General Taylor), to the following effect: "HEAD QUARTERS ARMY OF THE SOUTH,} _Fort Brooke_, July 28, 1838. }