■r.f&rit*- 
 
 I T is always painful to expose the transactions of domestic life be- 
 fore the public eye ; and the honorable mind recoils with inex- 
 pressible reluctance from the task, when it involves the obtrusion 
 of scenes of a delicate and distressing character. But there are 
 occasions when self-respect — when self-preservation — demands a 
 sacrifice of these natural feelings ; and when a regard for others, 
 near and dear, whose good name and happiness are inseparably 
 connected with our own, requires a performance of the task, as a 
 sacred, though painful duty. Silence under wrong and calumny 
 is often a virtue ; but it ceases to be so, when it permits injury to 
 reputation and to the feelings of relatives and friends. 
 
 In the late proceedings for a divorce instituted by Mrs. Schott 
 at the Court of Common Pleas of the City of Philadelphia, it was 
 the advice of counsel (and the advice harmonised with my own 
 wishes) that I should make no defence, but suffer the divorce to 
 be decreed by default. The motives were — delicacy and policy. 
 I could not appear jin a defensive position without exposing 
 scenes, which, though involving not myself, but others, I desired, 
 as I still desire, to preserve under the veil of secrecy ; and I was 
 instructed by counsel, that any defence I should make would ope- 
 rate virtually as opposition to the application for divorce, and 
 that it was scarcely probable that the divorce, which I was most 
 anxious, for my own sake, should be obtained, could be granted, 
 if opposed by me. I did not appear, to oppose it ; and the di- 
 vorce was granted. The grant of the divorce, which was, of all 
 things on earth, by me most anxiously and devoutly wished for, 
 I then regarded, and now regard, as the greatest blessing which 
 could be bestowed on me by human agency. I would, at any 
 moment, have infinitely preferred the perilling of my own life to 
 
 1 
 
doing any act which could possibly endanger the grant of that, 
 without which existence would have been a curse. My non- 
 appearance in court has been, undoubtedly, in some quarters, con- 
 strued into a tacit admission of the truth of the charges against 
 me, upon which the application for divorce was founded. But 
 now that the divorce has been obtained, I am free to perform the 
 duty, however reluctantly, of replying to these charges, and of 
 narrating, in brief outline, the circumstances which led to the 
 application, as well as those connected with my meeting with 
 Mr. Pierce Butler. 
 
 Early in March last, I had occasion to proceed to New York 
 in company with Mr. Pierce Butler, upon business which re- 
 quired our personal attention in that city. Mrs. Schott desired me 
 to take her with me, that she might go to the opera. I agreed 
 to do so ; and to make the jaunt more agreeable to her, I invited 
 her two sisters, married ladies, to join the party ; and one of them 
 accepted the invitation, and went with us. Mr. Pierce Butler, 
 at that time, I regarded as my friend, and had entire confidence in 
 him. Some circumstances of conduct, indeed, on his part and 
 on that of Mrs. S. had previously occurred, to which I might 
 have taken, and, to a certain extent, did take exception ; but as I 
 did not conceive Mr. B. capable of any base intentions, or Mrs. 
 S. of any conduct unbecoming a lady and a wife, I easily brought 
 myself to view them as thoughtless imprudences, and therefore 
 passed them over, — though not without remonstrating with Mrs. 
 S. on the subject. All former circumstances, however, had been 
 forgotten ; and I proceeded to New York without suspicion. 
 Here the refusal of Mrs. S., while in a public hotel, to occupy the 
 same room with me, and her insisting, contrary to my wishes 
 and in spite of my remonstrances, upon having a separate cham- 
 ber, — to which she removed her baggage, without my knowledge, 
 the morning after our arrival, — which chamber was apart from 
 her sister’s and my own,-— were the first circumstances that created 
 a painful impression on my mind ; but it was on the night of Sa- 
 
turday, the 9th, at midnight, that a circumstance occurred, to 
 which I have no desire to give publicity, nor to say one word 
 more of it, than that it was of a character to justify — in fact, to 
 render imperatively necessary, — all the steps which I took in con- 
 sequence of it. What was sufficiently painful in the circumstance, 
 became still more so from its happening in a public hotel, where 
 I could not take such steps as I desired to take, without giving a 
 scandalous notoriety to the affair, and involving — or rather con- 
 necting — in the disgrace of it, a member of the party who had no 
 implication in it, and who was a lady under my protection as my 
 guest. These considerations, and her entreaties and tears, not 
 only prevented my taking any violent steps, and induced me to 
 delay seeking satisfaction for the wrong I had received, until I 
 could return to Philadelphia ; but were the cause of my allowing 
 Mr. Butler to keep up the appearance of still being a member of 
 the party, so long as we continued at the hotel. This was, un- 
 doubtedly, a weakness on my part ; and Mr. B., with the knavish 
 craft natural to his character, has taken advantage of it, in his let- 
 ter accepting my challenge, as an argument to prove that he could 
 not have done me any wrong, or that I did not then think it one. 
 My letter to Mr. Otis, of 11th of April, in answer to this, will, 
 perhaps, satisfactorily explain my conduct. But I must here 
 again say, that I was in a public hotel with my party, where the 
 slightest act, — and certainly the expulsion of Mr. B. from the 
 party, — would have produced a shameful explosion ; that I was 
 myself desirous to avoid this ; and that the lady alluded to, im- 
 plored me, out of regard to her and our respective families, — and 
 wrung from me a promise not to expose them in New York, — to 
 do nothing, and to submit to Mr. B’s remaining, in appearance, a 
 member of the party, as if nothing had happened, until we left 
 New York. Nobody knows better than Mr. B. the true state of 
 the case, — that I distinctly told him on Sunday, the day after the 
 occurrence, that “ nothing but my promise to the lady in ques- 
 tion, protected him from my just indignation while in New 
 
 ^ ^.1)0 
 
4 
 
 York.’ And that no doubt should remain as to to the course I 
 intended to pursue, I wrote and caused to be delivered to him, 
 on Monday, the 11th, a note, of which the following is a copy — 
 formally expressing the intention, on paper, which I had before 
 distinctly declared to him in words : 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I scarcely deem it necessary to say to you, that, on our return 
 to Philadelphia, all intercourse between us must cease, and that 
 your visits to my family must be discontinued. 
 
 I trust that the time may yet come when I shall be able, with- 
 out compromising others, to vindicate my own honor. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Pierce Butler, Esq. Astor House , March 11, 1844. 
 
 That, in this period of inaction and apparent calm, and of 
 attempted concealment of a grievous wrong, there was no want 
 of those feelings natural to a man on such an occasion, will be 
 apparent from the following extract of a letter to my brother, 
 G. Bryan Schott, from H. Toland, Jr. Esq., my friend and business 
 correspondent in New York, who saw me the day I left that city, 
 but who was entirely ignorant of what had happened. 
 
 New York , 9 th Aprils 1844. 
 
 Dear Sir : — I have known your brother so intimately, that I 
 needed no request to suspend my opinion about his present mis- 
 fortunes. When he came to see me on the day he left for Phila- 
 delphia, I was shocked and distressed at the change in his manner 
 and appearance, though he said nothing to me, (and I am at this 
 time ignorant of the true state of the case,) yet I was satisfied that 
 something terrible must have occurred. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 (Signed) H. TOLAND, Jr. 
 
 G. Bryan Schott, Esq., Philadelphia . 
 
5 
 
 Upon the same day, I returned to Philadelphia, with Mrs. S. 
 and the lady, her companion ; and on Wednesday, the 13th, 1 
 addressed Mrs. S. the following note, which will perhaps explain 
 itself; or, at all events, will indicate some of the feelings hy 
 which I was agitated, as well on account of what had happened, 
 as of the frame and temper of mind exhibited by Mrs. S. under 
 circumstances to me so overpoweringly afflictive : 
 
 “ Having weighed every adverse consideration that could influ- 
 ence me in our difficulties, having balanced how far I ought to 
 protect your character and prevent the exposure of my own 
 degradation, and reflected on what is due to my injured feelings, 
 and the satisfaction my wounded honor calls for, I have decided 
 that the breach between us is beyond all reparation. A separa- 
 tion, therefore, is inevitable, and, of course, my injuries must be 
 made known to your family, if not laid open to the world. Had 
 you made a confession of your guilt, had you displayed the slight- 
 est penitence or remorse, had you admitted what I saw with my 
 own eyes, I would have forgiven you — not that anything could 
 restore my lost affection for you ; but I should then have cherished 
 some hope of reclaiming you. But after the effrontery you have 
 shown, I am convinced that you have fallen so far from your 
 original purity as to be beyond recovery ; and therefore, you 
 have forfeited all claim to my protection. As there is a just God 
 in Heaven, whatever calamities may ensue, whatever blood may 
 be shed, it rests on your soul. 
 
 (Signed) JAMES SCHOTT, Jr.” 
 
 Philadelphia , March 13, 1844. 
 
 Three days afterwards, I intercepted a letter written by Mrs. 
 S*, and addressed to her sister, the lady who had been with us at 
 New York. The following is a true copy of a paragraph which 
 I extracted from it: 
 
 i 
 
6 
 
 u Perhaps it would be better for Mr. B. to send the 
 letter to-night, — BUT I DO NOT ADVISE YOU, YOU 
 CAN BEST JUDGE : — he appears calm, and resolved ; 
 HE IS NOT VIOLENT. I ONLY HOPE IT MAY BE SUICIDE 
 
 HE HAS DETERMINED ON ; BUT I THINK A DUEL 
 
 WILL BE THE CON SEQUENCE . 99 
 
 I need not comment upon this paragraph — the kind of spirit it 
 indicated — the hope it expressed — nor upon the effect it produced 
 upon me. I might have hesitated — I had hesitated — in taking 
 the steps which 1 felt that my own honor required ; because with 
 all the wrongs I had suffered, I could not but think painfully of the 
 consequences these steps would bring upon her. This intercepted 
 letter put an end to my hesitation, and I waited immediately upon 
 Mr. Dallas, as legal counsel; and, at my request, he that night 
 drew up the following articles of separation : 
 
 “ Circumstances of a peculiarly painful nature, which it is deem- 
 ed best not to recapitulate here or to permit mention of any where 
 by the signers of this paper or by their friends ; but which im- 
 press upon the minds of the parties the necessity of early and 
 permanent separation, have determined Mr. James Schott, Jr. 
 and his wife Ellen, to live henceforward apart from each other ; 
 and in order to effect this in a manner as little distressing to the 
 feelings of their connexions and friends, and as becoming to them- 
 selves, as possible, they adopt and reciprocally engage to carry 
 into execution the following course of action : 
 
 u First — Mrs. Schott is to leave her husband’s house, and to re- 
 turn to her father’s within a period of two months,* taking with 
 her all her wardrobe and other personal effects procured and 
 intended for her exclusive use, comfort or ornament. 
 
 * In the original articles of separation Mrs. Schott was to have left my house and 
 gone to her father’s immediately, instead of at the expiration of two months. This 
 modification was agreed to by me, to save Mrs. Schott from exposure. 
 
7 
 
 Second — Mr. Schott disclaims now, and engages to disclaim 
 at any time in more form if required, all right or wish to take, 
 have, or in any respect interfere with, the property and estate of 
 his wife, whether the same has heretofore been secured to her by 
 marriage settlement, or has, since their marriage, or shall here- 
 after, come to her possession or right. 
 
 “ Third — The parties are henceforth to be entire strangers to 
 each other; and should unforseen events render their co-opera- 
 tion in matters of business necessary to their respective interests, 
 the same shall be effected through the agency of others. 
 
 “ Into this agreement we mutually and voluntarily 
 enter this day of , 1844.” 
 
 Having proceeded thus far in describing the steps which I took 
 in regard to Mrs. S., I now think it necessary to disclose those 
 which I instituted in relation to Mr. Butler. His friends have 
 professed to think it very strange that I should suffer so long a 
 period to elapse after the occurrence at New York, before making 
 a demand upon him for satisfaction, other than that contained in 
 my letter to him at the Astor House of March the 11th. It will 
 be seen that the delay arose, first, from unforseen difficulties 
 which I encountered in procuring the services of a friend ; and 
 next, after I had procured one, from the course of conduct which 
 was adopted by Gen. McNeill, my official adviser in the business. 
 Upon Tuesday, the 12th of March, the very day after I had 
 written to Mr. Butler the note already inserted, I wrote to my 
 old friend Purser McBlair, U. S. N., at Baltimore, requesting his 
 friendly assistance; and confidently expected, day by day, to 
 receive a favorable answer; until, on the 19th the following 
 reply came to hand, which explains his delay in answering, and 
 his inability to grant my request. 
 
 U. S. Ship Plymouth , 
 
 Boston Harbor, March 18, 1844. 
 
 My dear Schott, 
 
 Your letter of 12th inst. reached me but an hour or two ago . 
 
8 
 
 How much I regret you had not known where to find me, when 
 you wrote ; for then, I could have left for a few days, and would 
 have done so with much pleasure to serve a friend. Now ? tis 
 impossible. Our ship is under sailing orders. We leave for 
 the Mediterranean in all this week. We may not go till Saturday, 
 but every officer is compelled to be aboard. I make no doubt you 
 have ere this obtained the services of another, and most sincerely 
 hope matters have been settled to your satisfaction. May I ask 
 what is the difficulty ? Write me by return mail : the letter will 
 be in time. 
 
 Most sincerely your friend, 
 
 (Signed) T. PARKIN McBLAIR. 
 
 Not hearing from Purser McBloir as soon as I expected, and 
 fearing I should be disappointed in this quarter, I immediately 
 sought it in another, as appears from the following note of Mr. 
 Goodwin of Baltimore, in reply to one written by me: 
 
 Baltimore, March 20th , 1844, 10 A. M. 
 My dear young Friend : 
 
 I have this moment received yours, bearing the post mark of 
 yesterday. I most seriously sympathise with you in the truly 
 unfortunate position in which you are placed, and would most 
 cheerfully repair forthwith to your city, could I see how I could 
 in any degree — consistently with my opinions, formed many 
 years ago, and confirmed by increased years — serve you on the 
 subject to which your letter refers. I have reached that period 
 of life when one should, if ever, reflect seriously on every step 
 he takes, and how he jostles with the prejudices and vices of the 
 age. I can scarcely imagine any state of circumstances that 
 would induce me to take the field, either as principal or second. 
 
 “ There is a time for all things.” Public opinion, to which I bow, 
 would condemn me, and my conscience would reproach me. On 
 the first, — having nothing left but my good name — I am depen- 
 
9 
 
 dent whilst I remain on earth ; on the last, I must look when I 
 am called to the realms above. 
 
 I know no man in whom I have more reliance in such matters 
 than Gen. W. G. McNeill, who may probably be in your city; if 
 not, he is either at New York or Stonington. Write to him and 
 say that it is at my suggestion. 
 
 I omitted to say, in its proper place, that if the circumstances 
 of your case admitted of explanation or apology, I would come 
 on in the hope of effecting a reconciliation ; but as that is the 
 only way in which I could interfere, you will, I am sure, my 
 dear James, after what I have said, duly appreciate my motives in 
 declining to yield to your solicitations. 
 
 I feel deeply interested in this affair, and beg you will keep 
 me apprised of its progress and results. 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 (Signed) L. GOODWIN. 
 
 James Schott, Jr., Esq., 
 
 Philadelphia . 
 
 I had from the first — as early I think as the day after my arri- 
 val from New York, when I wrote to Purser McBlair — made 
 application to my friend, Harrison Grey Otis, Jr., Esq., of Boston, 
 for his services in case I should require them, in an affair of honor, 
 the cause and nature of which I did not then inform him of. I did 
 not think I could so justly claim this aid of him, with whom my 
 acquaintance was not of so long standing, as of the tw T o old and 
 long tried friends to whom I first formally applied. I now, being 
 disappointed in these two quarters, explained the circumstance to 
 him, and solicited his assistance ; and he immediately, in the most 
 generous manner, acceded to my request. I then applied to my 
 friend Dr. George McClellan, desiring to engage his professional 
 assistance; which — after learning the nature of the occasion for 
 which it was required — he agreed I should have, but he earnestly 
 requested me to accede to the suggestion made by Mr. Goodwin,—* 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 namely, to appeal to Gen. McNeill, a gentleman whom both these 
 friends regarded, at that time, as possessing great experience in such 
 affairs, — for advice and assistance. Such a recommendation made, 
 and insisted upon, severally by two such gentleman as Mr. Good- 
 win and Dr. McClellan, -I could not refuse to receive; and Mr. 
 Otis approving of it, Gen. McNeill was sent for, and he arrived in 
 Philadelphia on the night of the 27 th. 
 
 The first act of Gen. McNeill was to express, as Dr. McClellan 
 had done, an anxious desire to hush up the affair — an affair involv- 
 ing my own honor, the reputation of Mrs. S., and the feelings of 
 two respectable families ; and these considerations were pressed 
 upon me so strongly, that I, at last, expressed my willingness, so 
 far as Mrs. S. was concerned, to make any sacrifices that would 
 save her from disgrace, and the feelings of friends from laceration. 
 But I distinctly declared, that I would listen to no accommoda- 
 tion that interfered with the action I meditated with regard to 
 Mr. Butler; and that the farthest I would go in relation to Mrs. 
 S., would be to abandon the design of a formal separation, and 
 to permit her to live in my house, separated from me in fact , but 
 presenting to the world no appearance of separation. I was 
 willing to put myself in the hands of my friends, and to be ruled 
 by them, to this extent, — but no farther. Gen. McNeill then 
 required that I should, with my friend Mr. Otis, proceed into the 
 country, to avoid arrest and avert suspicion, and there await his 
 orders. I went into the country accordingly. 
 
 It will be observed, that I had thus, in a manner, agreed to Gen. 
 McNeill’s arranging a nominal reconciliation — a reconciliation 
 in appearance merely, — with Mrs. S. But, with that spirit of 
 universal philanthropy which generally defeats its own purposes, 
 it seems that Gen. McNeill, who assumed to himself a higher 
 power than I delegated, and had a plan of his own, had formed 
 ideas of a reconciliation in fact , and that not with Mrs. S. only, 
 but with Mr. Butler also. And that he might effect this benevo- 
 lent purpose, — that he might invite concession in other quarters, 
 
11 
 
 by making some little concession on my side, — he commenced 
 operations by addressing the following letter to Dr. McC., of 
 which I only need say, first, that it was written for the purpose 
 of being shown to Mrs. S.’s friends ; secondly, that it was written 
 whilst I was in the country, where Gen. McN. himself had sent 
 me ; thirdly, that it was written entirely without my knowledge, 
 and, of course, without my concurrence ; and, fourthly, that the 
 moment I heard of it, I protested against it, — or rather against 
 those statements in it, in which Gen. McN. made admissions of 
 such an unwarrantable character. 
 
 Gen. McNeil’s letter was as follows : 
 
 United States Hotel , Philadelphia , 
 
 Saturday , noon , March 30/A, 1844. 
 
 Dr. Geo. McClellan, 
 
 Present, 
 
 My Dear Sir : — On Wednesday last, I, in New York, received 
 a letter from you written from this place, of date the Saturday 
 night Hi o’clock, addressed to me at Stonington, Ct., informing 
 me of an interview with Mr. James Schott, who had just called 
 on you for your professional services in a contingency that might 
 arise — because of impressions, on his part, of a most painful and 
 distressing nature. 
 
 The condition which you were pleased to insist on, before you 
 would consent to Mr. S.’s request, was that / should be appealed 
 to for counsel, and that my decision should be final. It seems 
 that Mr. S. had previously written to an honorable “ friend” for 
 his services on the contemplated field of action , and also to a 
 gentleman, (like ourselves of mature years,) the relation of that 
 friend ; and that the latter gentleman had also done me the honor 
 to name me as, in his opinion, a suitable counsellor. 
 
 I am indebted to you both for the respect thus implied for my 
 opinion : — while I need hardly add that my immediate resort to 
 this city, on the receipt of your letter, has imposed a responsibi- 
 
12 
 
 lity by no means enviable — Yet, in the same spirit in which I at 
 once obeyed your summons, (the sincere desire to do good, and 
 the firm determination to be impartial and as just as the infirmity 
 of my own nature would permit,) I will now, unhesitatingly, as- 
 sume the responsibility, however onerous, of expressing thus 
 formally my convictions, which are the result of ample, delibe- 
 rate, and anxious reflection. 
 
 Those convictions are — that whatever the impressions of the 
 respective parties may be, there is no longer any tenable ground 
 for Mr. S. to assert his suspicions ; and therefore, that however 
 confirmed he may have been, under the influence of an excited 
 imagination, he is bound to doubt at least, if not fully to admit, 
 that a false medium for the time distorted his usually correct and 
 natural vision. — I would by no means have you understand that 
 I, for one moment, doubt the sincere convictions under which 
 Mr. S. acted. I ascribe his mistake to his proper sensitiveness, 
 and that sensitiveness was proportionate to his ardent affection 
 for his lady, on a proper return of which his happiness was 
 dependent. 
 
 He felt himself aggrieved in the tenderest point: yet was his 
 dependence for happiness at home such, that I know he would 
 have buried in oblivion every thing but the recollection of the 
 endearments of that home — till, unfortunately, in the ebullition of 
 a naturally wounded and exasperated feeling on the part of a vir- 
 tuous and injured womaii, expressions are indulged in (I think 
 not proper) which leads him to think her affections are estranged. 
 He himself doubted up to that moment, and till then hoped . 
 These hopes were destroyed, as 1 have just implied, from unfor- 
 tunate and improper expressions — although these expressions 
 naturally resulted from the deeply wounded feelings of a wife. 
 
 I do not, therefore, see in these expressions a barrier to the 
 restoration of domestic harmony which else Mr. S. would have 
 sought, as he certainly then desired. 
 
13 
 
 It then clearly follows, that if such a reconciliation had been 
 effected, there would therein have been a tacit, if not express ad- 
 mission, of the innocence of all parties, and the equal injustice to 
 all parties (including himself) of further indulgence in unworthy 
 suspicions. 
 
 Nothing since, at all admissible, has transpired to place the 
 parties (Mr. S. and Mr. B.) in a different position from that they 
 would have occupied in the event of what is most desirable and 
 due to the happiness of so large a circle — do wit, the reconciliation 
 alluded to. I think, therefore, that Mr. B. has no account to 
 render to Mr. S. — except in the grateful recollection of many, 
 many evidences of sincere and ardent friendship and regard. 
 
 It is proper, I think, that I should remind you of the volun- 
 tarily proffered asseveration of Mr. B. to Mr. S., on the oath of 
 a Christian and the honor of a gentleman , of the total and ut- 
 ter injustice to all parties, in the surmises of Mr. S. of impropri- 
 ety ; and that this occurred anterior to the period when — but for 
 the circumstance to which I have alluded — the “ restoration of 
 harmony” might readily have been effected, as most certainly 
 it was desirable. 
 
 It is equally proper and incumbent on me to add, (if I may 
 take that liberty,) that Mr. Schott’s course throughout the whole 
 of this painful matter, has been under his impressions, and is be- 
 yond reproach. 
 
 Were it my privilege to advise, (as would be that of a relation, 
 a brother,) my efforts would be unceasing till I had succeeded in 
 restoring domestic peace, in the hope of renewed and continued 
 happiness in Mr. Schott’s own home. — He has given us both 
 much reason, abundant reason to respect and honor him. 
 
 But while we sympathise deeply with any one, whether under 
 a delusion or not — it is not my province on this occasion, nor 
 will I consent through any instrumentality of mine, to indulge 
 the excited feelings of another in the perpetration of an act which 
 
 
14 
 
 is not justified by facts, and which, on the calmest deliberation, 
 my judgment condemns. 
 
 Much thinking and future talking, my friend, I doubt not I 
 could have saved myself, by recommending a summary process, 
 which the kind, the sympathising, the disinterested world 
 would have been quite gratified in discussing for “ nine days 
 and much discussion, for about that period, probably would be 
 spared in relation to my decision. 
 
 But I have given my opinion : / assume the responsibility : 
 I am answerable, and cheerfully will be, to whomever may dis- 
 pute the question to the prejudice of either of the really interested 
 parties. 
 
 I am, dear sir, very respectfully, 
 
 Your friend and obedient servant, 
 (Signed) WM. GIBBS McNEILL. 
 
 The protest which I addressed to Dr. McC., upon receiving a 
 copy of this remarkable letter, was the following : 
 
 Mount Ephraim, April 2, 1844. 
 
 My Dear Sir : — I have hastily perused the letter of Gen. Me 
 Neill, dated March 30, which you have this moment put into my 
 hands. As this matter has been submitted to you and Gen. Me 
 Neill and Mr. Otis, I feel bound to abide by your decision, but 
 there are some statements in Gen. McNeill’s letter which are 
 inaccurate and which I must protest against. In any agreement 
 which I consented to make with Mrs. S. before the receipt of the 
 intercepted letter, it was solely with the view of saving her repu- 
 tation and character ; and I then told her that should she confess 
 what I saw with my own eyes, and shew some penitence for her 
 misconduct, that I would permit her to live in my house, but 
 henceforth and for ever in separate apartments. This was the 
 “ harmony ” and the “ home” I sought, nor can I admit now, nor 
 did I then, that my “suspicions were unworthy” and “ ground- 
 
 
15 
 
 less.” I am satisfied Gen. McNeill and yourself will do me the 
 justice to correct the exceptionable part of the letter referred to. 
 
 With sentiments, &c., 
 
 I remain sincerely your friend, 
 
 (Signed) JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Dr. George McClellan. 
 
 Gen. Me. Neill’s letter, I have stated, was written with the 
 direct view of being shewn to Mrs. S.’s friends; and however 
 desirous the writer may have been to render it useful to me, it 
 seems he was equally anxious to make it acceptable to them . 
 The following note in my possession, from Mr. Butler to Gen. Me 
 Neill, proves, in fact, that it was written and submitted to their 
 inspection, and to Mr. Butler’s inspection too, before it ever 
 reached Dr. McC., or was exhibited to Mr. Otis and myself: 
 
 Dear McNeill : 
 
 Your letter was read last night and much approved of. I send 
 it to you with a copy carefully made of it. Pray let it go as 
 soon as possible, and do see Mr. S. this morning, and talk to him 
 as nobody but yourself can talk. A settlement of this matter will 
 relieve much anxiety. 
 
 Yours ever sincerely, 
 
 (Signed) P. B. 
 
 Tuesday , April 2 . 
 
 P. S. There is no d at the end of McClellan. 
 
 It is somewhat singular that this letter should have been sub- 
 mitted to the judgment of a man standing in the attitude in 
 which Mr. B. stood to me, and by a gentleman occupying the 
 position in regard to me which Gen. McN. occupied. 
 
 My u protest” was sent to Gen. McNeill by Dr. McC. with 
 the following note : 
 
16 
 
 Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, 
 
 7 o'clock , Tuesday , P. Mi, April 2. 
 
 To General McNeill, 
 
 My Dear Sir : — I handed your communication to Mr. Schott 
 this afternoon, at Mount Ephraim, and he entered his immediate 
 protest against some of the material points of your statement as 
 being inaccurate. I now enclose his letter to you for your con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) GEO. McCLELLAN. 
 
 To this Gen. McN. the next day, sent the following reply : 
 
 United States Hotel, Philadelphia, 
 Wednesday , 9 A. M ., April 3, 1844. 
 Dr. George McClellan, 
 
 Present, 
 
 Dear Sir : — I have received duly, and have read most atten- 
 tively, Mr. Schott’s “ protest,” submitted through your letter of 
 last evening. I deeply regret the misapprehension under which 
 I am bound to believe I unfortunately labored : for the whole of 
 my efforts, in the adoption of that misapprehension, proveto have 
 been abortive, and all my conclusions , which ivere , in my own 
 mind , so completely exculpatory , fall to the ground ; and I 
 am no longer to he quoted as authority . 
 
 I am, most respectfully, your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) WM. GIBBS McNEILL. 
 
 There was, indeed, occasion “ deeply to regret” the misappre- 
 hension under which Gen. McN. had labored — or professed to 
 labor — when he wrote his letter of the 30th. It was written for 
 the purpose of effecting a reconciliation ; and it was so superflu- 
 ously well adapted to the purpose, that it entirely defeated it. It 
 was to effect not merely a universal pacification, but a complete 
 restoration of character to all parties, — the basis of the treaty 
 
17 
 
 being a recognition of the perfect innocence of all the persons 
 concerned. With such a captivating object in view, it is not, 
 perhaps, wonderful that Gen. McN. should invite negociations, 
 by assuring the opposite party of his “ convictions’ 7 that there 
 was “ no longer any tenable ground for Mr. S. to assert his suspi- 
 cions” — that he was “ bound to doubt, at least, if not fully to ad- 
 mit, that a false medium for the time distorted his usually correct 
 and natural vision” — that “Mr. B. had no account to render to 
 Mr. S., except in the grateful recollection of many evidences of 
 sincere and ardent friendship and regard,” &c. &c. Nor is it, 
 perhaps, any more wonderful that the opposite parties should im- 
 mediately take advantage of these extraordinary admissions, vol- 
 unteered by a gentleman appearing in the character of my official 
 friend and representative — admissions that seemed to place me 
 in the position of conceding the innocence of Mrs. S. and Mr. B., 
 and of admitting that I had injured them by “groundless suspi- 
 cions.” All these admissions were made by Gen. McN. — doubt- 
 less in the full expectation that the opposite parties would make 
 the same acknowledgments of my innocence which he, in the 
 authoritative language of my representative, had made of theirs, 
 and that a perfect reconciliation would immediately be effected. 
 This expectation was encouraged by them in every particular, un- 
 til they were allowed to take a copy of General McNeill’s let- 
 ter ; and then the whole state of affairs was changed as by a 
 stroke of magic. Every thing was apparently settled, for every 
 thing had been agreed upon by the negociators; in regard to the 
 reconciliation which Gen. McN. had, and they, up to that mo- 
 ment, professed to have so much at heart ; and, in pursuance of 
 arrangements made with them, Gen. McN. himself, accompanied 
 by Dr. McC. came into the country to report proceedings, and 
 carry me back to the city. It was on this occasion, on the after- 
 noon of the 2d April, that I was first made acquainted with Gen. 
 McN. ’s letter of the 30th, — four days after it had been written and 
 exhibited to Mr. B. and Airs. S.’s friends, and they permitted to 
 3 
 
18 
 
 take a copy of it , — against which I immediately wrote my pro- 
 test. Although provoked at the course adopted by Gen. McN., 
 I then believed that his motives were good and friendly. I went 
 back to the city very unwillingly, and returned to my house as 
 reluctantly, and that, not to see or be reconciled to Mrs. S , but 
 to receive Gen. McN. there, as he requested. With regard to 
 Mr. Butler, all that I agreed, or ever thought of agreeing to, was 
 — not to give up my right to fight him, — but, for Mrs. S.’s sake, 
 to conceal the cause of quarrel, by substituting another — to take 
 an opportunity to insult him, and thus bring on a quarrel in which 
 /would have appeared as the aggressor. To this course I was 
 impelled by the advice, the remonstrances, the entreaties of these 
 friends, — the representations they made of the effect which direct 
 proceedings must have upon the feelings of my relatives and 
 those of Mrs. 8., and upon her reputation. 
 
 In such a spirit as I have described, I suffered Gen. McN. to 
 persuade me to go with him to my house ; where — whatever my 
 feelings and anticipations may have been — Ac expected, according 
 to his treaty with the other parties, to find Mrs. S. ready to be 
 reconciled to me. We arrived a little after 11 o’clock in the 
 evening, and found the house empty. Less than one hour before, 
 Mrs. S. had removed, with all her effects, and gone to the house 
 of her father, Mr. Richard Willing. Gen. McN. then dis- 
 covered, that he had been treated with duplicity and treachery — 
 that he had been entrapped into admissions in regard to Mrs. S. 
 which destroyed— -or appeared to destroy — the force of my 
 charges against her ; and which placed — or seemed to place — her 
 in the position of the innocent, and me in that of the guilty party. 
 And from that moment, in fact, a hue and cry was raised against 
 me, as having basely devised a plot to ruin the reputation of my 
 innocent wife — but for what purpose no one, I believe, has yet 
 discovered. 
 
 It was then that Gen. McN. wrote his second letter to Dr. 
 McC\, in which he revoked the admissions, and manifestly 
 
 # 
 
19 
 
 declared that he had made them solely for the purpose, which had 
 proved “abortive,” of effecting a reconciliation , — and protested 
 that he was “ no longer to be quoted as authority” in relation to 
 them. 
 
 Nor was Mrs. S.’s leaving my house the only proof of the 
 change in our respective positions wrought by Gen. McNeill’s 
 letter of March 30th, or of the determination of her friends to 
 improve the advantage they had gained, and to take every step, 
 however violent, which might enlist opinions, public and private 
 against me, as a villain who had brought, base charges against a 
 wife, whose innocence appeared from the admissions made in the 
 letter of my authorised friend, Gen. McNeill. Gen. McN.’s letter 
 of revocation was written on the 3d of April. Upon the very 
 next day, the 4th, Mrs. S. went before the Mayor of Philadelphia, 
 and by the following affidavit, accusing me of acts of jealousy 
 and outrage, first gave publicity to an affair which, even for her 
 own sake, I had sought to conceal, and arrainged me before the 
 bar of the public as a jealous, brutal husband, from whom she was 
 obliged to appeal to the laws to protect her life. 
 
 Commonwealth, ^ 
 vs. > 
 
 James Schott, Jr. ) 
 
 Ellen Willing Schott, being duly sworn says — I was married to 
 James Schott, Jr., in the month of October, 1S39. From that 
 time till the spring of 1840, we resided in New York. After- 
 wards, till the autumn of the year 1841, we lived together in my 
 father’s family, except during part of the summer of 1841, during 
 which we were at lodgings at Germantown, and afterwards made 
 an excursion to the Falls of Niagara. The first occasion on 
 which Mr. Schott used towards me personal violence was in the 
 summer of 1841, either at the end of the month of June or the 
 beginning of July, at Germantown, where we were staying for 
 the benefit of my child’s health, who had been ill for a long 
 time, and whose life I was then beginning to despair of. I was 
 
 
20 
 
 in the habit of having the baby brought during the day into my 
 own chamber, it being larger and more airy an apartment than 
 the one in which the infant and nurse slept. Upon this occasion 
 I wished Mr. Schott to rise that the room might be made ready 
 to receive the visit of Dr. Betton. Upon my urging him to do 
 so, he became violent, and drawing from under his bolster a 
 loaded pocket pistol, which he always had under his pillow at 
 night, he presented it at my breast and threatened to shoot me if 
 I teased him any longer. The baby died on the 15th July. 
 
 We went to housekeeping in the autumn of 1S41. From that 
 time he has been in the habit of frequenting the Clubs. His 
 usual custom was to remain till about two o’clock in the morning, 
 very frequently he did so till daylight ; and on some occasions he 
 has not returned till late on the following day. This mode of 
 life had the worst possible effect upon his temper. He was most 
 violent and abusive in his language to me, swearing at me for the 
 most trivial causes. He was so unjust and unreasonable as to 
 cause me much uneasiness. During all this time until May 1843, 
 it was my habit to watch for him at night till his return, being 
 always anxious while he was absent, and thinking if any thing 
 would induce him to reform his hours, it would be witnessing the 
 great uneasiness they caused me. One night when he returned 
 home near daylight, on my remonstrating with him on the late- 
 ness of the hour and pleading with him to change his habits, he a 
 second time, presented a pistol and threatened to fire at me. This 
 took place in my bed chamber. 
 
 Last summer we went to Brighton. I there accidentally made 
 the acquaintance of a gentleman. I had only conversed with him 
 three times, and then always in company with another lady, when 
 one night I was suddenly awakened from my sleep at 3 o’clock 
 by Mr. Schott, who was standing over me with a light in his 
 hand. He insulted me then in the grossest manner, insisting that 
 the gentleman to whom I have alluded had been in my chamber, 
 using the coarsest language and threatening to put me to death. 
 
2 1 
 
 So much was I shocked by this outrage that I shrunk from re- 
 ferring to it on the succeeding day. Mr. Schott was equally si- 
 lent in regard to it, and it was not until six weeks after our re- 
 turn to Philadelphia that he alluded to it — asking me — u What 
 do you think of my jealous fit at New Brighton.” He then said, 
 that at the time he had been near putting me to death. 
 
 Mr. Schott made a gentleman’s acquaintance, in November 
 last, at a public dinner. He then invited this gentleman to dine 
 at his house, and from that time courted his intimacy in every 
 way, and he became a constant visiter at our house, on the 
 strength of Mr. Schott’s frequent invitations. During the course 
 of the winter, this gentleman generally dined two or three times 
 a week at our table, and their intercourse was almost daily, — for 
 if this gentleman did not call on Mr. S., Mr. Schott either wrote 
 for him to come, or went to visit him at his rooms. Mr. Schott 
 this winter had constant dinner parties — the hours kept were 
 very late, his friends very generally not leaving his table till one 
 and two o’clock in the morning. If we went to the theatre or a 
 concert, it was always Mr. Schott’s habit to invite home with 
 him the gentlemen he might happen to meet, and it was his cus- 
 tom to remain with them in the dining room till late — until long 
 after I had retired. It was, I think, the beginning of February, 
 that Mr. Schott was confined to his room by illness. The gen- 
 tleman to whom I have referred, called one evening to see Mr. 
 Schott on business. When he descended from Mr. Schott’s 
 room, he entered the parlour to make me a visit. It must at 
 that time have been eleven o’clock, although I was not then 
 aware of the hour. We remained till a quarter before one 
 o’clock. This was the only occasion on which this gentleman 
 remained with me till so late an hour, excepting on one other, 
 when Mr. Schott and another gentleman were of the party. On 
 my going up stairs, I found Mr. Schott violently excited — he was 
 exceedingly angry at this gentleman’s having remained so late — 
 he came into my dressing room and seized me by the throat, and 
 
 
22 
 
 almost strangled me. He afterwards, while I was in bed, at- 
 tempted twice to choke me. The last time the pain from the 
 pressure was so excessive, that though I had refrained from 
 screaming before, lest the servants might hear the noise. I could 
 do so no longer. On my screaming loudly, Mr. Schott desisted. 
 I immediately rose from the bed, and said I w r ould no longer re- 
 main in the room, that my life was not safe with him. He said, 
 u You had better go, for I promise you if you remain here you 
 will not be alive in the morning.” I went to my dressing room 
 and laid on the sofa during the rest of the night, securing the 
 doors, as I felt myself to be in danger. On the night of Wed- 
 nesday, 6th of March, in New York, Mr. Schott threatened to put 
 me to death ; and on Tuesday night, 1 2th of March, in Philadel- 
 phia, held a six-barrelled pistol at me, and again said he w T ould 
 put me to death. It was on that night that he said, “ I will sepa- 
 rate from you now ; for if I do not now, you will separate from 
 me at some future time, and then you will crush me.” On the 
 same night he drew my wedding ring from my finger by force 
 and violence, and took it away from me, declaring that he consi- 
 dered our marriage dissolved. The first intimation given to my 
 family of my domestic misery, was in the spring of 1843, by my 
 maid, who went to see Dr. Peace, without my knowledge, and 
 told him of the state of suffering in which I then was, — saying 
 that if something were not done, she feared my mind would be 
 affected. Dr. Peace insisted on knowing from me the cause, 
 and I then, for the first time, spoke of my unhappiness. 
 
 One instance of violent temper it may be well for me to men- 
 tion. We were going to the theatre, last October, — Mr. Schott 
 was after the time, and became impatient at my hurrying him — 
 he was exceedingly angry while we were walking — swore he 
 would put me in the gutter, and used such gross and improper 
 language, that I refused to accompany him further, and returned 
 home. These exhibitions of temper were occurring frequently — 
 often daily. All of the abovementioned incidents that took place 
 
 i 
 
23 
 
 subsequently to last October, were made known at the time to 
 my sisters, Mrs. Ridgway and Mrs. Peace. In October I seri- 
 ously thought of separating from him, and consulted Dr. Peace 
 to that effect. I was most anxious to do so, but was dissuaded 
 by my sisters and Dr. Peace from taking this step. 
 
 On the night of Tuesday, 2nd of April, my father came to 
 Mr. Schott’s house, and offered me an asylum in his own, and 
 I am now living in his family and under his protection. I have 
 reason to apprehend, and do apprehend, that Mr. Schott may 
 offer me personal violence, if an opportunity for doing so should 
 occur. There is no cause that I am aware of, for the course of 
 conduct which Mr. Schott has pursued towards me, but his irrita- 
 ble and bad temper. There never was the slightest grounds for 
 any of the accusations which he has made against me, or for any 
 of the suspicions which he has professed to entertain. 
 
 ELLEN WILLING SCHOTT. 
 Sworn and subscribed before me 
 this 4th day of April, 1844. 
 
 J. M. SCOTT, Mayor . 
 
 Mayor’s Office, 
 
 City of Philadelphia, Jlpril 17, 1844. 
 I certify that the foregoing affidavit is a true copy of' the origi- 
 nal now on tile in this office. 
 
 JOHN B. KENNEY, Clerk of Police. 
 
 I have no inclination to comment upon this unfortunate paper 
 further than, it will be found, I have commented upon it in the 
 letter to Mr. Kuhn, subsequently annexed — upon the objects of 
 
 those who contrived or recommended such a step to be taken 
 
 or upon the charges made in it against me. But I cannot but 
 recommend attention to two circumstances — first, the fact that, 
 having returned from New York on the 11th of March, Mrs. S. 
 had continued voluntarily to reside in my house with me (for I 
 was in it whenever I chose to be) from that period up to the 2nd 
 
 
24 
 
 of April— (a period of three, weeks,) although she testifies to one 
 act of outrage, alleged to have been committed by me on the 
 12th of March, and swears that she apprehended further violence, 
 and knew that on the 16th of March I had applied to Mr. Dallas 
 for articles of separation — in truth, up to the period when the 
 facts of the case were creeping out ; and, secondly, to the admis- 
 sion made by her, in the fourth paragraph of the affidavit, of her 
 having, at a period when I was, from her own shewing, “ confined 
 to my room by illness,” received a visit in the parlor from Mr. 
 Butler who had just departed from my sick bed, at 11 o’clock at 
 night, and remained with her alone “ till a quarter before one 
 o’clock in the morning” — a midnight visit of nearly two hours 
 (according to her own confession) permitted by a wife, whose 
 proper post would have been by the bedside of her sick husband. 
 This was one of those “ imprudences ” which I alluded to as 
 having happened, and as having caused remonstrance, but as hav- 
 ing been ultimately forgiven and forgotten. In point of fact , as 
 I will here state , that visit lasted from 10 o’clock until half- 
 past one. 
 
 These steps taken by Mrs. S., left me no alternative but to 
 pursue my original determination ; and as the charges made 
 against me in the affidavit exposed me to immediate arrest, (and 
 to be arrested at sucb a moment would, I well knew, afford an 
 additional ground for the calumnies which were now unsparingly 
 heaped upon me,) — notwithstanding Gen. McNeill’s advising 
 me to surrender myself to the civil authorities, to be bound over to 
 keep the peace; this gentleman having, at that time, assumed the po- 
 sition of being “ technically” my friend — I, the next morning, at 3 
 o’clock, (Friday, April 5th) left the city ; and that very evening de- 
 spatched a friend with a letter to Gen. McN. covering a challenge, 
 which I requested him immediately to deliver to Mr. B. I must 
 here explain, that Gen. McN., although summoned by me as an ad- 
 viser on the field, rather than as a “friend” (speaking techni- 
 cally,) had declared himself willing* if it should be necessary, to 
 
 * 
 
act for me in that capacity ; and Mr. Otis, upon the score of Gen. 
 McN.’s greater age and experience, had expressed a wish that 
 Gen. Me. N. should act in his place. It was for this reason that 
 I sent the message. to Gen. McN. It was presented to him at 2 
 o’clock, A. M. Saturday morning. He refused to deliver it, as I 
 desired him ; and that morning left Philadelphia for New York, — 
 leaving me, after all his generous efforts in my behalf, in a much 
 more unhappy position than that in which he had found me, and 
 leaving me, too, to get out of it as I could, without expecting 
 any further assistance from his experience or his philanthropy.* 
 
 * I feel all the gratitude which any one will say I ought to feel to Gen. 
 McNeill for the services he rendered me in this business. But I cannot 
 help remarking upon the very eccentric manner in which he rendered them. 
 The note from Mr. Butler already given, proves that Gen. McNeill had 
 taken him into counsel, while acting as my adviser ; and I have ample proof, 
 in fact, that during the time he was acting for me in that capacity, and pro- 
 fessing, before others, to Mr. Butler, that he was my friend, “technically,” 
 he was at least once closeted with Mr. Butler, under lock and key. After 
 coming home with me from the country, and finding that Mrs. S. was gone, 
 and his plans of reconciliation were destroyed, he was excessively enraged, 
 and threatened to challenge Mr. Binney, the legal counsel of Mrs. S.’s 
 friends, as the supposed cause of the defeat of his arrangement. In the 
 midst of this rage, he made a midnight visit, too, to Mr. Butler, (it was 
 the night of our return from the country,) whom he fiercely berated as a 
 confederate in the conspiracy by which he had been entrapped, and de- 
 clared himself henceforth “technically my friend.” His wrath, however, 
 soon subsided. He is now Mr. Butler’s very active and zealous friend : 
 which will appear plainly enough from the following correspondence : 
 
 Eutaw House, Baltimore, 
 
 April , 28, 1844. 
 
 Sir: — I came to this city yesterday, in consequence of a letter which I 
 received from Mr. Samuel W. Smith in the morning, at New Castle, con- 
 veying to me information of a statement made by you to him, which I 
 cannot but consider, to say the least of it, extraordinary, more especially 
 after referring to that part of your letter to Dr. McClellan of the 23d inst., 
 in which you say, “ These views are, that good taste, refinement, every 
 4 
 
26 
 
 As soon as I was informed of Gen. NcN.’s refusal to deliver 
 the message, I placed the affair again in the hands of Mr. Otis, 
 
 principle of propriety, dictate silence in reference to past events.” You 
 stated to Mr. Smith that you “ professed the kindest feelings for me, but 
 did not believe in the guilt of others,” — that “ after a thorough investiga- 
 tion, you are satisfied that I have no just cause of complaint against P. 
 B.,” — that “you so informed me,” and that you did not leave me until I ad- 
 mitted you were right , — that “ I seemed satisfied my first impressions were 
 incorrect .” 
 
 Now, sir, I have to inform you, first, that, although I have acted with 
 great delicay towards you, I have felt that I had cause to complain of the 
 way in which you, while professing to be my friend, and acting as I sup- 
 posed in that character, injured me by unwarrantable admissions which you 
 were not authorised to make, and which you afterwards, upon my protest- 
 ing against them, revolted ; and, secondly, that I have indulged this delicacy 
 towards you, because, with all my dissatisfaction, I believed you were act- 
 ing with good and friendly intentions, and that I had no right to regard 
 your conduct in any other light than as being highly imprudent. But the 
 stand you have now taken, as appears to be indicated in the above state- 
 ment, releases me from all further obligations of delicacy ; and I now tell 
 you, sir, distinctly, that I never informed you that I was satisfied I had no 
 just cause of complaint against Pierce Butler; that I never admitted you 
 were right : that I never was, or seemed satisfied that my first impressions 
 
 were incorrect. In closing this communication, I cannot but regret, that 
 
 \ 
 
 the course you have pursued, has made it imperative on me to address you 
 in the manner I have done. Considering the relation in which you stood 
 towards me, I, surely, had a right to expect that you would have abstained 
 from all remarks reflecting injuriously upon my conduct and character, 
 subsequent to your departure from Philadelphia. 
 
 T am, sir, respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Gen. W. Gibbs McNeill, Stonington. 
 
 Stonington, Ct.', Friday Night. 
 
 May 3 d, 1844. 
 
 Mr. James Schott, 
 
 Eutaw House , Baltimore : 
 
 But just returned home — T have only this evening received your letter 
 of the 28th ult. 
 
 4 
 
by whom it was immediately attended to. The message was de 
 livered on the evening of the 7th, and immediately accepted. 
 
 The following is the substance of my challenge to Mr. Butler, — 
 the original copy of which has been mislaid : 
 
 Sir, Jlpril 6, 1844. 
 
 Referring to my note under date of March the 11th, at the 
 Astor House, I have now to inform you, that the time has arrived 
 when I can, Without compromising others, call upon you for the 
 satisfaction which my deep injuries require. My friend, Gen. 
 McNeil ], X will hand you this, and will make the necessary 
 arrangements. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Pierce Butler, Esq. 
 
 Sir : — I accept your challenge. In order that you may fully 
 understand the views which I entertain while acceding to your 
 
 I am quite sorry to be assured, from its tenor, of a predisposition to re- 
 gard me other than as I know myself to have been — in word and deed — 
 your friend. 
 
 As it regards all you have heard and apparently believe, it will suffice to 
 say, I ask no extenuation, even from want of judgment, or any other cause 
 — for what I have said or done. 
 
 It would seem — as I rejoice to find — you have abundant friends ; judging, 
 as I do, from the correspondence of some of them with me ; and as it also 
 seems your preference has been to exclude me, of late, as one of them — I 
 beg it will be understood, that I am, by preference on my part, so far re- 
 conciled, that I wish not to be remembered till again you shall feel in such 
 extremity as to ask the services of still 
 
 Your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 WM. GIBBS McNEILL. 
 
 \ On Gen. McNeill’s refusal to deliver this message, Mr. Otis’ name was 
 substituted. 
 
request, I send you the enclosed. § You will perceive from its 
 date, that it was written immediately after my return from New 
 \ ork, but I was deterred from sending it in consequence of a 
 belief that your mind must have undergone a change in respect 
 to the unworthy and unjust suspicions which you entertained 
 against me ; which belief was founded on the fact, that for two 
 days after you had made a charge of so grave a character against 
 me, you not only continued to occupy the same parlor and to 
 take your meals at the same table with me, but allowed your wife 
 to do the same. 
 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 , PIERCE BUTLER. 
 
 James Schott, Jr. Esq. April 8M, 1844. 
 
 Eutaw House, April 11 th , 7 4 4. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I feel it due to you and to myself, to explain to you the con- 
 cluding paragraph of Mr. Butler’s acceptance of my challenge. 
 Mrs. Ridgway’s prayers, entreaties, and tears, alone influenced 
 me in suffering Mr. B. to remain in my parlor at the Astor 
 House, after the discovery of his base and villainous conduct, — 
 and although this promise was made by me most reluctantly, yet 
 having made it, when influenced by her tears and distress, I felt 
 bound to keep it. She begged me, as being under my protection, 
 not to expose them in New York, in a public hotel, and that this 
 would most assuredly be the case, should Mr. B. be dismissed 
 from the party. I was weak enough to yield to her solicitations, 
 but, as you well know from the letter addressed to him on the 
 
 § This extraordinary letter I handed to Mr. Otis, to be returned to Mr. 
 Butler, being unwilling to receive any communication from him other than 
 the acceptance of my challenge. I have since understood, from gentlemen 
 to whom this letter was exhibited by Gen. McNeill, that it was dated the 
 15th of March, and is the letter referred to by Mrs. S. in her letter to Mrs 
 Ridgway on the following day, March 16, and which I intercepted 
 
29 
 
 morning of my departure from the Astor House, and from 
 my subsequent application to you to act as my friend, the day after 
 my arrival in Philadelphia, that I have never wavered in my de- 
 termination to punish this insidious libertine, but that I have been 
 prevented and delayed by causes over which I had no control, — 
 and that this is a base trick of his, worthy of his consummate art 
 and cunning, to place me in a false position before my friends and 
 the world. I told Mr. B. distinctly, the Sunday before we left, 
 that nothing but my promise to Mrs. Ridgway protected him from 
 my just indignation while in New York. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 (Signed) JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Harrison Gray Otis, Jr. Esq. 
 
 Mr. Otis was referred to Mr. Alston, Mr. B.’s friend, who 
 was empowered to arrange with Mr. 0. all the necessary prelimi- 
 naries. These gentlemen met on Sunday, the 7th ; on which 
 occasion Mr. Otis was informed by Mr. Alston, that Mr. B. se- 
 lected pistols as the weapons. At the same time, Mr. Alston 
 declined making any further arrangements as to the manner in 
 which the duel should be fougbt, or as to the time and place ; but 
 he appointed a second meeting with Mr. Otis, to take place at 
 Washington, on Saturday, the 13th; at which meeting all the 
 preliminaries were to be completed, and the articles drawn up 
 and signed. 
 
 When I sent Mr. Otis with the message, on the 6th of April, I 
 had reason to believe that Mr. B. would appoint the earliest pos- 
 sible period for the meeting ; for 1 had been told he had expressed 
 a desire to settle the affair immediately, and an intention, upon 
 receipt of a message from me, to meet me the following morning, 
 at six paces. I have ample proof of this ; which I am ready to 
 produce, whenever he shall dare to deny it. I firmly believed 
 he would appoint the meeting for Monday, the 8th ; and it was 
 in this belief that, upon Sunday the 7th, having not then heard. 
 
 
so 
 
 nor, indeed, expecting to hear, from Mr. Otis until late that night, 
 or early the next morning, I wrote and transmitted to my friend 
 Hartman Kuhn, Jr. Esq., the following letter, containing the 
 comments on Mrs. S.’s affidavit previously referred to : 
 
 New Castle, Delaware, 
 Jlpril 1th , 1844 , Sunday morning. 
 
 My Dear Hartman: On the eve of a most solemn occasion, 
 with the possibility of my being soon ushered into the presence 
 of my Maker, I have thought it proper to make the following 
 statement, which I leave in your hands as my friend, to vindicate 
 my character and honor. Feeling as I do, the awful responsibi- 
 lity, I shall write the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
 truth, so help me God. 
 
 An affidavit has been filed against me in the Mayor’s Court, 
 by my wife, stating that I presented a loaded pistol to her breast, 
 and threatened her life. This I solemnly deny , and can only 
 account for such a course on the part of my wife, from the fact 
 that I had, several weeks before, applied to counsel to obtain a 
 separation from her; and articles of separation had been drawn 
 up by him, which were not executed, in consequence of the delay 
 of my friends in arranging an affair of honor connected with this 
 separation. Suffice it for me to say, that this wife, who has 
 sworn her life against me, continued for several weeks after the 
 alleged violence, to live, at her own choice, in my house, — to 
 which I came whenever I desired ; and the day after having made 
 the affidavit, at 11 o’clock in the morning, she was perfectly will- 
 ing to return to it. The just ground I had for a separation 
 from her , I shall not reveal here , but am sure, that time , con- 
 science, and remorse , will inflict misery enough upon her , 
 without my adding to it. By the great delay in getting one or 
 other of my friends to Philadelphia, and their continued and pro- 
 tracted consultations, I have been prevented from calling to ac- 
 count the villain who has brought all this misery upon me, — I 
 
 ♦ 
 
mean Pierce Butler. As soon as it was possible — as I can prove 
 by documents in the hands of my friend Mr. Otis, I have done 
 so ; and if I have suffered in the estimation of my friends from 
 this delay, those friends who have had the responsibility of this 
 affair, are accountable, and not^yself. I refer particularly to 
 the course pursued by Gen. McNeill. 
 
 I have also here solemnly to state, that I intercepted a letter 
 from Mrs. Schott, addressed to Mrs. Ridgway, her sister, dated 
 16th March, 1844, the concluding paragraph of which I hereby 
 give you. Extract: — “ Perhaps it would be better for Mr. B. 
 [meaning Mr. Butler] to send the letter to-night, but I do not 
 advise, you can best judge ; — he [meaning myself] appears calm 
 and resolved ', — he is not violent. I only hope it may be suicide 
 he has determined on, but I think a duel will be the consequence/’ 
 It was on the evening that I intercepted this letter, that I applied 
 to Geo. M. Dallas, Esq., as my counsel to draw up the articles of 
 separation. I also do most solemnly say , that the other 
 charges made against me in the affidavit, (at least those that I 
 have heard,) by this unhappy and desperate woman, are greatly 
 exaggerated or entirely false ; and that if I am to meet my God 
 ere long, it will be with the consciousness of having been a kind, 
 affectionate, and indulgent husband to her. And all this I again, 
 and perhaps for the last time , solemnly aver to he true , on the 
 word of a man, who may never again be able to assert his inno- 
 eence, and his wrongs, and whose tongue and hand may soon be 
 stilled by death. 
 
 (Signed) JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Hartman Kuhn, Jr., Esq. 
 
 Upon learning the next day, at Wilmington, that the challenge 
 had been accepted, and that the preliminaries were to be settled 
 at Washington, on the Saturday following, I proceeded to Balti- 
 more, and thence to Washington; where, on the 14th, at mid- 
 night, a few hours before the duel was fought ; and in view of all 
 
32 
 
 its possibly fatal consequence to myself, I wrote another letter to 
 Mr. Kuhn, reaffirming the truth of all the statements made in my 
 letter of the 7th. 
 
 Washington, Sunday Evening, 
 
 April , 14 th, 1844. 
 
 My Dear Hartman : — At last I have brought Mr. Butler to 
 a meeting, and I expect to go out to-morrow morning at 5, in the 
 district. The terms which his friend has proposed to me, and 
 insisted upon, are unusual, and such as my friends would not have 
 permitted me to accept, were the quarrel an ordinary one. This 
 matter will be fully explained to you by Mr. Otis; but I believe 
 there is justice on High, and that the villain will be punished for 
 invading my peace and honor. 
 
 Let me repeat to you here, my dear Hartman, and perhaps for 
 the last time, solemnly reiterate the truth and the whole truth of 
 the statement made you this day week at New Castle ; and en- 
 treat you, should I fall, to do me justice. I ask nothing more 
 than that a plain and unvarnished tale of my wrongs and suffer- 
 ings should be placed before my friends and the world. 
 
 I must now try to get a little repose, as I leave here at 3 in the 
 morning. 
 
 God bless you my dear friend. 
 
 Yours until death, 
 
 (Signed) SCHOTT. 
 
 Hartman Kuhn, Jr., Esq. 
 
 The day before this letter was written, — that is, on Saturday 
 the 13th, Mr. Otis and Mr. Alston had their second meeting, and 
 after getting over certain difficulties which will be found described 
 in Mr. Otis’ published statement, agreed upon the articles, as set 
 forth in the same statement. 
 
 4 
 
33 
 
 Mr. OTIS’ STATEMENT. 
 
 In the affair of honor which took place at Bladensburg between 
 James Schott, Jr., and Pierce Butler, on Monday, the 15th inst., 
 the second, friend, and surgeon of the former gentleman assumed 
 the responsibility of withdrawing him from the contest after the 
 second fire, on account of a physical disability, which rendered 
 the terms insisted on by the opposite parties, in the judgment of 
 Mr. Schott’s friends, unequal. I therefore deem it due to my 
 principal and myself to state that this course was pursued contrary 
 to his express wishes, and to give an authentic account of the oc- 
 currences on the field. 
 
 And first, it is deemed proper to premise, that the meeting was 
 deferred by the challenged party, for eight days after the message 
 passed, and until Saturday evening, 13th inst. none of the pre- 
 liminaries were made known, except the weapons to be used ; and 
 as the terms proposed were unusual, our principal labored under 
 the disadvantage of being kept in the dark, as to the mode of 
 fight, while the other party not only had the superiority of being 
 acquainted with those terms, but could employ the interim for 
 preparation and practice. 
 
 The Preliminaries were these : — - 
 
 1. The principals are to stand back to back, at the distance of 
 ten paces from one another. 
 
 2. The pistols to be loaded with powder and one ball by the 
 seconds in presence of the friends of their principals. 
 
 3. When the principals have taken their respective positions, 
 the seconds shall then hand their pistols to them and shall forth- 
 with proceed to take their places. 
 
 4. The seconds giving the word shall then ask the principals, 
 “ Gentlemen, are you ready?” The principals shall then hold 
 their pistols muzzles down, and when ready each shall answer 
 u ready.” Then, and not till then, shall the second who gives the 
 word say, “ Fire, one, two, three, stop ” 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 5. The parties are not to wheel until the word fire has been 
 given. 
 
 6. Either principal firing before the word “ fire” or after the 
 word “ stop” shall instantly be shot down by the second of his 
 adversary. 
 
 7. After both parties have answered “ ready” there shall be a 
 considerable pause before the word fire is given, to prevent the 
 parties firing before the time. 
 
 8. The second giving the word shall, before the parties take 
 their respective places, fully explain the manner and time in 
 which he intends to give the word. 
 
 (Signed) JOSEPH ALSTON, 
 
 HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Jr. 
 
 14/4 April , 1844. 
 
 Struck with surprise at the uncommon mode of warfare pro- 
 posed in art. 1, the abstract question with regard to the pro- 
 priety of wheeling , in duelling, ivithout rejerence to case or 
 parties , was submitted to four gentlemen of the highest character 
 then present in Washington, whose opinion would be decisive in 
 any court of honor. Unanimously and without hesitation they 
 pronounced it unusual, and that any second would be justifiable in 
 withdrawing, at once his principal, if such an arrangement were 
 persisted in. But our objections were more strenuous in the case 
 in point, because this method was rendered more unjustifiable and 
 unequal, by an unfortunate physical disability in our principal. 
 The following letter upon the subject was addressed, on the 14th 
 inst., by Dr. McClellan ta Mr. Otis. 
 
 Dr. McClellan’s letter to Mr. Otis. 
 
 To H. G. Otis, Jr., Esq. — My Dear Sir: — The swelling and 
 inflammation in Mr. Schott’s right foot is decidedly worse this 
 morning. It is situated deeply in the anterior and central portion 
 of the sole of the foot, and is so tender and painful that it will 
 
 I 
 
35 
 
 incommode him even in a standing position, and prove quite pain- 
 ful in attempting to wheel or walk. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 (Signed) GEO. McCLELLAN. 
 
 Sunday morning , April 14 , 1844 . 
 
 Mr. Otis at once enclosed the above in the following to Mr. 
 Alston, considering that a mere statement of the facts would be 
 sufficient to procure an arrangement that would place both parties 
 upon an equality. 
 
 Mr. Otis’ letter to Mr. Alston , enclosing Dr. McClellan’s 
 
 certificate. 
 
 Joseph Alston, Esq. — My Dear Sir : — I send you the en- 
 closed certificate from Dr. McClellan, and submit it to your con- 
 sideration. You will readily perceive that it refers to article first, 
 and that from the statements in his letter, it will be impossible 
 for Mr. Schott to wheel with any advantage. 
 
 (Signed) HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Jr. 
 
 April 14 , 1844 . 
 
 But the chivalry and generosity of feeling so much relied upon 
 proved to have been entirely gratuitous ; even when I proposed a 
 reference to a court of honor, it was refused, and a proposition 
 made at Mr. Schott’s request, to place the parties face to face, from 
 one to six paces apart, was immediately declined. The follow- 
 ing is 
 
 Mr. Alston’s reply. 
 
 April 14 , 1844 . 
 
 Dear Sir : — In reply to your note of this afternoon, I have only 
 to say that I regret that Mr. Schott declines complying with one 
 of the terms , (article 1st,) which as the friend of the challenged 
 party, / have a right to claim. They are neither unusual nor un- 
 
36 
 
 just, nor do 1 feel myself authorised in consenting to any change, 
 I shall, therefore, have my friend on the ground, at five o’clock 
 to-morrow morning, and at that hour shall await you at the tavern 
 in Bladensburg, to conduct you and your principal to the place I 
 have chosen. If this arrangement be not accepted on the part of 
 Mr. Schott, I have only to say that this letter, so far as I am con- 
 cerned, closes our correspondence on this subject. 
 
 I am, very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 (Signed) JOSEPH ALSTON. 
 
 Finding, notwithstanding the remonstrances of his friends that 
 Mr. Schott, regardless of any inequality, persisted in meeting 
 Mr. Butler, even on his own terms, Mr. Otis closed the corres- 
 pondence with the annexed letter:— 
 
 Mr. Otis’ reply to Mr. Alston’s letter. 
 
 April 14 , 1844 . 
 
 Dear Sir: — In reply to your note handed to me a few moments 
 since, I will observe that no objection was taken to any of the 
 terms proposed upon which Mr. Schott and Mr. Butler were to 
 meet, except that one which required the parties to stand back to 
 back, and wheel, and fire ; and this objection was made, because 
 Mr. Schott’s foot is in such a condition as to render it impractica- 
 ble for him to fight in that mode without great disadvantage, and 
 giving his adversary an unusual and unequal advantage over him. 
 Notwithstanding, it is believed that according to the etiquette and 
 rules governing affairs of honor Mr. Schott would be justified in 
 declining to meet Mr. Butler under his present physical infirmity, 
 and that I consider it disadvantageous to insist upon such unequal 
 terms, Mr. Schott will meet Mr. Butler at the time and place, 
 and upon the terms prescribed. 
 
 (Signed) HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Jr, 
 
 Joseph Alston, Esq. 
 
37 
 
 An unusual delay, which we had no part in causing, occurred 
 upon the ground; and after the parties were finally placed, Mr, 
 Otis read the following protest : 
 
 Protest read by Mr. Otis on the field. 
 
 “ I feel obliged, gentlemen, though I have consented, in the 
 name of my principal, that this rencontre shall take place, to state 
 that I consider his lameness as disabling him from wheeling, and 
 rendering it unequal. I refer to the medical attendants present, 
 if it is not a case in point. I owe this statement in justice to 
 myself and Dr. McClellan.” 
 
 This, however, passed unheeded, and the word of command 
 fell to Mr. Otis. A shot was exchanged without effect. After 
 another delay, preparations were completed for a second exchange. 
 Mr. Schott, on account of his utter disability to wheel, or even to 
 support himself upon his right foot, lost his fire, and received 
 with front presented, the full and deliberate aim of his adversary. 
 
 Determined that a contest, under circumstances so unequal and 
 unfair, should no longer continue, his second, friend and surgeon, 
 insisted, notwithstanding Mr. Schott’s remonstrance, on with- 
 drawing him from the field. 
 
 HARRISON GRAY OTIS, Jr. 
 
 Mr. Smith’s letter to Mr. Otis. 
 
 Baltimore, Jlpril 17 th, 1844. 
 
 At the request of James Schott, Jr., I accompanied him to the 
 field as a witness on the 15th inst. I performed this duty with 
 the utmost reluctance, from a solemn conviction that the fight 
 would not be fair and equal, owing to the diseased condition of 
 Mr. Schott’s foot, as described in Dr. McClellan’s certificate to 
 Mr. Otis. After the second shot, it became so manifest to me 
 that Mr. Schott could not wheel as required that I felt it due to 
 my own character, to interfere and protest against the continu- 
 
38 
 
 ance of the duel, notwithstanding his entreaties to the contrary, 
 Mr. Schott’s deportment throughout the whole proceeding was 
 calm, dignified, and collected ; nor did he manifest any excite- 
 ment till the interference of his friends called it forth. It may not 
 be amiss to state, that on Mr. Schott’s return to Baltimore, he 
 called in Dr. Gibson, the surgeon of the other party, for his advice, 
 who stated, in my presence, that his foot was much inflamed, and 
 very sensitive to the touch, and he recommended a continuance 
 of the application that had been suggested by Dr. McClellan. 
 
 (Signed) S. W. SMITH. 
 
 This statement, which was drawn from Mr. Otis by various 
 false and slanderous reports to which malicious persons endea- 
 vored to give currency, was the occasion of a reply from Mr. 
 Alston, which appeared in the papers. 
 
 Georgetown, South Carolina, 
 
 Jlpril 30 , 1844 . 
 
 A newspaper, containing Mr. Otis’ statement of the circum- 
 stances connected with the recent duel between Pierce Butler, 
 Esq., and James Schott, Jr., Esq., has just been placed in my 
 hands. In justice to my principal and to myself, I feel called 
 upon to make such comments on his narrative as shall have the 
 effect of removing erroneous impressions that may have been 
 occasioned by it. 
 
 Mr. Otis appears to consider it singular that the meeting was 
 deferred by the challenged party for eight days afer the message 
 passed. The challenge was handed to me on Monday, the Sth 
 April; on Tuesday morning, Mr. Butler and myself left Phila- 
 delphia, and reached Washington at 11 o’clock on Wednesday. 
 The intervening four days were not more than sufficient to allow 
 my friend to make the requisite arrangement of his affairs before 
 engaging in a serious contest, and to enable me to obtain the 
 attendance of a surgeon, as well as to procure the services of 
 
 * 
 
39 
 
 another friend, as had been agreed upon, as witness ot the duel. 
 
 I certainly was not aware that any great haste was either expect- 
 or required on my part, as the other party had exhibited no 
 extraordinary impatience in demanding satisfaction, but had per- 
 mitted a whole month to pass, after receiving the alleged injury, 
 before even sending the challenge. Mr, Otis considers the op- 
 portunity offered for preparation and practice, during the short 
 period after our arrival in Washington, which intervened 
 before the duel, as likely to have given Mr. Butler greatly 
 the advantage ; but while he reproaches us with an advantage in 
 the delay of four days, he totally forgets the four weeks of prepa- 
 ration which Mr. Schott indulged himself in before sending the 
 hostile message ; and Mr. Otis expresses great surprise at my 
 proposition to place the parties back to back, which would require 
 them to wheel and fire ; he pronounces it “ a very uncommon 
 mode of warfare and to strengthen his impression, he cites the 
 opinion of four unnamed gentlemen, which, he is satisfied, would 
 be regarded as decisive in any court of honor. With all due 
 deference to such high authority, I think differently ; and my 
 own conviction on the subject was confirmed by the replies of all 
 the friends of whom I made the inquiry ; and I submit the ques- 
 tion, without hesitation, to the decision of that portion of the 
 community, which professes to have any acquaintance with the 
 etiquette and customs which regulate duels, whether, upon the 
 plea of its being unusual for the second of the challenged party 
 to require the combatants to wheel and fire, the second of the 
 challenger would be considered justifiable in withdrawing him 
 from the contest. 
 
 Mr. Otis further observes that his objections on this point were 
 more strenuous “ because of an unfortunate physical disability in 
 his principal.” Now let it be remembered that on the Saturday 
 evening when the terms of meeting were submitted to him he 
 exhibited surprise, and as I think dissatisfaction, with the first 
 article ; but nothing was then said of any physical disability on 
 
40 
 
 Mr. Schott’s part. I attributed his reluctance to accede to it, to 
 a feeling of disappointment on finding that the parties would be 
 required to fight in a manner a little varied from that in which 
 his friend had probably become a proficient by the previous 
 month’s practice. On Sunday, about 1 2 o’clock, a doctor’s note, 
 relating “ to the anterior and central portion of the sole of the 
 right foot,” was laid before me ; this, I must confess, did not 
 produce the anticipated effect in inducing me to consent to the 
 proposed change in the position of the parties. To wheel and 
 fire is so simple and easy a movement, that any one who can 
 stand up may perform it without the least difficulty ; it requires 
 only that the right foot should be moved lightly behind the left, 
 being in fact nothing more than a half wheel, and performed by 
 any one, with the greatest facility, in less than five minutes 
 practice : those who doubt, have but to make the experiment, 
 and they will soon be convinced that I am right. I must also 
 observe that, after his arrival on the ground, Mr. Schott conti- 
 nued to stand for some minutes, and, as I thought, without any 
 apparent inconvenience to himself, although one of our carriage 
 cushions was twice offered to him as a seat, but declined. 
 
 Mr. Otis proceeds to complain of a want of “ chivalry and 
 generosity” in my not consenting to place Mr. Butler in such a 
 manner as, in his opinion, Mr. Schott’s convenience required. 
 Now, according to my ideas on the subject, enough of chiv- 
 alry and generosity had been exhibited by my friend when he 
 insisted on my accepting, in his behalf, a challenge from a man 
 whom he had never in any way wronged or insulted. As the 
 challenged party, he had certain rights sanctioned by custom, 
 of which I was determined he should not be deprived ; and, as 
 his second, I had assumed duties from the faithful performance of 
 which I was resolved nothing should make me swerve. It 
 seems also a matter of astonishment to Mr. Otis, that I would not 
 refer article first, to the decision of umpires ; now / do really 
 think it would have been extreme folly and weakness on my part 
 
 I 
 
41 
 
 to have consented to submit as a question to be decided by others, 
 that which I regarded as a right already settled in my favor. 
 
 He next adverts to what he now calls a proposition of Mr. 
 Schott, to place the parties face to face at the distance of from 
 one to six paces. When this was first suggested, I took no 
 notice of it, as I did not think it required a reply ; upon its being 
 again mentioned, I remarked to him, that his objections to my 
 terms must first be admitted before I should hold myself at liber- 
 ty to think of any change, and it would then be my right to 
 make new propositions. 
 
 Again, he animadverts, with what object I cannot perceive, on 
 what he considers an unusual delay on the ground. My reply 
 is, that from the moment of our arrival there, we both were 
 actively engaged in making the necessary preparations ; namely, 
 in selecting two equal and suitable positions for the parties, in 
 measuring the distance, loading the pistols, reading the articles of 
 combat, and explaining to the principals the mode in which the 
 word would be given. After the first fire, I commenced reload- 
 ing, as soon as Mr. Otis apprised me that his friend wished to go 
 on. Mr. Otis next remarks, that Mr. Schott lost his second fire 
 by his utter disability to wheel ; this may be his opinion ; it is 
 certainly not mine. If his pistol went off before he intended it 
 should, it was his own fault. “ Mr. Schott then received,” as 
 Mr. Otis informs us, “ with full front presented, the fire of his 
 adversary of course he must have wheeled before Mr. Butler 
 fired, to have done so. 
 
 I consider the protest read on the ground by Mr. Otis, after 
 the principals had taken their places, and at the moment the 
 word was about to be given, as both ill-timed and uncalled for; 
 and certainly it was not entitled to the least consideration from 
 me. The extraordinay course of protesting against a proceeding 
 which, as Mr. Schott’s friend, he had it in his power to control, 
 and to offer a protest against his own act, involve an inconsistency 
 which must be palpable to every unprejudiced mind. If he con- 
 6 
 
42 
 
 sidered my refusal to yield to a change in article first so unjust, 
 why did he not withdraw his principal at once, as he took the 
 responsibility of doing so after the second fire. We were willing 
 to go on as long as we should have been required so to do by the 
 other party, and I think the result of the duel offers pretty strong 
 evidence that the arrangements made by me placed the parties as 
 nearly as possible, under all circumstances, upon a footing of 
 equality. 
 
 In conclusion, I take occasion to say that, in all the proceed- 
 ings and arrangements which have any relation to this duel, I 
 acted solely on my own responsibility ; I allowed Mr. Butler no 
 voice in the matter ; in my whole course I was governed by a 
 stern sense of duty and fairness to all concerned, and never in 
 any way sought to obtain an undue advantage for my principal. 
 These observations on Mr. Otis’ statement should have been fur- 
 nished immediately after its appearance, but I left Baltimore for 
 South Carolina on the day after the duel, of which intended 
 movement I informed Mr. Otis the night previous to the meeting. 
 
 I confess I should have been better pleased, had he offered to 
 unite with me in preparing a joint statement to be signed by 
 both of us. 
 
 JOSEPH ALSTON. 
 
 As in this statement of Mr. Alston’s, he presumed to favor the 
 public with an opinion of his ow T n,in regard to the cause of quar- 
 rel between his friend and myself, which was injurious to me, I 
 felt myself called upon to notice it by a card ; which was the first 
 and only occasion in which I departed from the rule my feelings 
 prompted me to adopt, of avoiding any movement which would 
 place me in the attitude of publicly charging, although only by 
 implication or indirection, any thing against Mrs. S. But a pub- 
 lic assertion like that, made by an authorised friend of Mr. B., 
 required an answer as public and as authoritative. 
 
4 
 
 43 
 
 Baltimore, May 16 th, 1844. 
 
 My attention has been called to a newspaper communication 
 of the 13th inst., over the signature of Mr. Joseph Alston, in 
 reply to a statement made by my friend, Mr. H. G. Otis, Jr., ex- 
 planatory of the circumstances attending a late affair of honor in 
 which I was involved. 
 
 I feel great reluctance in appearing before the public to notice 
 Mr. Alston’s statement, (which will be found, for the most part, 
 sufficiently answered in Mr. Otis’ original paper,) but it contains 
 two objectionable passages, which demand a reply. The first 
 asserts that I a exhibited no extraordinary impatience in demand- 
 ing satisfaction, but permitted a whole month to pass, after re- 
 ceiving the alleged injury, before even sending the challenge.” 
 If Mr. Alston will examine the invitation handed him by Mr. 
 Otis, he will find it based upon the following note, addressed to 
 his principal in New York, within thirty-six hours (Sunday in- 
 tervening) after the injury received : 
 
 Sir : — I scarcely deem it necessary to say to you, that on our 
 return to Philadelphia all intercourse between us must cease, and 
 that your visits to my family must be discontinued. I trust that 
 the time may yet come, when I shall be able, without compro- 
 mising others, to vindicate my own honor. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Hstor House, March 11 th, 1844. 
 
 Pierce Butler, Esq. 
 
 Mr. Alston was expressly informed by Mr. Otis, that the sub- 
 sequent delay was caused by circumstances over which I had no 
 control. 
 
 The second passage, in which Mr. Alston speaks of the chiv- 
 alry of his friend, in insisting on his accepting, on that friend’s 
 behalf, “ a challenge from a man whom he had never in any way 
 
 
44 
 
 wronged or insulted,” is the more objectionable, as Mr. A. pre- 
 sumes in it publickly and gratuitously to express an opinion on 
 the merits of the cause of quarrel between his principal and my- 
 self, — a matter in which he could have no personal knowledge. 
 All his information on this subject could be derived only from 
 his principal. Mr. Butler, in stating that he had 44 never wronged 
 or insulted” me, imposed upon the credulity of his friend by an 
 assertion which had no foundation in truth, and wnich I now 
 pronounce to be false. The presence of gentlemen of the highest 
 character, as witnesses on the field, renders needless any further 
 notice of Mr. Alston’s remarks. 
 
 Perhaps I owe an apology to the public, upon whose attention 
 I should not thus have obtruded, had not justice to myself re- 
 quired it. I shall not, hereafter, notice any communication in 
 relation to this matter, made through the medium of the press. 
 
 JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 This paper concludes the history of the affair with Mr. Butler, 
 of which I do not hesitate to make two remarks : first, that in 
 keeping me, — from Sunday, the day when he, through his friend, 
 designated the weapons, till Saturday evening, when the arrange- 
 ments were completed, — ignorant of his intention to fight by 
 wheeling,' he took a dishonorable advantage of me, as retaining 
 to himself an opportunity to practice that mode of fighting, from 
 which I was debarred ; and secondly, that in insisting, through 
 his second, upon the field, that I should be compelled to fight in 
 that way, when medical testimony then present, — his own sur- 
 geon as well as mine, — and my own appearance, must have 
 convinced him of my physical inability to do so, — unless at 
 the greatest disadvantage, — his motives were still meaner , be- 
 cause cowardly and murderous. 
 
 As soon after the meeting with Mr. Butler as the condition of 
 my foot would allow me to travel, I went to New Castle, to seek 
 legal advice of Mr. Clayton as to the steps proper to be pursued 
 
 4 
 
45 
 
 by me in relation to two objects which I had very much at heart, 
 — first, to make answer to the charges brought against me by 
 Mrs. S. in her affidavit ; and secondly, to obtain a divorce. I 
 was well aware that my absence from Philadelphia gave opportu- 
 nity to a thousand slanderous accusations, which my enemies 
 busily circulated against me, and that my silence under the affi- 
 davit was quoted as a proof of the truth of all its statements ; and 
 I desired to go to Philadelphia to put in a counter-affidavit, or 
 take any other proper legal step, to disprove the charges, and 
 confound those who labored so industriously to crush me. I 
 learned from Mr. C., to my mortification, that I could not pursue 
 both these objects together, without danger of foiling myself in 
 the one which my feelings and interests represented as the most 
 important, — that is, the divorce. I learned that Mrs. S. herself, 
 had instituted, or was on the eve of instituting, proceedings to 
 obtain a divorce ; grounding her application upon the alleged ill- 
 treatment, as charged against me in her affidavit. It was his opi- 
 nion, that her application, grounded upon these charges, could not 
 be granted, if I should appear and disprove any of them ; and 
 that by appearing and disproving them, I should array myself in 
 an attitude of actual opposition to the divorce which I most ar- 
 dently desired to obtain ; and thereby defeat it. He counselled 
 me, therefore, not to go to Philadelphia, — not to appear in answer 
 to the affidavit or the application for divorce, but to suffer it to 
 go — and thus, in fact, obtain it — by default. He fortified this 
 advice by representing, what my own feelings deeply responded 
 to, the necessity of maintaining the rule of delicacy which I had, 
 up to the present moment, religiously observed ; since it was im- 
 possible for me appear in court in any character whatever, with- 
 out making disclosures which must harrow the feelings of friends, 
 and give notoriety to circumstances which it was my own wish, 
 if possible, to cover up in darkness. The following are his writ- 
 ten letters of advice : 
 
 
46 
 
 Sir : 
 
 New Castle, Delaware, 
 
 April 19 th y 1844. 
 
 Having attentively considered the circumstances of your case, 
 as you have reported them to me, and as they appear from the 
 various documents presented, I submit the following as my opin- 
 ion and legal advice as to the best course which you can pursue. 
 
 The whole case, I need not say, is one peculiarly delicate ; and 
 the attempt to carry it into the courts, in any form, could not but 
 prove distressing to the feelings of yourself, your friends and of 
 numerous innocent persons. You cannot meet the affidavit, nor 
 enter a counter affidavit, nor, indeed, take any legal steps whatever^ 
 without giving publicity to circumstances which it were desira- 
 ble might be buried in the deepest oblivion, and from which, I 
 think, as a man of feeling, you would desire to avert the public 
 gaze. I cannot, indeed, counsel you to take any such steps. A 
 passive and silent course on your part will be the most dignified, 
 and the proper one : and this, sir, is the course which I recom- 
 mend you to pursue. There are some situations in this world in 
 which it becomes a man to suffer in silence, out of regard to the 
 feelings of others. Those of your honored parents and of the 
 highly respectable family with which you have been connected 
 by marriage, merit a sacrifice of self ; and, however painful that 
 sacrifice may be, a generous spirit should yield it without a mur- 
 mur. If you return to Philadelphia in your present state of dis- 
 turbed and exasperated feeling, in the midst of the rumors and 
 foolish reports growing out of your late meeting with Mr. Butler 
 at Bladensburg, no good can come of it that I can foresee; while 
 I can easily anticipate evils, — among the many who have partici- 
 pated on the one side or the other, in the existing excitement,— 
 which ordinary prudence could not be expected to avert. I 
 advise you not to go back to Philadelphia. If you return to that 
 city and resist the legal application, said to be contemplated by 
 the opposite party, for a divorce, it is my opinion, from the evi- 
 
47 
 
 dence before me, that it cannot be obtained. It is not worth 
 while to go to Philadelphia merely to be bound over to keep the 
 peace. There is no indictment there for you to meet ; nor is 
 there any reason to believe that the folly or passion of any one 
 could institute any proceeding of a criminal character, requiring 
 you to attend there. In regard to the supposed intention to apply 
 for a divorce, I advise you to suffer others to adopt such further 
 course as they may deem necessary ; to make no opposition ; and 
 even facilitate, so far as it may be in your power, such efforts as 
 may be made towards effecting that final legal separation, which 
 would seem to be the most desirable close of circumstances so 
 untoward and unhappy. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 James Schott, Jr., Esq. 
 
 P. S. I omitted to say, in reply to your request on the subject, 
 that if my professional aid should at any time be required by you, 
 in consequence of action which I do not anticipate, it shall be at 
 your service. J. M. C. 
 
 New Castle, Delaware, 
 
 May 30 th, 1844 . 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 I have resolved on my course as your counsel in the Divorce 
 case, after full and deliberate consideration. I intend to let the 
 decree go by default, — first, because by that means we adopt the 
 course best calculated to facilitate the application and proceedings 
 for the divorce — which divorce is of all things most essential to 
 your future happiness ; secondly, because by thus not becoming 
 a party to the suit, we are not under any implied obligation, hon- 
 orary or otherwise, to repel or disprove any accusations which 
 lie at the foundation of the whole proceeding. Your defence 
 against these accusations cannot be made in this suit, without aban- 
 
48 
 
 doning all hope of separating yourself from Mrs. Schott. When 
 the decree is finally entered, you can set yourself right with your 
 friends and the whole world if you choose. The decree will be 
 had in the shortest possible time — but I am yet unable to fix the 
 time with any precision. 
 
 Faithfully your friend, 
 
 JOHN M. CLAYTON. 
 
 Mr. James Schott, Jr. 
 
 These letters of advice I adopted as my rule of action. I did 
 not go to Philadelphia, — I did not appear in court to answer 
 either the affidavit or the application for divorce. I instructed 
 my counsel to give every possible facility in his power to the 
 speedy obtaining of the divorce ; and I have reason to believe 
 that he did so. The consequence of this was that the divorce 
 was obtained, — obtained on the ex parte testimony of one ivit- 
 ness , — without any cross-examination on my part, and without 
 the slightest knowledge of mine, up to this moment, what the 
 testimony is. I have heard, indeed, from a friend, a statement 
 that the testimony was of such a character as could have been 
 easily contradicted, if I had been at liberty to do so. The con- 
 sequence, I repeat, of this action on my part, was that the 
 divorce, to my inexpressible satisfaction, was granted. 
 
 Ever since Gen. McNeill’s letter of March the 30th was copied , 
 I have been the victim of innumerable calumnies. Letters have 
 been written, statements made, and copies of that monstrous affi- 
 davit circulated in every city, and sent to every place where I 
 had an acquaintance or friend. Even after I had, under the ad- 
 vice of my counsel, retired to another city, with a view to 
 deprive the slanderers of my reputation of any further pretext for 
 persecuting me, while suffering in silence under all the former 
 calumnies which had been heaped upon me, — nay, even after the 
 divorce itself had been obtained, unceasing efforts have been still 
 continued to misrepresent, to revile, to calumniate, to destroy 
 
49 
 
 me. But I am now free ; and, although I still have no desire 
 to say one word more in explanation of the unhappy circum- 
 stances connected with the occurrence of March, and would 
 rather suffer in the esteem of those who do not know me than 
 contribute to the further exposure of those who have wronged 
 me and sought to crush me forever — I am free, whenever I may 
 be called upon, to answer to any charges that have been, or that 
 may be, made by any person whatever, and to defend myself 
 from, and, if need be, to punish, every assault upon my honor. 
 
 But I will not conclude this statement without proclaiming 
 the infamy of Pierce Butler, who, under the mask of friendship, 
 ruined the peace and happiness of an unoffending family, and 
 then sought to escape the consequences by resorting to the 
 meanest artifices, the most cowardly subterfuges, and the most 
 despicable falsehoods. 
 
 JAMES SCHOTT, Jr. 
 
 Eutaw House, 
 
 Baltimore , July 29, 1844. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 8, 4th line of Mr. Goodwin’s letter, read “ 1 most sin- 
 cerely,” instead of “ I most seriously.” 
 
 Page 6, 2nd and 3d lines, read “ BUT I DO NOT ADVISE, 
 YOU CAN BEST JUDGE,” instead of “ BUT I DO NOT 
 ADVISE YOU, YOU CAN BEST JUDGE.” 
 
 Page 11, 14th line of Gen. McNeill’s letter, the following note 
 should have been inserted after the word u final 
 
 I need only say that the position of umpire was assumed by 
 Gen. McNeill, and not delegated by me ; and I have reason to 
 believe that Dr. McClellan did not understand that he was to act 
 in that capacity. It is clear from the tenor of Mr. Goodwin’s 
 letter that he did not consider the case as susceptible of adjust- 
 ment, and that I entertained the same opinion, may be inferred 
 from the fact, that after I received his letter, my correspondence 
 with him ceased. I had not time to notice this unwarrantable 
 assumption of Gen. McNeill’s, and other exceptionable parts of 
 his letter, in the hurried protest which 1 made before our depar- 
 ture for the city. 
 
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