WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 27, 1856. SIR: I have received your letter of the 21st instant. The delay for which you make a hypocritical apology has strengthened you to resume the labor of vituperation; but, having early in this correspondence stamped you with falsehood, and whenever you presented a tangible point convicted you, by conclusive proof, I have ceased to regard your abuse; and as you present nothing in this letter which requires remark, I am gratified to be relieved from the necessity of further exposing your malignity and depravity. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War
-- Final letter from Secretary of War (and future Confederate President) Jefferson Davis to General Winfield Scott, Commanding General of the U.S. Army, in a vicious, petty, disrespectful back-and-forth correspondence full of insults and accusations as they openly feuded throughout the Administration of President Franklin Pierce.
I'm trying to find the best way to break down this entire correspondence between Davis and Scott because it's incredibly entertaining as the two (insufferable) men spent the better part of two years of President Pierce's term trading a voluminous amount of hate mail that got extraordinarily personal and probably would have led to a duel had General Scott been younger and healthier. And, of course, one of the best parts of the feud is that, since this was the 19th Century, they write these pages and pages full of thousands of words of nasty attacks on one another and then dutifully sign each letter with "Very respectfully..."
